本研究以遞延所得稅費用作為衡量盈餘管理之代理變數，探討遞延所得稅費用及其組成項目與避免報導虧損行為間之關聯性，並加入股權結構、獨立董監及審計品質，檢視公司治理特性是否可有效降低管理當局利用遞延所得稅費用之會計處理達成避免報導虧損行為的傾向。 本研究之實證結果顯示，遞延所得稅費用及其具裁決性之組成項目如與銷貨有關的遞延所得稅費用、未實現費用產生的遞延所得稅費用及與資產評價科目有關的遞延所得稅費用，均與避免報導虧損行為間存在顯著的關聯性，顯示管理當局利用裁量性遞延所得稅費用之認列及沖轉來調整盈餘，以達成特定的盈餘目標。本研究發現，遞延所得稅費用項目在裁量性應計項目外，對管理當局避免報導虧損之行為，提供了增額的解釋能力。此外，本研究發現公司治理變數與避免報導虧損之行為不存在顯著為負的關係，僅機構投資人持股與獨立董監席次比率對降低管理當局透過遞延所得稅費用項目達成避免報導虧損之行為，具有邊際的增額解釋能力。 / We assess the usefulness of deferred tax expense (DTE) in detecting earnings management. We investigate the relation between changes in deferred tax liability components using data hand-collected from firm’s income tax footnote disclosures and avoid reporting a loss. We also explore the relationship between the structure of ownership, the independent members of broad, audit quality and the usefulness of deferred tax expense (DTE) in detecting earnings management. Our empirical results show the changes in the net deferred tax liability (DTL) component related to sales accruals, revenue and expense accruals and reserves can be used to detect earnings management to avoid an earnings loss. We evaluate the deferred tax expense can be used to meet the earnings target: to avoid reporting a loss. Deferred tax expense is incrementally useful to modified Jones model abnormal accruals in detecting earnings management to avoid a loss. Our empirical results show institutional investors and the independent members of broad have negative relationship with earning management.

Le aziende a controllo familiare sono considerate in molti Paesi la struttura proprietaria dominante, e la ricerca accademica si è progressivamente concentrata negli ultimi decenni sugli aspetti peculiari che differenziano le aziende familiari dalle altre strutture proprietarie. Nonostante questa convergenza, molti studi hanno sviluppato teorie contrastanti, in modo particolare sulla capacità delle aziende familiari di generare performance finanziarie superiori. Di converso, pochi studi hanno concentrato l’attenzione sulle scelte strategiche che posso spiegare il (maggiore o minore) differenziale di performance delle aziende familiari. Partendo dall’assunto che punti di forza e di debolezza possano coesistere nelle aziende familiari, identificare se siano gli uni o gli altri a prevalere è una sfida complessa se non si prendono in considerazione le scelte strategiche effettuate dalle aziende familiari. Partendo da questo gap nella letteratura, il presente lavoro cerca di misurare l’impatto che la proprietà familiare può avere sulle performance aziendali concentrandosi su tre aspetti principali della strategia d’impresa: il livello di conformità strategico alla media di settore (mediante la creazione di un indice che approssima le principali determinanti della business strategy), l’avvio di un processo di internazionalizzazione attraverso investimenti diretti esteri (IDE), e le implicazioni delle strategie di acquisizione. / The family business is widely considered the dominant property structure around the world and the research on this field has increased rapidly in the last decades to understand whether and in which aspects family firms differ from other organizations. Despite this convergence, the actual body of research on family firms is populated by conflicting theories and findings, especially on the relationship with financial performance. On the other hand, few studies focus their attention on which strategic choices may explain the financial differences between family firms and non-family peers. Starting from this research gap, we think that both positive and negative aspects may coexist in family firms, and it would be difficult to identify which predominate without considering how family principals frame strategic decisions. In our thesis, we try to disentangle the effect of family ownership on firm performance focusing on three main aspects of firm strategy: the level of strategic conformity through the creation of a composite index (in which we incorporated six items that can be considered as key determinants of the business strategy), the departure of the internationalization process through foreign direct investments (FDI), and the implications of acquisition strategies.