機構投資者、盈餘平穩化與會計資訊價值攸關性

Institutional Ownership, Income Smoothing and the Value-relevance of Accounting Numbers

機構投資者在公司策略性盈餘報導決策中所扮演的角色有兩種不同的觀點：（1）為精明的投資者，當機構投資者持股比例增加時，股價應會反映更多未來盈餘資訊（機構投資者監督假說）；（2）過度專注當期盈餘，當機構投資者持股比例高時，股價反映未來盈餘資訊的程度較小（機構投資者短視假說）。本研究以公司盈餘平穩化行為對會計資訊價值攸關性之影響為架構，以非平衡式追蹤資料檢測機構投資者在此架構中所可能產生之影響，以豐富此一領域之研究。實證結果在某種程度支持機構投資者監督假說，亦即公司在機構投資者持股率高時，會顯著提高公司盈餘平穩化行為對於盈餘變數及權益帳面價值變數的相對價值攸關性。若進一步考慮機構投資者的交易策略（持股波動性），發現公司在機構投資者持股率高且持股波動性低時，顯著提高盈餘平穩化對於盈餘變數的相對價值攸關性；另一方面，公司在機構投資者持股率低且持股波動性高時，在多數情境測試下，會顯著降低盈餘平穩化對於盈餘變數的相對價值攸關性，然前述兩種類型機構投資者對盈餘平穩化公司之權益帳面價值變數之相對價值攸關性影響不明顯。本研究進行若干敏感性測試，顯示實證結果具高度穩固性。

The active monitoring hypothesis provides evidence that firms with higher institutional ownership are less likely to manage earnings, which in turn, enhances the value-relevance of accounting numbers. Yet, recent studies also highlight the importance of explicitly considering the short-term oriented investing behavior of institutional investors (the myopia hypothesis) when investigating the association between institutional ownership and managerial earnings reporting. Thus, the role of institutional investors in managerial earnings reporting remains an open question. Based on the informative association between income smoothing and the value-relevance of financial reporting, this study uses the unbalanced-panel data regressions to examine the monitoring or myopia role of institutional investors on the association between income smoothing and the value-relevance of accounting numbers. The empirical results to some extent support the monitoring hypothesis that the higher institutional ownership is, income smoothing generates more value-relevance of both earnings and equity book value. Moreover, in the income smoothing with higher institutional ownership/lower ownership volatility case, it reveals that the increasing value-relevance of earnings is enhanced. However, in the income smoothing with lower institutional ownership/higher ownership volatility case, it is found that the increasing value-relevance of earnings is mitigated. This study also documents that the role of institutional ownership on the association between income smoothing and the valuerelevance of equity book value is unobvious in the analysis, both in the high and low ownership volatility cases. We demonstrate some diagnostic checks and evidence the results are robust to the various specifications.