Investigating the Relationship among Business Strategies, Market Competitiveness and Profit Management in Iran's Beverage and Food Industries

It is very important to identify the relationship between business strategies, market competition and earnings management in beverage and food industries firms which are accepted in stock exchange market. The sample includes 12 manufacturing companies listed in the Tehran Stock Exchange during period the beginning of 2009 until the end of 2014. The statistical model is multiple linear regression using panel data. To examine the significance of the regression equations and the significance of regression coefficients F-test and t-test were applied, respectively. Based on the results of model estimation, there is a negative and significant relationship between business strategies (cost leadership strategy and differentiation strategy) and real earnings management, and there isn’t a significant relationship between the interaction of market competition and cost leadership strategy. Also the results showed that there is a negative and significant relationship between the interaction of market competition and differentiation strategy with the real earnings management.