فصلنامه دانش حسابداری
پیاپی 10 (پاییز 1391)

The purpose of this study is to investigate the effects of conditional conservatism imposed by the companies on further negative news. The methodology of the study is quasi experimental; to test the first hypothesis a logit regression method and to test the second hypothesis, an ordinary least squares method are used. The statistical society includes companies accepted in Tehran Stock Exchange, and the time span of the study is from the beginning of 2003 up to the end of 2010. To measure the conditional conservatism imposed by the companies a non-operating accruals model of Givoly and Hine (2000) is used. The results indicate that there is a negative and significant relationship between conditional conservative and the likelihood of further negative news. The results also indicate lack of significant linear relationship between conditional conservatism and market reaction to good and bad news of the companies. Furthermore, a significant relationship between the size of company and its degree of financial leverage, with unusual efficiency of the company was approved.

Management earnings forecasts and their characteristics may provide a signal about managers’ private information and/or confidence in their assertions. The signal allows investors to understand the relationship between management forecasts and future earnings better, taking investors to price securities accordingly. The purpose of this paper is to investigate whether issuance of management forecasts and characteristics of the forecasts affect the relationship between returns and future earnings. In this study, use of the FERC is particularly appropriate because various characteristics of management forecasts could have implications for the prediction of future earnings. A forecast with characteristics that improves ability of investors to predict future earnings should result in stock prices that better predict future earnings, and results in a higher FERC. We follow Gelb and Zarowin (2002), Tucker and Zarowin (2006) and Choi and et al(2008)in Our empirical tests, which use 347 firm/year observations from 2006 to 2011. Our empirical findings showed management forecasts affect the association between returns and future earnings, if management forecasts are more frequent and precise. Moreover, we extend models further with control variables such as firm size, growth and profitable to the control for possible correlated omitted variables. Our empirical findings showed that management forecasts affect the association between returns and future earnings if management forecasts are more frequent and precise. Forecasts with the characteristics viewed by investors are more credible than the forecasts without the characteristics.

This study aims at profitability prediction of listed companies in Tehran Stocks Exchange (TSE), using Artificial Neural Network. The respected sample consists of 90 firms from 2002 to 2009 (720 firm/years). Attention to the framework of study reduced the number of 720 firm/years to 630 firm/years. These firms separated in two groups of learning sample (540 firm/years) and test sample (90 firm/years) to test generalization of the technique.To develop profitability prediction, first, we needed to determine predictor variables. Profitability prediction literature was reviewed and a complete list of financial ratios for successful prediction in the past studies was prepared. Then, we reduced the list from a theoretical point of view, and we used SDA technique to select final financial ratios. Finally, we took 9 financial ratios to develop profitability prediction.Using Artificial Neural Network (ANN) and applying 9 selected financial ratios, achieved 99% accuracy rate in the learning sample and 86% accuracy rate in the test sample for correct classification of the firms into profitability and nonprofitability groups one year before the real state.

This study examines information content of Cash Recovery- based Internal Rate of Return (CRBIRR) and Return on Assets (ROA) to determine the validity and accuracy each of the measures in Iran stock market. In order to answer this question, Tobin’s Q and stock returns are used as performance benchmarks and was tested these two measures based on CRBIRR and ROA, using the multivariate regression model. Financial information is based on a sample consisting of companies listed in TSE (540 firm/year observations) during years 2004-2009. Results indicate that CRBIRR provides better relative and incremental information content than ROA.

The usefulness of accounting information has always been source of concern for standard setters that view the main goal of financial reporting as the issue required for generating useful information to facilitate decision making process according to conceptual framework. Predicting bankruptcy is one of the main areas in which researchers have studied the usefulness of accounting information. However, to assess the usefulness of accounting information in current condition, it is necessary to compare it’s predicting ability in relation to other information resources such as market information. To this end, using genetic algorithm, models with different mixture of accounting and market variables are designed and tested. To improve the generalization of the results, cross-validation is used. The samples used in this study include the companies listed in Tehran Stock Exchange between 2001 to 2009. The fiundings show that accounting information is more useful in predicting bankruptcy than market information, and that market variables are not a good complement to accounting information in bankruptcy prediction.

This study examines the relationship between cash flows management and cost of debt. Operating cash flow is divided into two categories as managed and unmanaged cash flows. Statistical group of companies in this study is the manufacturing companies listed in Tehran Stock Exchange (TSE) during the years 2004 to 2009. The research sample includes 78 companies (390 company/year). This study takes descriptive correlation analysis and tests hypotheses, using multiple linear regression and Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) method. The results showed that there was a negative significant relationship between the unmanaged operating cash flow and cost of debt. And there is a positive significant relationship between managed cash flow (abnormal) and cost of debt. The bigger (negative) correlation of unmanaged operating cash flow and cost of debt with respect to the (positive) correlation between managed operating cash flow and cost of debt indicated by the regression coefficient showed low ability of managers in managing and manipulating the cash flow. Also, the adjusted R-squared with 18% value, indicated that the predictors may explain 87.4% of the variance of the dependent variable. Durbin-Watson statistic also showed lack of correlation between the research variables.

Studies on profitability of contrarian investment strategy in the Iranian stock market can be classified in two classes: 1) researches based on historical returns, and 2) researches based on fundamental variables. This study, using Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA), provides the possibility that historical return variable and fundamental variables can be used simultaneously. We used portfolio study methodology, regarding three two-year periods in the Tehran stock exchange during 1385-1388(Iranian Calendar). We found that the contrarian investment strategy may obtain excess returns over all.

This research assesses the relationship between information asymmetry and earnings quality. To measure earnings quality, we use two models: Dechow and Dichev (2002) and Sloan (1996). To measure the information asymmetry in the first hypothesis, we take the criterion of percentage effective spread, and in the second hypothesis, the criterion of percentage impact price. To analyze the hypothesis, the statistical tests of analysis of variance and multiple regression have been used. The society in this research, is the companies accepted in Tehran Stock Exchange and the statistical sample includes 59 companies in the years 1383 to 1388. The research results showed that there was a meaningful relationship between earnings quality and information asymmetry in the manner that decreasing earnings quality will result in increase in information asymmetry. Also, information asymmetry in the period before announcing earnings is more than the period after announcing earnings.