Uppsatsen undersöker om kvartalsvisa resultatmönster kan indikera potentiellt användande av resultatmanipulering (eng. earnings management). Företag klassificeras som Negativa-Positiva- (NP), Positiva-Negativa- (PN) respektive kontrollföretag beroende på hur resultatförändringar ter sig över ett helår. Med hjälp av den modifierade Jonesmodellen beräknas därefter företagens godtyckliga periodiseringar för att undersöka om NP- eller PN-företag är mer troliga än andra företag att tillämpa periodiseringsmanipulering. Ytterligare undersökningar genomförs med fokus mot faktisk resultatmanipulering (eng. real activities manipulation) genom test av godtyckliga utgifter, effektiv skattesats och produktionskostnader. Överlag påvisas signifikanta resultat för faktisk resultatmanipulering för NP-företag vilket indikerar att NP-företag är mer troliga än andra företag att manipulera resultatet.

År 2005 implementerades IFRS 3 och IAS 36 inom EU. Införandet innebär att företag årligen ska nedskrivningspröva goodwillvärdet istället för att linjärt skriva av posten under dess beräknade nyttjandeperiod. Nedskrivningsprövningen baseras på företagsledningens bedömningar om framtiden och flertalet studier har belyst att det nya regelverket lett till att goodwillposten utnyttjas opportunistiskt för att manipulera det rapporterade resultatet. I denna uppsats undersöks om det i en svensk kontext finns indikationer på att goodwillposten utnyttjas för artificial smoothing. Vi gör det genom att undersöka sambandet mellan goodwillintensitet och resultatvolatilitet och sambandet mellan onormalt stora vinster och goodwillnedskrivningar. Undersökningen visar att det föreligger ett signifikant negativt samband mellan goodwillintensitet och resultatvolatilitet och att det därmed finns indikationer på att goodwillposten utnyttjas för artificial smoothing. Studien visar också att företag som gör onormalt stora resultat inte gör relativt större nedskrivningar av goodwill än företag som gör normala resultat eller förluster. Resultatet indikerar att artificial smoothing, i den mån det praktiseras på Stockholmsbörsen, primärt utnyttjas i syfte att minska förluster och inte för att utjämna onormalt bra resultat.

This thesis aims to investigate whether frequency of mandatory financial reporting affects management focus on long-term growth. Evidence from the market has illustrated how managers within listed firms sometimes strive to meet market expectations on the latest reported earnings regardless of long-term consequences (see for example Graham, Harvey & Rajgopal, 2005; Grinyer, Russell & Collison, 1998). Yet, the existing literature has neglected to research market pressure in terms of financial reporting frequency and its proposed influence on long-term growth. This study seeks to find if a more frequent mandatory reporting affects managers to more often sacrifice long-term growth in terms of reduced R&D investments. By comparing six different stock exchanges with different interim reporting requirements, this study empirically examines the hypothesized relationship, using a robust multiple regression analysis based on 320 observations during the sample period 2008-2012. The statistically significant results show a negative correlation, suggesting that firms that are required to disclose quarterly reports invest less in R&D than firms that are only required to disclose semi-annual reports. A negative correlation is observed for the whole sample as well as for the five sectors individually. The results provide additional empirical evidence to the research fields of financial reporting, managerial myopia and earnings management.

Skandaler där företag har manipulerat sitt resultat är ständigt aktuellt. Lagar och redovisningsstandarder ska säkerställa att företagen uppvisar en rättvisande bild till intressenter. Företag har dock möjlighet att använda kassaflödespåverkande aktiviteter och omdömen vid periodiseringar som skapar utrymme för att medvetet manipulera företagets resultat, earnings management (EM). Syftet med denna studie är att studera vilka EM-problem som har uppdagats i Sverige, vilka bakomliggande faktorer som ligger till grund för handlingarna och eventuella skillnader mellan privata och publika företag. Studien har kvantitativ ansats med kvalitativa inslag, med den studerade tidsperioden 1996-2013. Urvalet jämförs med en kontrollgrupp bestående av branschens publika företag. Studiens identifierade manipulationsproblem är redovisnings- och reell manipulation.   Resultatet indikerar att förändringar i studiens utvalda faktorer påverkar beslutet om EM i högre grad än absoluta nivåer. Skillnader mellan privata och publika företag finns i de förekommande manipulationsproblemen, ägarkoncentrationen och skuldsättningsnivån. Studien visar att grunden till EM ligger i opportunistiskt beteende, genom ledningens eller kontrollerande ägares personliga vinning, stöd från kontraktuella förhållanden och investerare, vilket möjliggörs genom förekomsten av informationsasymmetri mellan företag och dess intressenter.

This dissertation consists of three stand-alone essays on fundamental uncertainty, stock return volatility and earnings management. The first study investigates the role of information about firms?? fundamentals contained in analysts?? forecasts (which I label ??non-accounting information??) in understanding stock return volatility. When combined with Ohlson??s (1995) linear information dynamics, the accounting version of the Campbell-Shiller model (Campbell and Shiller 1988a, 1988b; Vuolteenaho 2002) implies that if current non-accounting information is more uncertain, then future stock returns are expected to be more volatile. The empirical evidence supports the theoretical predictions, and the results are valid for measures of both systematic and idiosyncratic volatility. Additional analysis yields some evidence that both favourable and unfavourable news from non-accounting information increases future stock return volatility. Overall, the results highlight the value relevance of information in analysts?? forecasts beyond what is contained in the current financial statements. The second essay extends the theoretical framework of Callen and Segal (2004) and Vuolteenaho (2002) to investigate the association between the uncertainty of accrual information and stock return volatility. The empirical evidence supports the theoretical prediction that the extent of uncertainty in accounting accruals is increasing with the volatility of future stock returns, and the results are valid for measures of both systematic and idiosyncratic volatility. However, when accrual variability is decomposed into fundamental and unexpected portions, I find that the positive relationship between accrual variability and future stock return volatility is dominated by the fundamental component of accrual variability. The findings therefore suggest that the market places little weight on information conveyed by that component of accounting accruals that is most likely to reflect accounting choices, implementation decisions and managerial opportunism. The final essay argues that the presumed articulation among accruals, cash flows and revenues does not capture decisions on expected accruals when large external financing activities are present. The analysis provides evidence that managers?? ??normal?? operating decisions associated with net external financing activities are likely to lead to measurement errors in unexpected accruals that are part of expected accruals, and erroneous conclusions that significant earnings management exists when in fact there is none. This is especially pertinent in cases where the partitioning variable used to identify instances of earnings management is supposed to be uncorrelated with external financing, when in fact it is correlated. The results underscore the importance of additional specification tests being conducted to control for estimation biases in unexpected accruals associated with external financing. I suggest the use of matched-firm approach using industry and external financing matches in order that reliable and warranted inferences are made.

Earnings and book value are commonly used as the basis for firm valuation. However, the reliability of earnings, as indicated by earnings management, may affect its relevance in determining firm value. This thesis investigates the link between earnings management and firm valuation by assessing the impact of earnings management on the value-relevance of earnings and book value.Three different sources of earnings management are investigated: total discretionary accruals, short-term discretionary accruals, and long-term discretionary accruals. Total discretionary accruals are estimated using the Jones model (Jones 1991). New models are developed to estimate short-term and long-term discretionary accruals. These models enable investigation of the differential impact of earnings management via short-term versus earnings management via long-term discretionary accruals. The primary proposition is that earnings management via long-term discretionary accruals has a greater impact on the value-relevance of earnings and book value than earnings management via short-term discretionary accruals.For firm’s whose discretionary accruals indicate earnings management, the value relevance of earnings is expected to be lower than for firms without earnings management. Moreover, in the presence of earnings management, it is expected that there will be a shift from a reliance on earnings to a reliance on book value in the valuation process. This would be reflected in a decrease in the value-relevance of earnings and an increase in the value-relevance of book value.This thesis provides evidence that earnings management plays a role in the valuation process. A major contribution of this study is the development of models to enable the estimation of short-term and long-term discretionary accruals, thereby extending the earnings management literature by addressing the differential effect of short-term versus long-term discretionary accruals. The results clearly demonstrate that low reliability of information reduces its value-relevance. This link between the integrity of accounting information and its usefulness to market participants supports the need for ongoing regulatory activity to improve the integrity of the financial reporting process.

This thesis examines the extent to which benchmark beating by Australian firms around the earnings level and earnings changes thresholds can be reliably interpreted as evidence of earnings management. A number of recent academic papers challenge the earnings management explanation for the observed kinks in the distribution of net Income. In response to this criticisms, this thesis is motivated to conduct tests of earnings management with a refined methodology of selecting a subset of firms immediately above the threshold that have a priori incentives to achieve the benchmark. This approach allows for investigations to focus on benchmark beating observations where earnings manipulations would be more prevalent and thereby provide a powerful test for the existence of opportunistic reporting. The paper uses a number of unexpected accruals measures including the Kothari et al. (2005) performance matched models. In testing the hypotheses, this thesis utilises two approaches which were; the regression approach and the test of difference of means approach. Based on a broad sample drawn from all listed Australian firms for the years 1995-2007, small profit firms and small increase firms with high price-to-sales ratio were found to have evidence consistent with opportunistic benchmark beating behaviour. Similar results are also documented for benchmark beating firms with low book-to-market (high market-to-book) ratio. This thesis also finds that firms with equity offering incentives who reported improvement in earnings display unexpected accruals consistent with earnings management. In addition, the accounting behaviour of firms which previously incurred a loss is consistent with earnings management explanation. Firms with long strings of earnings increases also appear to use accounting discretion in order to avoid earnings deterioration. Similarly, evidence of earnings management are also displayed by small profit firms which have consistently reported negative earnings. Finally, this thesis provides evidence that resolves the apparent paradox that benchmark beating is evidence of earnings management which is devoid of the statistical artefact argument posited by Durtschi and Easton (2005) and Durtschi and Easton (2008).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 1997. / Typescript. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 147-152). Also available on the Internet.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 1997. / Typescript. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 147-152). Also available on the Internet.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Hawaii at Manoa, 2004. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 123-128).