Sammandrag Problematisering: Tillåter kvinnliga revisorer en lägre mängd av earnings management än sina manliga kollegor? En väldigt liten del av den befintliga kvantitativa forskningen inom earnings management har fokuserat på om det finns skillnader i hur kvinnliga respektive manliga revisorer väljer att begränsa earnings management i ett företag. Dessa undersökningar har gjorts i länder som enligt World Economic Forum (WEF, 2013) rankas bland de högsta i världen när det kom- mer till jämställdhet, och det finns därför en osäkerhet ifall deras empiriska resultat kan appliceras i andra länder. Å andra sidan finns det forskning som tyder på att sociala strukturer såsom jäm- ställdhet påverkar inte bara skillnaderna mellan kvinnor och män utan också synen på resultat manipulering. Forskning påvisar en stark korrelation mellan ett lands nationella kultur och före- komsten av earnings management. Det finns också studier som säger att personers karaktär på- verkas av skillnaderna mellan könen och att dessa är olika från land till land. Medan andra påstår att homogena miljön i revisionsföretag eliminerar skillnaderna mellan kvinnliga och manliga revi- sorer. Syfte: Syftet med denna studie är att undersöka om kvinnliga revisorer bidrar till en mindre mängd av earnings management än sina manliga kollegor och om det finns en skillnad mellan länder med hög jämställdhetsnivå kontra låg jämställdhetsnivå. Metod: Studien tar med hjälp av tidigare teoretisk forskning fram tre frågeställningar som besva- ras med hjälp av en vidareutvecklad statistisk modell. Det material vi använts oss utav för vår undersökning har inhämtats från Thomson Reuters Datastream och från företagens senaste års- redovisning. Resultat: Vår studie påvisar att det skiljer sig mellan hur kvinnliga respektive manliga revisorer agerar vid förekomsten av earnings management. Vidare finner vi en viss indikation om att jäm- ställdhetsnivån i ett land påverkar mängden earnings management som förekommer hos företag med kvinnliga revisorer. Men det intressanta i vår forskning är att kvinnor tenderar att bidra till en högre mängd earnings management än sina manliga kollegor och när man blandar in variabeln hög jämställdhet minskar earnings management i jämförelse till företag i länder med låg jäm- ställdhet.

Inledning: Enligt IAS 19 ska diskonteringsräntan för bestämmande av pensionsskulden bestämmas utifrån räntan på företagsobligationer. Om det saknas en fungerande marknad för företagsobligationer ska räntan på statsobligationer användas. Efter finanskrisen år 2008 ökade räntespreaden mellan dessa två räntor och det uppstod ett problem för länder utan en fungerande marknad för företagsobligationer, däribland Sverige. Syfte: Syftet med denna studie är att undersöka hur svenska börsbolags diskonteringsräntenivå har påverkats av finanskrisen år 2008. Samt vad detta har för konsekvenser på boalgens finansiella rapporter och dess annvändare. Metod: Undersökningen studerar korrelationen som sambandsmått för att mäta hur diskonteringsräntan förhåller sig till soliditeten i svenska börsbolag som redovisar förmånsbestämda pensionsplaner. Referensram: Denna del av undersökningen består av en genomgång av relevanta delar av regelverket (IFRS) samt centrala redovisningsbegrepp och principer. Teori: Teorin består av teoretiska resonemang kring accounting choice, accounting disclosure och earnings management. Resultat & analys: Undersökningens resultat visar att det finns en svag korrelation mellan och diskonteringsränta hos svenska börsbolag med förmånsbestämda pensionsplaner. Dessutom visar resultatet att svenska börsbolag inte längre har en diskonteringsränta i nivå med statsobligationsräntan. Diskussion: Diskussion förs kring hur svenska bolag förhållit sig till regelverket och redovisningsprinciper vid beräkning av sina pensionsskulder samt hur detta har påverkat intressenterna av den finansiella rapporten. Slutsats: Utifrån funna resultat kan slutsats dras att efter finanskrisen har bolag med en låg soliditet valt en högre diskonteringsränta. Dessutom visar resultatet att spreaden har ökat mellan statsobligationsräntan och svenska börsbolags diskonteringsränta.

本研究旨在探討資訊揭露程度與盈餘管理間是否存有一反向關係，資訊揭露程度較高的公司是否就代表其盈餘管理程度較低。以92年上市資訊電子業為研究對象，實證結果如下： 1.在其他條件不變下，公司資訊揭露程度與盈餘管理兩者呈顯著的負相關，亦即當管理當局盈餘管理程度越高時，可能為保持其進行盈餘管理之彈性，公司資訊揭露程度會越低。 2.然而進一步加入公司目前表現的優劣加以分析，發現此一負向關係僅限於好消息年度獲得實證上的支持；於壞消息年度，揭露程度與盈餘管理間之關係則並不顯著。 3.從時效性的角度觀察發現：揭露程度低的公司，其盈餘反應好消息的時效性雖優於揭露程度高的公司，但兩者並無顯著的不同。揭露程度高的公司其盈餘反應壞消息的時效性則顯著高於揭露程度低的公司。 4.盈餘反應壞消息較好消息及時之關係僅限於資訊揭露程度較高的公司會成立；揭露程度較低的公司，此關係則並不成立。

本益比有資訊內涵存在 (Basu , 1977)，為投資人做投資決策時所廣泛使用。Lev (1992) 認為，本益比發生變動，或是公司本益比與產業平均數存在持續性差異，即顯示公司價值有錯誤評價之可能，因此，本研究將樣本分為三組，透過迴歸分析探討83年至90年間上市公司中，本益比持續性地高於（低於）產業平均數的公司，是否進行盈餘管理，以及相較於其他公司，其盈餘持續性與價格攸關性如何。研究結果發現，本益比持續性地高於產業平均數的公司，其盈餘管理行為並不明顯；本益比持續性地低於產業平均數的公司，確實會進行盈餘管理，使得盈餘持續性較差，但有較好的盈餘價值攸關性。 / There are information in Price-Earnings（PE） ratio so that many investors use it for making decisions. Changing in PE ratio , or PE ratio different from the average of industry over time ,will suggest to managers the possibility of misvaluation. Therefore, the study divides the samples to three parts, using regression analysis to investigate if the firms with PE ratio continuously higher (or lower) than the industry average number will use managerial discretion to proceed earnings management. Besides, comparing to other firms, the two sample companies will have what kinds of characteristics of earnings . The result indicate that the firms with PE ratio higher than industry average number, their earnings management behavior is not obvious. On the contrary, the firms with PE ratio lower than industry average number indeed proceed earnings management, inducing worse earnings persistence and better value relevance of earnings.

My dissertation is focused on developing a better understanding of the technology and innovation strategies of corporations and their impacts on firm performance. I am particularly interested in corporate venture capital (CVC), which serves as a strategy for accessing external technology for corporate investors and as an alternative source of financing and complementary assets for start-ups. I have investigated the conditions under which corporate investors and start-ups achieve the strategic goals by establishing CVC ties, and on estimating the technological and financial gains created by the CVC ties. Specifically, I have concentrated on when and where CVC ties are established in order to maximize economic value. The former relates to a timing issue, whereas the latter is a space issue of CVC investments. In the first essay, I examine corporate investors' decisions to establish CVC ties and their subsequent strategic actions. Consistent with the real options perspective on CVC investments, I find that CVC investments can help corporate investors effectively search for and select future acquisition or licensing partners by reducing asymmetric information and uncertainty that may characterize markets for technology. Specifically, CVC investments facilitate the external acquisition of technology by substituting for a corporate investor's absorptive capacity, as reflected by its upstream research capabilities. CVC investments instead complement the portfolio of internally generated new products, since they allow highly productive corporate investors to shift their focus onto exploratory initiatives with the objective of selecting future technology and partners. Finally, CVC investments facilitate exploratory investments in distant technological areas that are subsequently integrated through licensing or acquisitions. These findings contribute to emerging research on the organization and financing patterns of external R&D activities. In the second essay, I investigate the nature of the relationship between technological spillovers and capital gains created by CVC investments for corporate investors. Using a simple equilibrium model and data from the global bio-pharmaceutical industry between 1986 and 2007, I find that these technological spillovers and capital gains are complements. This complementarity is enhanced when CVC investments are made in post-IPO and technologically diversified start-ups. Beyond providing a broad benchmark for heterogeneous returns on CVC investments, this study has important implications for corporate investors and start-ups. In particular, to the extent that capital gain is greatly determined by changes in the market values of start-ups, it implies that CVC investments can create value for start-ups as well as corporate investors. These mutual benefits can be greatly determined by when (e.g., post-IPO start-ups) and where (e.g., technologically diversified start-ups) CVC investments are made. In the third essay, I analyze the contextual factors that impact the probability of start-ups' obtaining financing through independent venture capitalists and corporate investors. The systematic empirical evidence based on a three-stage game theoretic model suggests that start-ups that possess better evaluated technology tend to be financed through independent venture capitalists, rather than corporate investors. In contrast, start-ups tend to be financed through corporate investors, rather than independent venture capitalists, when their intellectual properties are effectively protected and their research pipelines contain multiple products. These findings provide a theoretical basis to explain why several types of investors co-exist in the entrepreneurial financing market. Moreover, the existence of such determinants indicates that, although investors traditionally have been viewed as the powerful partner that dominates the investment decision, start-ups are also active decision makers in investment ties.

Studies on earnings management usually hypothesise that managers manage accruals opportunistically. Few studies however, argue that managers can also use accruals to improve the value relevance of reported earnings to help investors better assess the firm's operating performance. While substantial evidence on managers' opportunistic behaviour on accruals has been documented in the literature, empirical evidence on the informativeness of accruals is scarce and inconclusive. The purpose of this thesis is to examine whether managers use accruals to communicate private information regarding the firm's operating performance, or as reported in the literature, use them for their own benefit. This thesis finds that on average, firms reporting high earnings accompanied by high accruals have significantly negative subsequent period stock returns suggesting that these firms manage their accounting earnings. Focusing on stock dividend issues as an incentive to opportunistically increase accruals, the results are found to be consistent with the earnings management hypothesis. Stock dividend issuing firms are reported to significantly increase accruals in the issue year followed by poor earnings and stock price performances in the subsequent year. Moreover, discretionary accruals of the issuing firms are negatively correlated with both future earnings and abnormal stock returns. This evidence attempts to complement the earnings management literature. The analysis on the incentive to decrease accruals related to share repurchases, however, does not provide sufficient evidence to suggest that managers use their discretion to decrease accruals. To investigate the hypothesis that managers use accruals to convey information regarding their firm's future profitability, this thesis employs the contemporaneous earnings and dividend announcements as the research setting. This choice was made to increase the likelihood of detecting the use of accruals as private information communication while simultaneously mitigating the likelihood of the opportunistic income smoothing hypothesis to explain the results. The evidence strongly indicates that managers use both accruals and dividend increases as their private information communication regarding their firm's future profitability. Dividend increasing firms report positive accruals which are positively correlated with future profitability. This finding contributes to the literature by providing evidence on the accrual signalling hypothesis. Overall, the results of this thesis suggest that, depending on the incentives, managers can use the discretion accorded under the Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) in estimating accounting accrual, either to manage accruals opportunistically or to help investors better assess the firms' operating performance.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Mississippi State University. Department of Accounting. / Title from title screen. Includes bibliographical references.

Submitted by Noeme Timbo (noeme.timbo@metodista.br) on 2017-01-18T13:47:38Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Fátima Penha Leone.pdf: 1274991 bytes, checksum: 0608f2984cd5de26527877fe43d76fba (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2017-01-18T13:47:38Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Fátima Penha Leone.pdf: 1274991 bytes, checksum: 0608f2984cd5de26527877fe43d76fba (MD5) Previous issue date: 2016-08-25 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior - CAPES / This study aimed to verify the existence of relationship between the indebtedness of companies and the earnings management, trying to analyze if the debt influences somehow this kind of practice used by companies in order to change the perception of users of accounting statements. The objective includes: (i) to verify if companies with higher debt levels incurred with greater intensity in the earnings management practice; ii) to identify whether the companies practiced earnings management in the period prior to fundraising through debentures or financial debt; (iii) check for differences in earnings management practices in companies that own debentures and those that do not have debentures; and (iv) to investigate whether there is difference in the practice of earnings management regarding short-term or long-term debts. The sample was collected in the Economatica database, considering the period from 2008 to 2015. After using Model KS (1995) and Model Dechow et al (2012) it was possible to verify the relationship between earnings management practices and indebtedness of companies. A positive relationship between the short-term financial debts and the earnings management practices was found, suggesting that companies with higher debt levels close to maturity, would have a greater concern with funding costs. As for the long-term debt, no relationship was found between the variables, denying the expectation that companies that need third-party capital to maintain their operations manage results to meet requirements linked to contracts loans. Regarding total indebtedness, relationship between debt and management results was found, indicating that companies incur in earnings management practice to change the perception of risk and raise funds with lower rates. / O presente estudo teve como objetivo verificar a existência de relação entre o endividamento de empresas e o gerenciamento de resultados, buscando analisar se a dívida influencia de algum modo esse tipo de prática utilizada por empresas com o intuito de alterar a percepção de usuários das demonstrações contábeis. Quanto aos objetivos propostos para a pesquisa têm-se: (i)verificar se empresas com maiores níveis de endividamento incorrem com maior intensidade na prática de gerenciamento de resultados; (ii) identificar se as empresas praticaram gerenciamento de resultados no período de captação dos recursos por meio de debêntures e ou dívidas financeiras; (iii) verificar se há diferenças quanto ao gerenciamento de resultados em empresas que possuem debêntures e aquelas que não possuem debêntures; e, (iv) investigar se existe diferença quanto à pratica de gerenciamento de resultados e dívidas de curto prazo e ou dívidas de longo prazo. A amostra foi coletada no banco de dados da Economática, considerando o período de 2008 a 2015 e, após a utilização do Modelo KS (1995) e do Modelo Dechow et al (2012), foi possível verificar a relação entre o gerenciamento de resultados e endividamento de empresas. Foi encontrada relação positiva entre as dívidas financeiras de curto prazo e o gerenciamento de resultados, sugerindo que empresas que possuem maiores níveis de endividamento próximos ao vencimento, teriam maior preocupação com os custos de captação. Quanto ao endividamento de longo prazo não foi verificada relação entre as variáveis, não confirmando a expectativa de que empresas que necessitam de capital de terceiros para a manutenção de suas operações possuam motivação para gerenciar os resultados visando atender as exigências de cláusulas restritivas atreladas aos contratos de empréstimos. Em relação ao endividamento total, verificou-se a relação entre o endividamento e gerenciamento de resultados, indicando que empresas incorrem no gerenciamento de resultados para alterarem a percepção de risco e captarem recursos com menores juros.

In the economy intangible assets have become more and more important. Financial standards have evolved in order to capture this change and to be relevant. IFRS are international financial accounting standards with the goal to provide investors relevant information in their investment decision process.  Since 2005, all listed companies in the European Union have to implement the IFRS 3; Forcing companies to write off their goodwill instead of amortizing it. The goal of this measure was to provide investors more information about management’s investment decisions. Beside, companies proceed to firm acquisitions in order to gain a competitive advantage. Such events are important in companies’ life and are impacting the potential value creation. Out of that reason, investors are reacting to acquisition announcements. Moreover, the market reacts to goodwill impairments.   The purpose of this research was to examine to what extent the market reaction of an acquisition announcement can predict goodwill impairment in the two following years. This study was conducted using a quantitative method; focusing on aspects of the financial statements of 43 companies from the Nordic countries that acquired companies in the G20 countries. A Spearman’s correlation, logistic and linear regressions were pursued in order to observe the correlation and the strength of the relationship between goodwill impairment and the market reaction.   The findings imply that the market reaction can predict goodwill impairment in the first year after an acquisition in case of positive market reaction. Additional to that, it can also predict the amount of impairment in the second year, but not whether the impairment is happening. Also, there is a correlation between the first and second year goodwill impairments. However, the results of this research indicate that neither the industry, financial or non-financial, nor the deal value can predict goodwill impairment after an acquisition.

x, 65 p. : ill. A print copy of this thesis is available through the UO Libraries. Search the library catalog for the location and call number. / I examine the relation between book-tax differences (BTDs) and earnings growth. Because financial accounting rules afford managers more flexibility and discretion in reporting than tax accounting rules, prior studies suggest that large differences between book and taxable income indicate lower quality (or less persistent) earnings. Lev and Nissim and Hanlon provide evidence that BTDs contain information about future firm performance, but the nature of the causality in this relation is not clear. While BTDs could proxy for earnings quality, they may also reveal underlying economic events or management's private information about future performance or simply predict future reversals in effective tax rates. I divide total BTDs into their measurable components: temporary (deferred taxes) and non-temporary (permanent differences and tax accruals), and test their relation with the components of net income changes: pretax earnings changes and tax expense changes. I hypothesize that the non-temporary component of BTDs is negatively related to future changes in tax expense, whereas the temporary component of BTDs is negatively related to changes in future pretax earnings. I also examine the maintained hypothesis that the lower earnings growth for large BTD firms is due to earnings management. I use various proxies from prior literature to identify firms potentially managing earnings and test whether the presence or absence of suspected earnings management activity alters the relation between BTDs and earnings changes. My results provide compelling evidence that permanent BTDs are related only to future changes in tax expense, and temporary BTDs are related to changes in pretax earnings. These results are robust to multiple sensitivity analyses, including a replication of the sample and methodology of Lev and Nissim. The results also hold in the case of firms not suspected of earnings management. In fact, 1 find only limited evidence that the results are stronger in the presence of earnings management. Overall, my study suggests that it is only the temporary component of BTDs that is related to future firm performance, with non-temporary differences being related to future tax expense changes, and that these results are primarily due to underlying economic factors, not earnings management. / Committee in charge: David Guenther, Chairperson, Accounting; Steven Matsunaga, Member, Accounting; Linda Krull, Member, Accounting; Glen Waddell, Outside Member, Economics