自由現金流量與盈餘管理關聯性之研究

A Study of the Association between Free Cash Flow and Earnings Management

10.6295/TAMJ.2003.0301.08

薛敏正(Min-Jeng Shiue)；林嬋娟(Chan-Jane Lin)

盈餘管理 ； 裁決性應計數 ； 自由現金流量 ； 債務假說 ； Earnings Management ； Discretionary Accruals ； Free Cash Flow ； Debt Hypothesis

台灣管理學刊

3卷1期（2003 / 02 / 01）

151 - 167

繁體中文

本研究旨在檢視自由現金流量以及債務假說與裁決性應計數之關聯。Jensen(1986, 1989)的研究指出，低成長機會但擁有較高自由現金流量的公司，其經理人傾向採行有損公司價值之投資行為或無效率的支出，亦即經理人與股東間之利益衝突較為嚴重。這些行為的經濟後果將誘使公司經理人利用裁決性應計數扭曲會計報導，向上操縱盈餘。Jensen也提出舉債可減緩低成長機會但高現金流量公司進行有損公司價值的行為。本研究以過去五年平均每年營收成長率作為區分成長機會的依據，並以調整來自營運之現金流量後之橫斷面修正Jones model，估算86至88年上市公司之裁決性應計數，再以多變量迴歸分析驗證研究中建立的兩項假說。結果發現，低成長機會但高自由現金流量的公司，其經理人傾向採用較高的裁決性應計數操縱盈餘，與預期相符。此外本研究也發現，舉債會抑減低成長機會但高自由現金流量公司使用裁決性應計數操縱盈餘。敏感性測試結果發現，改採總資產市值對帳面值之比作為區分成長機會之依據時，與原先之發現差異不大。

The purpose of this study is to examine the association between free cash flow(FCF), debt hypothesis and discretionary accruals. According to Jensen(1986, 1989), managers of low growth/high FCF firms are involved non-value-maximizing activities, that is, there are severe conflicts of interest between shareholders and managers. Managers in these firms are more likely using discretionary accruals to manipulate earnings upward. Jensen also argues that debt mitigates the non-value-maximizing activities. To proxy for growth prospects for each firm, we calculate a five-year average annual percent increase in net sales. We measure discretionary accruals by the cross-sectional variation of modified Jones model and adjusted for extreme operating cash flow. Listed companies in Taiwan from 1997 to 1999 were used as a sample to test our hypotheses by multiple regression analysis. Empirical evidence shows that the discretionary accruals are higher for high FCF firms than low FCF firms and the positive FCF/discretionary accruals to be weaker for low growth firms with high debt than for similar firms with low debt. Sensitivity tests indicate that the results are robust with respect to different measures of growth prospects.

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