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Capitalizing Research & Development: Signaling or Earnings Management?

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  • Tami Dinh
  • Helen Kang
  • Wolfgang Schultze

Abstract

This paper analyzes the capitalization of Research & Development (R&D) expenditures under International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS). Discretionary R&D capitalization can be exercised by managers to signal private information on future economic benefits to the market. It can, however, also serve as opportunistic earnings management. We analyze a unique, hand-collected sample of highly R&D intensive German IFRS firms during 1998--2012. We find that market values are not associated with capitalized R&D for the overall sample, indicating that earnings management may be a concern. We identify firm-years for which R&D capitalization is possibly used for pushing their earnings above a specific threshold (e.g. analysts' forecasted earnings, prior year's earnings). Our results show that both the decision to capitalize and how much to capitalize are strongly associated with benchmark beating. Consistently, we find that market values are negatively associated with capitalized R&D for firms who are likely to use capitalization for benchmark beating (about one third of the overall sample). On the other hand, the market values R&D capitalization positively for well-performing firms, for which capitalizing does not matter to beat an earnings benchmark (about half of the overall sample). This finding is robust to controls for endogeneity, various deflators, and different measures for earnings management.

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  • Tami Dinh & Helen Kang & Wolfgang Schultze, 2016. "Capitalizing Research & Development: Signaling or Earnings Management?," European Accounting Review, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 25(2), pages 373-401, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:euract:v:25:y:2016:i:2:p:373-401
    DOI: 10.1080/09638180.2015.1031149
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    5. Yan Wang & Yuan George Shan & Zhuqian He & Changheng Zhao, 2022. "Other comprehensive income, corporate governance, and firm performance in China," Managerial and Decision Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 43(1), pages 262-271, January.
    6. Dargenidou, Christina & Jackson, Richard H.G. & Tsalavoutas, Ioannis & Tsoligkas, Fanis, 2021. "Capitalisation of R&D and the informativeness of stock prices: Pre- and post-IFRS evidence," The British Accounting Review, Elsevier, vol. 53(4).
    7. Namryoung Lee, 2018. "R&D Accounting Treatment, R&D State and Tax Avoidance: With a Focus on Biotech Firms," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(1), pages 1-12, December.
    8. Mazzi, Francesco & Slack, Richard & Tsalavoutas, Ioannis & Tsoligkas, Fanis, 2019. "Country-level corruption and accounting choice: Research & development capitalization under IFRS," The British Accounting Review, Elsevier, vol. 51(5).
    9. Brasch, Annika & Eierle, Brigitte & Jarvis, Robin, 2022. "Research and development investments, development costs capitalization, and credit ratings: Exploratory evidence from UK R&D-active private firms," Journal of International Accounting, Auditing and Taxation, Elsevier, vol. 48(C).
    10. Xin Yao Li & Pei-Wen Chen, 2020. "Meeting Dividend Thresholds Through Earnings Management of Listed Companies in South Africa," Advances in Management and Applied Economics, SCIENPRESS Ltd, vol. 10(6), pages 1-5.
    11. Weidong Zhang & Pengbo Hu & Jenny J. Wang & Zeyu Li & Hongrui Zheng & Xue Gao, 2022. "Equity incentive plans and R&D investment manipulation: evidence from China," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 62(3), pages 4157-4183, September.
    12. Yasar Bayraktar & Asiye Tutuncu, 2020. "The Effect of R&D Expenditures on Earnings Management: A Research on Bist-All Shares," Istanbul Business Research, Istanbul University Business School, vol. 49(2), pages 301-315, November.
    13. Aljughaiman, Abdullah A. & Nguyen, Tam Huy & Trinh, Vu Quang & Du, Anqi, 2023. "The Covid-19 outbreak, corporate financial distress and earnings management," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 88(C).
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