散戶投資者關注程度與公司盈餘管理之關聯性： 大數據分析實證研究

The relation between retail investors’ attention and earnings management: Evidence from big data analysis

本研究以臺灣上市櫃公司為樣本，探討散戶投資者關注程度與該公司盈餘管理行為之關聯性。近來，散戶投資者廣泛利用網路檢索平台獲得投資訊息，對於標的公司的關注程度亦可藉由Google搜尋量指數來衡量，使得Google搜尋量指數在金融大數據分析有重要的功能。本文實證結果發現，散戶投資者的關注程度較高時，公司的盈餘管理程度較高。呼應散戶投資者有限注意的觀點，即使散戶投資者提高關注程度時，解讀資訊的能力並沒有隨之提高，對公司管理階層無法發揮監督效果，反而顯露出散戶預期交易的心理，引誘公司進行盈餘管理。

This study investigates the relation between retail investors’ attention and earnings management. Recently, retail investors have widely used the web search engine to obtain investment information, and it leads to this study using the Google Searches Volume Index as a proxy for retail investors' attention. The empirical results suggest the positive relation between retail investors' attention and earnings management, and they are consistent with the view of retail investors’ limited attention. Meaning, retail investors’ ability to understand information has not been improved with their increased attention. Instead, their increased attention informs possible transaction behavior to executives, and it induces executives to manage earnings.