Investigating the Manipulation of the Real Activities of Enterprises and its Effect on Timely Loss Recognition

The purpose of this study was to detect manipulation of real activities to meet zero earnings target in the firms listed in Tehran Stock Exchange (TSE) over 2002-2009 and to investigate the effect of real activities manipulation and asymmetric timeliness of earnings. We analyzed operating cash flows (OCF), production costs and discretionary expenses to detect the evidence on real activities manipulation in TSE as an emerging capital market. Also, to measure the timely loss recognition, we used the approach introduced by Basu (1997). We detected abnormally low OCF, abnormally low discretionary expenses and abnormally high production costs for companies that report small positive net incomes at the annual level. The evidence was consistent with firms trying to increase reported annual earnings beyond zero by giving price discounts to boost sales temporarily and by overproduction and decrease in discretionary expenses. We also found that the real earnings management reduces the timely loss recognition.