The Study of Membership Effect in Business Group on Earnings Quality.

Business group refer to the collection of legal firms that have legal entity and have reporting entity. The purpose of this study is investigation of membership effect in business group on the earnings quality of firms affiliated to business groups. To measure earnings quality three proxies including accrual quality, earning predictability and smooth earnings in different industries are used. The multivariate regression analysis is used to analyze our hypotheses. The sample consists of 72 firms listed in Tehran Stock Exchange during the 2004 to 2009. To measure the research variables the range spread between the years 2000 to 2011.
The results indicate that in firms affiliated to business groups have higher accruals quality, higher earnings predictability and smoother earnings than independent firms. With this three proxies we conclude in firms affiliated to business groups earning quality is higher than independent firms.