A contabilidade brasileira passou por mudanças normativas que deixaram suas demonstrações de acordo com o padrão internacional. Pesquisas realizadas com empresas de capital aberto em vários países do mundo indicam que essa nova norma tende a melhorar a qualidade da informação e deixá-la mais comparável e transparente. Diante disso, o estudo tem como objetivo analisar o impacto da adoção do International Financial Reporting Standard sobre os níveis de gerenciamento de resultados das companhias brasileiras de capital aberto (com exceção das instituições financeiras). A hipótese desenvolvida é de que a nova norma reduz o gerenciamento de resultados nas empresas brasileiras. Os dados foram extraídos das demonstrações contábeis trimestrais dos bancos de dados do Economática e da Comissão de Valores Mobiliários referentes ao período de 2006 a 2011. Para alcançar o objetivo da pesquisa, foi examinada por meio de um modelo proposto a relação entre as variáveis accruals discrionários e a aderência do International Financial Reporting Standard. Na equação, além dessas, foram inseridas as variáveis de controle como o nível de endividamento, o fluxo de caixa operacional, o retorno sobre o ativo e o tamanho da empresa. Para o cálculo dos accruals discricionários foi empregado o Modelo de Jones Modificado. Com base no modelo proposto, foram utilizadas várias técnicas estatísticas e aplicou-se o teste de Kolmogorov-Smirnov para analisar se a amostra possui dados distribuídos normalmente. Em seguida, foi analisada a correlação de Spearman entre as variáveis do modelo proposto e analisada as médias dos accruals, por meio do teste U de Mann-Whitney. Por fim, foi elaborada a análise de regressão com dados dispostos em painel com correção de Newey- West. A correlação e o teste de médias corroboraram a hipótese desenvolvida, porém aregressão não confirmou a hipótese, com significância estatística, de que o novo padrão contábil reduziu o nível de gerenciamento de resultados nas divulgações das demonstrações elaboradas com a adoção das normas IFRS pelas empresas brasileiras de capital aberto. / The Brazilian accounting has undergone regulatory changes that have left their statements according to international standard. Research conducted with publicly traded companies in various countries around the world indicate that this new standard tends to improve the quality of information and make it more comparable and transparent. Thus, the study aims to analyze the impact of adopting International Financial Reporting Standard on the levels of earnings management of Brazilian companies traded (excluding financial institutions). The hypothesis is that the new standard reduces the earnings management in Brazilian companies. Data were extracted from the quarterly financial statements of databases Economática and Comissão de Valores Mobiliários for the period 2006 to 2011. To achieve the objectives of the study was examined by means of a model the relationship between the variables discretionary accruals and International Financial Reporting Standard. In the equation, beyond these, the control variables were entered as the level of debt, the operating cash flow, return on assets and firm size. For the calculation of discretionary accruals, we employed the Modified Jones Model. Based on the proposed model, several statistical techniques were used and applied the Kolmogorov-Smirnov test to examine whether the sample has normally distributed data. Next, we analyzed the Spearman correlation between the variables of the model and analyzed the average, by means of the U of Mann-Whitney. Finally, we elaborate regression analysis with data arranged in a panel with Newey-West correction. The correlation and mean test corroborated the hypothesis developed, but the regression did not confirm the hypothesis with statistical significance that the new accounting standard reduced the level of earnings management disclosures in the financial statements prepared with the adoption of IFRS for publicly traded Brazilian companies.

O objetivo geral do presente trabalho é identificar os fatores que explicam o nível de disclosure voluntário de companhias abertas no Brasil. A pesquisa está fundamentada na Teoria do Disclosure Discricionário (VERRECCHIA, 2001), que fornece os subsídios teóricos e analíticos para se verificar em que circunstâncias os gestores e/ou as empresas estariam dispostos a divulgar (ou não) informações de maneira voluntária. A amostra do estudo é composta pelas 100 maiores companhias abertas e não financeiras. A análise do nível de disclosure voluntário das empresas foi realizada a partir das Demonstrações Financeiras Padronizadas (DFPs), dos exercícios findos em 2006, 2007 e 2008 por meio da análise de conteúdo. Para isso, elaborou-se uma métrica, a partir de 27 estudos anteriores, composta por 92 itens de caráter voluntário e dividida em três grandes grupos: econômico (43), social (15) e ambiental (34). Do mesmo modo, as informações acerca das operações com instrumentos financeiros derivativos, também, foram examinadas no mesmo período, com o objetivo de analisar o impacto da Deliberação CVM Nº 566/08 e da Instrução CVM Nº 475/08 no disclosure das empresas. A última parte do trabalho envolveu a elaboração de um modelo de regressão com dados em painel que objetivou testar as hipóteses levantadas na literatura acerca dos fatores que determinam o nível de disclosure voluntário das empresas. A análise exploratória dos dados constatou que existe associação entre o nível de disclosure das empresas e o setor de atuação, conforme o teste Qui-quadrado e a Análise de Correspondência. Com relação ao disclosure de operações com derivativos, constata-se que: (i) o quadro de análise de sensibilidade não foi evidenciado por qualquer empresa em 2006 e 2007, sendo que, em contrapartida, 90% das empresas analisadas o evidenciaram em 2008 e (ii) a maioria das empresas divulgou o valor justo dos seus derivativos, mas não divulgou os critérios de avaliação e mensuração utilizados para cômputo desses valores. Finalmente, no que diz respeito às hipóteses testadas por meio do modelo de regressão com dados em painel, constata-se, ao nível de significância de 90%, que: (i) as variáveis Setor e Origem do Controle são significativas para todos os três modelos de disclosure testados: econômico, socioambiental e total; (ii) a variável Rentabilidade é significativa no modelo de disclosure econômico e no modelo de disclosure total; (iii) a variável Q de Tobin é significativa no modelo de disclosure socioambiental e no modelo de disclosure total; (iv) as variáveis Endividamento e Auditoria são significativas, apenas, no modelo de disclosure econômico e (v) as variáveis Tamanho, Governança, Emissão de Ações, Crescimento e Concentração do Controle não são, estatisticamente, significativas em nenhum dos três modelos de disclosure. / The central objective of this work is to identify the factors that explain the level of voluntary disclosure of Brazilian public companies. The theory underpinning this work is the Discretionary-based Disclosure (VERRECCHIA, 2001), which provides analytical and theoretical support to investigate the circumstances in which managers and/or companies would have incentives to disclose (or not) voluntarily information. Sample is composed by the top 100 largest non-financial public companies. Information has been gathered from Financial Statements for the years ended in 2006, 2007 and 2008 with the use of content analysis. For these, a framework based on 27 studies has been elaborated. This disclosure framework contains a total of 92 voluntary items, divided in three groups: economic (43), social (15) and environmental (34). Information regarding operations with derivatives has also been examined in order to analyze the impact of Deliberation CVM Nº 566/08 and Instruction CVM Nº 475/08 on companys disclosure. Finally, a panel data model has been elaborated in order to test the works hypotheses regarding the factors that determine the level of voluntary disclosure. Exploratory analysis evidenced that there is association between the level of disclosure and industries, according to Qui-square test and Correspondence Analysis. Regarding disclosure of derivative operations, main findings are: (i) the sensitivity analysis table has not been disclosed by any company in 2006 and 2007, but for 90% of companies in 2008; (ii) great majority of company has disclosed the fair value of derivatives, but has not disclosed the criteria for valuing these instruments. Finally, findings, regarding the study´s hypotheses, which have been tested with a panel data model, at a significance level of 90%, have evidence that: (i) Sector and Origin of Control are statically significant in all three models tested: economic, social-environmental, and total;(ii) Profitability is relevant in the economic model and in the total model;(iii) Tobins Q is relevant in the social-environmental model and in the total disclosure model, (iv) Leverage and Auditing Firm are relevant, only, in the economic disclosure model; (v) Size, Governance, Stock Issuing, Growth Opportunities and Concentration of Control are not statistically significant in any of the three models of disclosure.

Public research institutions (PRIs) are tasked with generating new knowledge, as well as adding value to existing knowledge in order to come up with innovations that can contribute to national competitiveness. To this end, government provides discretionary or parliamentary grants to allow the public research institutions to execute their mandates by carrying out exploratory activities and exploitative activities in research and development.The study aimed to establish the role of the parliamentary grant in supporting the research and development endeavours of a public research institute, with a particular focus on the management of exploration and exploitation tensions in investing the parliamentary grant. The sustainability of the PRI was sus assessed using operating profits as a proxy. The relationships between levels of investment in exploratory and exploitative actives were assessed, as was the role of the innovation system in influencing the sustainability of the PRI. We use the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) the largest scientific research entity in South Africa, and its operational units as a case study.Consistent with information that is available in the literature, the data from this study shows that the discretionary grant plays a critical role as a funding stream for public research institutes, contributing to the effective execution of research and development activities of the entity. The discretionary grant is key in seeding new national competencies, and is a key initial investment in enabling the PRI to establish itself, generate outputs and outcomes that herald its competencies and thus position itself to earn other forms of income.The discretionary grant is invested for exploratory and exploitive activities. Exploratory activities generate new knowledge, which is necessary for competitiveness. Exploitative activities utilise existing knowledge to provide innovations that find utility in industries and the public sector. The manner in which the investment is split between exploration and exploitation was shown to be critical to the long term sustainability of the enterprise. Skewing investment in either exploration or exploitation alone is detrimental to sustainability.The optimal split of the discretionary grant between exploration and exploitation was found to be dependent on several factors, to include, the technology bases of the industries in which the entity operates and the connectivity and paths of knowledge flow in the innovation systems nationally and globally.Inability to earn other forms of income is in itself a threat to the long term sustainability, particularly in fiscally constrained environments that are typical of emerging economies. The ability to earn external income provides options for investment of the PG in building its capability base. Notable here is the fact that the absorptive capacity of the industry sector in the first place, the innovation system in which the entity operates and the connectedness of the entity within the system appear to have important influences on ability to earn other forms of income. In such cases, strategic decisions have to be made on whether the sector remains strategic enough for the country in deciding on continued investment.While the information derived from this study is very specific to the CSIR, a combination of the data and information in the literature provides insights that are applicable to other public research institutes, particularly in developing economies. / Dissertation (MBA)--University of Pretoria, 2012. / Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) / unrestricted

We propose and empirically test a new hypothesis that managers rationally choose between specific channels of earnings management to meet earnings benchmarks. Prior research documents that managers are ready to interfere with the neutrality of financial reporting process to report earnings above zero, earnings above last year's earnings, and earnings above analysts' forecast. However, there is a controversy over whether this earnings management to meet or beat earnings benchmarks is intended to distort investors' view by delaying the disclosure of bad news or whether it is intended to communicate managers' private information about the firm's strong future performance. We argue that the credibility of the earnings management signal crucially depends on the cost of its imitation. As revenue management is more costly to imitate than cost management, we argue that managers who intend to send a credible signal about their firm's future performance likely boost revenues rather than depress costs. To test this prediction, we use a recently developed model of discretionary revenues that is arguably more powerful in detecting earnings management than traditional techniques. The empirical results are consistent with our predictions for the most important earnings benchmark - the consensus of analysts'...

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This study investigates the earnings management practices of firms around product recalls. In recent years, the management of earnings around firm-specific events has received considerable attention in the finance and accounting literature. New equity issues, mergers and acquisitions, share repurchases, and management buyouts are some events around which at least some firms have been shown to manage their earnings to achieve managements? objectives. Product recalls offer yet another interesting occasion when managers have incentives to cover up the true financial performance of their firms and mislead investors. In order to determine whether firms announcing product recalls manage earnings more aggressively than non-announcing firms, this study employs the cross-sectional version of the modified Jones (1991) model, as adapted by Teoh, Welch, and Wong (1998 a and b). In order to address the misspecification concern of the model, especially in the context of a performance-related event like product recall, we suggest a modification in the model. We show that the proposed change in the model not only better controls for event-specific working capital changes around recalls, it also increases the explanatory power of the model. Overall, our results suggest that managers tend to manage earnings upwards in quarters immediately preceding and following the recall announcement quarter. We also find weak evidence of downward earnings management in the quarter of recall. These results are in line with the predictions of theoretical models and the findings of past empirical studies in earnings management. The results of our research have important implications for investors and regulators.

This paper examines the relationship between executive compensation – in the form ofvariable pay – and earnings management. Since most research is done on Americancompanies, and Swedish companies are adopting a more Anglo-American compensationstructure, we would like to study this in Sweden. We hypothesize that CEOs with highervariable pay are more likely to engage in earnings management. This study is done onSwedish companies listed on Large- and Mid-Cap. Using data from the companies’ annualreports we find no significant relationship between variable pay and discretionary accrualsusing our regression. / Denna studie undersöker relationen mellan kompensation till ledande befattningshavare –den del av lönen som är rörlig - och manipulering av intäkter. Då större delen av tidigareforskning har fokuserat på amerikanska företag, och svenska företag anammar en mer angloamerikanskstruktur av kompensation, vill vi undersöka detta i Sverige. Vi kommer fram tillen hypotes där vi antar att en VD med högre rörlig lön är mer trolig att manipulera intäkter.Studien är gjord på svenska företag listade på Large och Mid Cap. Genom att använda datafrån företagens årsredovisningar och Datastream hittar vi genom våra regressioner ingasamband mellan rörlig lön och diskretionära periodiseringar.

Hållbarhetsredovisning är ett begrepp som är relativt nytt. Denna typ av rapportering används av företag för att presentera vilka åtgärder de utför när det kommer till såväl sociala och miljömässiga frågor som de ekonomiska. Arbete inom hållbar utveckling är något som efterfrågas alltmer av samhället och fler företag har börjat anamma detta sätt att dela information på. Problematiken som råder är dock att det finns indikationer till att organisationer ibland använder hållbarhetsrapportering som ett verktyg för att uppnå eller bevara legitimitet. Tidigare forskning menar att brist på standarder och ramverk leder till ett oreglerat gap mellan handlingar och kommunikation inom hållbarhetsrapportering. Vidare tyder annan forskning på att det legala systemet anpassar sig för långsamt för att kunna följa ständiga förändringar i samhällets förväntningar. Detta innebär att hållbarhetsarbete huvudsakligen presenteras med hjälp av frivillig redovisning, vilket innebär att företag kan välja vad de vill presentera och vad de vill undanhålla. Syftet med studien är att ifrågasätta huruvida hållbarhetsredovisning är redovisning för hållbarhet eller om det används som ett legitimeringsverktyg.Genom att utföra intervjuer med relevanta personer inom hållbarhetsarbete och komplettera dessa med offentlig dokumentation, kan jag uppfylla syftet med studien. Dessa empiriska resultat analyseras tillsammans med tidigare forskning samt relevanta teorier.Under studiens gång ifrågasätts många gånger om reglering av hållbarhetsredovisning i själva verket är det bästa tillvägagångssättet för att säkerställa att denna typ av redovisning används på ett korrekt sätt. Slutsatsen tyder på att det måste finnas ett genuint intresse från företagens sida för att åtgärder ska följas upp på ett framgångsrikt sätt. / Sustainability reporting is a relatively new concept. This way of reporting is used by companies to communicate actions they undertake regarding social and environmental issues as well as the financial ones. Performance concerning sustainability is a growing demand of the society, which has led to an increasing amount of companies embracing this way of sharing information. The current issue is due to remaining indications of organizations using sustainability reporting as an instrument to obtain or maintain legitimacy. Previous research points out that the lack of standards and frameworks creates an unregulated gap between actions and the communication of these. Furthermore, other research claims that the legal system isn’t able to adjust quickly enough to be able to follow the continuous changes in expectations of the society. Consequently, this leads to sustainability performance being mainly reported by the means of voluntary disclosure, which implicates that companies themselves may choose what to share and what to withhold. The purpose of this research is to question whether sustainability reporting is accounting for sustainability or rather being used as a tool of legitimacy.By performing interviews with relevant people concerning sustainable development within companies, and complement these with public documentation, I was able to fulfil the purpose of the research. These empirical results were analyzed together with previous research and theories of significance.During the course of the research, regulation of sustainability reporting was questioned of being the most appropriate way to make sure sustainability reporting is used in an adequate manner. The conclusion of this research states that there has to be a certain genuine interest coming from the companies, to be able to follow up actions in a successful way.This research is conducted in Swedish.

Contractual Penalty under the Commercial Code (with focus on the discretionary power of a judge to reduce a contractual penalty) Contractual penalty is a concept frequently used by the parties to consolidate the position of the creditor as well as to motivate the debtor to fulfill the obligation as agreed. Not different from the other institutes of private law, the practical application of contractual penalty arises many questions with no uniform answers. The purpose of the thesis is to analyze selected contentious issues concerning the contractual penalty, especially discretionary power of a judge to reduce its unreasonable amount, to confront controversial theoretical opinions as well as non-conforming conclusions drawn from the juristic theory and established practice of the courts and add own opinion on the discussed matters. The paper does not include the exhaustive construction of contractual penalty, and therefore the general aspects are outlined only to the necessary extent. Greater attention is paid to the creation and existence of the right and claim to the contractual penalty. The study shifts the focus on the discretionary power of a judge to mitigate its inappropriate amount comprising different opinions on the related issues. The concept of contractual penalty has been used in private...

Sob a teoria de agência e o contexto de gerenciamento de resultados, o objetivo do trabalho foi estudar a relação entre o gerenciamento de resultados (GR) e o custo da dívida (Ki) das empresas brasileiras de capital aberto, no período de 1996 a 2007. Para isso, foram levantadas duas hipóteses de pesquisa quanto à possível relação entre GR e Ki: H1- as variáveis são inter-relacionadas; e H2- a relação é unidirecional, em que o Ki é influenciado positivamente pelo GR. Os pressupostos levantados, por meio da literatura existente, para a formulação da primeira hipótese são de que, almejando melhores condições contratuais, como o custo da dívida, o custo atual ou passado motiva a empresa a gerenciar o resultado corrente para obter melhores condições de custo futuro ou corrente. Dessa forma, as empresas, intencionalmente, procurariam gerenciar seus resultados, motivadas pelo custo da dívida. Todavia, há suporte teórico para que a relação entre essas variáveis seja unidirecional, com o gerenciamento de resultados influenciando o custo da dívida, sustentando a segunda hipótese. Um por exemplo disso é o gerenciamento de resultados, que é percebido como fator de assimetria de informação pelos credores, os quais, ao identificarem o gerenciamento, exigirão um prêmio maior pelo risco da falta de informação, elevando o custo da dívida das empresas. Assim, para testar as hipóteses do trabalho, a proxy de GR foi definida com o uso do modelo para cálculo dos accruals discricionários proposto por Kang e Sivaramakrishnan (1995) e a variável representativa do custo da dívida foi a relação entre a despesa financeira e o passivo oneroso total. A análise inicial foi feita utilizando-se o índice de correlação de Spearman e análise de média, por meio do teste não-paramétrico U de Mann-Whitney. Em seguida, utilizou-se o teste de especificação de Hausman para análise de simultaneidade, seguido da análise de regressão com dados dispostos em painel com correção de Newey-West, correção por cluster - ambas nas situações em que havia heterocedasticidade e correlação serial-, e estimador MQ2E. Os testes de correlação e de média apontaram para uma relação positiva entre GR e Ki, mas o teste de simultaneidade não indicou haver inter-relação entre as variáveis. Os resultados das regressões em painel indicaram que o Ki, atual ou passado, não influencia o GR, mas apontam para uma relação positiva, em que quanto maior o gerenciamento de resultados, maior o custo da dívida, ou seja, este é influenciado por aquele. Desse modo, os resultados permitem rejeitar a hipótese 1, mas confirmam a segunda hipótese. A princípio, tais resultados indicam que não há uma inter-relação entre GR e Ki e que as empresas não gerenciam com a intenção de impactar no custo da dívida, mas que o gerenciamento de resultados pode ter outras motivações para as empresas brasileiras. Todavia pode ser percebido pelos credores como maneira de reduzir a transparência das demonstrações contábeis, levando-os a cobrar maiores taxas de empresas com gerenciamento de resultados, gerando maior custo da dívida para as companhias. / Under the theory of agency and the context of earnings management, the objective of this research was to study the relationship between the earnings management (EM) and the cost of debt (Ki) of Brazilian open-capital companies, from 1996 to 2007. For this, two hypotheses of research have been raised as to the possible relationship between GR and Ki: H1: the variables are interrelated and H2: the relation is unidirectional where Ki is influenced positively by the GR. The hypothesis raised, by means of existing literature, to elaborate the first hypothesis are that, longing for better contractual conditions, such as the cost of the debt, the current or past costs motivate the company to manage the current result to get better conditions for future or current costs. Therefore, the companies, intentionally, would manage their results, motivated by the cost of debt. However, there is theoretical support that relations between these variables are unidirectional, with the earnings management influencing the cost of debt, supporting the second hypothesis. For example, the earnings management is perceived as a factor of asymmetric information by the creditors, who will demand a bigger prize for the risk regarding the lack of information, which raises the cost of debt of the companies. Thus, to test the hypotheses of this research, the proxy of GR was defined with the use of the model for calculation of discretionary accruals considered by Kang and Sivaramakrishnan (1995) and the representative variable of the cost of debt was the relationship between the financial expense and the total financial liability. The initial analysis was made using the index of correlation of Spearman and analysis of average, by means of non-parametric test U of Mann-Whitney. After that the test of specification of Hausman was used, for analysis of simultaneity, followed by the analysis of regression with data disposed on panel corrected by Newey-West, correction by cluster - both under the condition where there were heteroskedasticity and serial correlation, and estimator MQ2E. The average and correlation tests pointed out a positive relation between GR and Ki, but the concurrence test did not indicate to have interrelation between the variables. The results of the regressions in the panel indicated that the Ki, current or past, does not influence the GR, but point a positive relationship, where the bigger the earnings management, greater is the cost of debt, that is, this is influenced by management. Then, the results allow rejecting the first hypothesis, confirming the second hypothesis. Such results indicate that there is not an interrelation between GR and Ki and that the companies do not manage with the intention of impacting the cost of the debt, but that the earnings management can have other motivations for the Brazilian companies, however it can be perceived, by the creditors, as a way to reduce the transparency of the accounting demonstrations, leading to charge greater fees from companies with earnings management, generating bigger cost of debt for the companies.