Investigating the Relationship between Discretionary Accruals and Total, Relevant, or Irrelevant Diversification at Companies Listed in Tehran Stock Exchange

Diversification is regarded as a growth and development method for organizations and a major strategy for multi-business corporations. Businesses can be created and developed through relevant or irrelevant diversification. Relevant diversification will let a business benefit from synergy or common resources. The aim of this study was to analyze the relationship between discretionary accruals and total, relevant, or irrelevant diversification at companies listed in Tehran Stock Exchange. This is a correlational-causal (post-event) applied study in which the statistical population included the companies listed in Tehran Stock Exchange. A sampling method was employed to select 81 companies from 2005 to 2017. Then the regularized least squares regression was used in Eviews to test the research hypotheses. According to the results, there was a negative and significant relationship between discretionary accruals and total, relevant, or irrelevant diversification. In other words, increasing at Companies Listed in Tehran Stock Exchange diversification decreased discretionary accruals.