市場認知管理對財務會計準則公報第35號之影響－提前適用之分析

Abstract

我國財務會計準則公報第35號－『資產減損之會計處理（以下簡稱35號公報）』－之規定適用於2005年12月31日後之財務報表，但公司亦可選擇提前適用。本研究之目的乃在探討公司是否利用提前適用35號公報之方式，達成市場認知管理之目的。基於此，本研究問題有四。一是提前適用35號公報之公司是否存在市場對其減損前盈餘之持續性反應不足，低估公司股價之現象？二是資產減損是否改善股價對整體盈餘持續性反應不足之現象？上述二個研究問題乃隱含假設公司以提前認列減損當作訊息發放之機制，然而一個有效的訊息發放機制，必須符合二個條件：一是公司未來有好消息；另一則是機制本身必須是逆向操作之性質。因此，本研究第三個研究問題為資產減損是否傳遞公司未來盈餘將增加之訊息？最後一個研究問題則是市場認知的減損程度是否與公司帳列減損呈負向關聯性？實證結果發現提前認列資產減損之公司，股價對其減損前之盈餘持續性存在反應不足之現象，但認列減損後，市場會充分反應資產減損之意涵，減輕整體盈餘反應不足之現象。此外，減損損失可預測未來盈餘，且與市場認知的減損程度呈顯著負向關聯性。綜合本研究證據，價值被低估之公司，反向操作提前認列減損損失，傳遞未來盈餘將增加之訊息，以此改善股價對盈餘持續性反應不足之現象，達成市場認知管理之目的。

The Statement of Financial Accounting Standards No. 35-”Recognition of Asset Impairments” (hereafter, SFAS No. 35)-has been adopted since the financial statements ended on December 31, 2005, while companies could choose to early adopt to the financial statements ended on December 31, 2004. The purpose of this research is to examine whether companies would early adopt SFAS No. 35 to accomplish the market perception management. Specifically, there are four research questions in this study. First, whether markets under-reflect to the persistency of earnings before impairment for early adoption companies? Second, whether the recognition of asset impairments would improve the phenomenon of the market's under-reflection to earnings persistency? The first two research questions imply the assumption that companies use early adoption of SFAS No. 35 as a mechanism of signaling. However, a useful mechanism of signaling has to meet two requirements. The first one is that the company has good news in the future and the other is that the company has to bear the costs from this mechanism. Thus, the third research question of this study is to examine whether the recognition of asset impairments would convey the news of increasing future earnings. And finally, whether the impairment percepted by the market is negatively related to impairments recorded in the book? The result of the research shows that the companies with early adoption have the phenomenon of the market's under-reflection to earnings persistency. But after recognizing asset impairments, the market fully reflects to the impairment information. In addition, the impairment can forecast the future earnings and is negatively related to the impairment percepted by the market. In conclusion, in order to manage market perception, the company with its value underestimated would signal that future earnings is increasing, by early adopting SEAS No. 35 in 2004, and thus the extent of the market's under-reaction to earnings persistency is reduced.