مجله پیشرفت های حسابداری
سال هفتم شماره 1 (پیاپی 68، بهار و تابستان 1394)

Firms may create certain condition for financing decisions by taking reasonable investment decisions. Thus, investment policy dictates firm’s approach for financing. Identifying investment policies determinant factors is one of the main issues for stockholders. The same is true for the managers. This is why managers have concerns about investment policies. Institutional investors gain more and more weight in ownership structure of firms. Considering risks of ownership and investment perspective, institutional investors are expected to take a more important role in firm’s decision making. Research Questions or Hypothesis: There are several reasons to believe that institutional investors monitor firms’ managers. McCahery et al. (2009 (find that institutional investors monitoring frequently intervenes (directly, by giving orders or indirectly by their vote) in firm’s policies if they are dissatisfied with managers performance. They also explain that the main reason for institutional investor‘s interference is not the dissatisfying stock prices but the incompatibility of long term corporate strategies. The main question is that whether institutional investor share has an effect on investment strategies’ firms (real assets) or not? Hypothesis: “there is a significant relation between the share of institutional investors and investment policies.” Multiple linear regression model is shown in relation 1: (1) Investmentit = α0 + α1 Insider ownershipit-1 + α2 cash flowit-1 + α3 Leverageit-1 + α4 Sizeit-1 + α5Ageit-1 + α6 stock Returnsit-1 + α7 P/Eit-1 Investment: The sum of payment on capital expenditure, long term investment and R&D minus receipts from the sale of property, plants and equipment and investment to maintain assets in place (depreciation and amortization). Insider ownership: percentage of stocks held by institutional investors for fiscal year “t-1”Cash Flows: net operational cash flow to total assets rate. Leverage ratio: total liabilities to total assets rate fiscal year “t-1”Stock returns: stock price change (The stock price at the end of the financial period minus the stock price at the beginning of the period, cash dividend and other advantages such as capital increase and stock dividend. P/E: Price to earning rate per share. Size: The natural logarithm of total assets. Age: The number of years firms are present in stock Exchange. Time and territory: the research focuses on an eight year period from 2004 to 2011 according to the fiscal year. Companies in Tehran stock market constituted statistic population of the research. Samples were gathered using Kokran’s formula. In this way, 66 companies were included in sample group. Normality of dependent variable distribution was ensured through Kolmogorov-Smirnov test. The significance level of the investment for none of the years was less than 0.05. Therefore, H0 for this variable is not rejected which means the variable is normal through the years. Afterward, correlation test was applied to show linearity of the two variables. Considering the results, Pearson’s correlation coefficient for institutional investors, size of firm, leverage ratio, and age of company was significant. However, the three variables including operational cash flow, stock return and P/E had no significant relation with the dependent variable. The significance of the model was first checked with ANOVA table. Afterward, intensity of correlation of the model was examined by using square. By considering the significance level of F that was 0.01(<0.05), the model is accepted. R square obtained was 0.018 which means that 18% of variable changes were caused by independent variables. To find the suitable model, a step by step approach was used. In this method, independent variables are inserted into the model based on significance level until all significant variables remain in the model. The third and final step gives the estimated model as follows: Investmentit = -1544/86 + 3/45Insider ownershipit-1 -250/74 Leverageit-1 + 121/27 Sizeit-1 + 6/39 Ageit-1 Therefore, through controlling three variables in the model, the share of institutional investors’ effect on investment policies is positive and significant. Discussion and The relation between the share of institutional investors and investment policies was explored in the research by adopting six controlling variables. According to previous researches, investment policies are necessary for institutional investors and directly impact corporate value as argued by Jensen and Meckling (1976). An important component of such policies is capital expenditures. Previous studies have surveyed the impact of institutional investors on R&D (Bushee 1998, Aghion 2008) and take-over activities (Mass 2005, Chen 2007). However, their potential influence on investment in real assets has not been investigated. The results showed a direct relation between the two variables of institutional investors and investment policy. That means the bigger the share of institutional stockholder, the more investment is made in them. No relation was found regarding the three controlling variables of operational cash flow, P/E and stock Return. However, leverage ratio had a negative effect on investment policies. There was a direct relation between firm’s age, size and investment. These results are not consistent with many other researches. Cho (1998) focused on institutional investors and concluded that the investors have no effect on investment. Cella (2010) after surveying institutional investor's role in companie's investment policies argued that there was no evidence that high/low level of investment attract more or less institutional investors. On the other hand, these results are consistent with Wahal &McConnell (2000). They concluded that institutional investors have a positive effect on investment. Bohren & et al. (2007) investigated how firm ownership affects real assets investment, and concluded that gaining more share in company (as measured by G index) is positively related to high level of investment.

Nowadays performance of firms is one of the topics of interest for investors and managers. Proper performance of the company attracts potential investors and creditors. Evaluation of the performance, ability to measure profitability and management efficiency in the utilization of available resources in order to make profit, and financial ratios return on assets attract the attention of investors with regards to companies. Therefore, a study of effective factors on the return of assets as a criterion of company performance evaluation is important. The necessity of the use of absorption cost for inventory valuation and calculation of cost of goods sold influences the performance of firms by changing the levels of production, especially overproduction. In absorption costing method, firms allocate manufacturing overhead between ending inventory and cost of goods. So overproduction through the absorption of fixed manufacturing overhead costs to inventory that remain unsold at the end of the period leads to transferring these costs to future periods as well as the creation of a temporary increase in profitability in current period. Thus, overproduction can be used as an important tool for real earnings management to manipulate earnings and companies’ performance. On the other hand, it seems that the higher level of fixed manufacturing overhead costs would produce more incentives for overproduction and earnings managements tend to carry greater amounts of fixed overhead costs of the current period to future periods in order to avoid losses of their companies and influence their reported earnings. Thus, the fixed manufacturing overhead costs are important factor in motivating companies to overproduce, and provide a lot of evidence about the motivations and consequences of earnings management. Therefore, the main objective of this research is to review the relationship between absorption costing and real earnings management. Research Hypothesis: In this study, two hypotheses are discussed in order to study the effect of overproduction and fixed overhead costs of the current period performance on the current and future performance of the companies. 1. Overproduction and fixed manufacturing overhead costs have a significant relationship with the current period. 2. Overproduction and fixed manufacturing overhead costs have a negative and significant relationship with the performance of future periods. In this study, 90 industrial companies listed in Tehran Stock Exchange have been examined over the years 81-90. In order to determine the proper estimation models and based on the type of data (combined data) the Hausman and Chow tests as well as multiple regression analysis were used to test the hypotheses. Statistical methods used included the T- Student and Fisher's F statistic and the adjusted coefficient of determination. The results of testing hypotheses suggest that overproduction and the fixed manufacturing overhead costs impact current performance (as measured by ROA) positively and future performance (as measured by ROA) negatively. Also, the results and findings of this study suggest that overproduction is opportunistic and done with the intention to mislead stakeholders.

The aim of this paper is to investigate the effects of sticky cost behavior and conditional conservatism on analysis of cost, volume and profit in companies listed in Tehran Stock Exchange. Research Hypotheses Research hypotheses are described below: When sales level decreases, earnings are lower than when it increases. The difference in sticky earnings increases with asset and employee intensity and decreases with firm size. If conservatism is ignored in estimation, the estimates of the sticky earnings differential are biased upwards. Ignoring conservatism and its interactions with the firm characteristics in estimation has more impact on asset and employee intensity on stickiness biased upwards, and the estimates of the impact of size on stickiness are biased downwards. This study employs financial data of companies listed on Tehran Stock Exchange during 2005-2011 periods, and the fixed effect panel data regression model is used to test hypotheses. Statistical analysis of data shows that the sticky cost behavior has impact on Model analysis of cost, volume and profit standards. Moreover, the results showed disregard for conditional conservatism changes exacerbating the sticky earnings differential. Also, the results showed that firm-specific characteristics have impact on sticky cost behavior and conditional conservatism. Discussion and According to the results, the analysis of cost, volume and profit adjusted estimates reveal the need for important revisions in many analyses of cost, volume and profit benchmarks. For example, the analysis of cost, volume and profit adjusted breakeven point is substantially higher for a firm with decreasing sales compared to an identical firm with increasing sales; therefore, the analysis of cost, volume and profit standard breakeven benchmark is useful neither for a firm with growing sales nor for a firm with shrinking sales. We also found that, even though conservatism is usually ignored in cost accounting, it has a sizable confounding effect on analysis of cost, volume and profit estimates.

Over and underinvestment has led to low investment efficiency and increased economic overheating and inflation severely damaging the interests of the shareholders and the sound development of macro economy, and has been a mainstream topic in the field of modern corporate finance research. This paper aims to investigate the interactive effect of accounting information quality and information asymmetry on inefficient investment. The main purpose of this study is to inform managers, investors, professional accounting bodies, standard-settings and stock exchange about the accounting information quality as a key factor to reduce information asymmetries and enhancing the efficiency of investment. Research Hypotheses To achieve the purpose of this study, six research hypotheses are chosen. These hypotheses are as follows: There is a significant and positive relationship between information asymmetry and overinvestment at corporate level. There is a significant and positive relationship between information asymmetry and underinvestment at corporate level. There is a significant and negative relationship between accounting information quality and overinvestment at corporate level. There is a significant and positive relationship between accounting information quality and underinvestment at corporate level. There is a significant and negative relationship between accounting information quality and information asymmetry with overinvestment. There is a significant and positive relationship between accounting information quality and information asymmetry with underinvestment.Research Statistical population of this study consists of the companies accepted in Tehran Stock Exchange. The study period is between the years 2001 to 2012. Research method is exploring and determining the relationship between dependent and independent variables. Post event inquiry researches have been used (using historical information). For statistical analysis and to test hypotheses, descriptive statistics (mean and standard deviation) and inferential statistics (correlation-test, single and multiple linear regression and analysis of variance) are used. The results reveal that there has been a significant and positive correlation between information asymmetry and underinvestment. There has also been a significant and negative (positive) correlation between accounting information quality and over (under) investment. Another result reveals that there has been a significant and positive correlation between accounting information quality and information asymmetry with underinvestment; but there has not been a significant and negative correlation between accounting information quality and information asymmetry with overinvestment. Discussion and According to the results, we find that the accounting information quality reduces overinvestment and underinvestment in corporate level and information asymmetry is the key factor for underinvestment. Therefore, increasing accounting information quality will result in investment efficiency.

Stock Exchange holds a special place in countries’ financial system and many investors tend to invest (buy and sell) in this market; however, it is considered one of the most high-risk markets. Finding a good place for investment, especially in exchange market, has always been one of the most stressful decisions for investors to make. In such a market, investors who analyze the market with a more accurate vision and buy good shares are successful. To do this kind of analysis, employing a good and powerful investment model is helpful. This study is an effort to determine factors that investors must consider in order to have safe and successful investments. To find the factors, experts’ views are considered. In order to correctly model the conditions of uncertainty, fuzzy Delphi method (FDM) was employed. Research Question In this study, attempts have been made to address the following question: - What are the appropriate factors to evaluate and compare companies? In this study, data was collected through a questionnaire. In order to develop the questionnaire, a list of evaluation factors was gathered from literatures. Nineteen factors were found and put into the questionnaire. Then, experts [4 faculty members and 8 official Stock Exchange specialists (Brokers)] were asked to evaluate the factors by rating them from high to low; they were also asked to add to the list of evaluation factors if necessary. The questionnaire provided respondents with three sets of response choices: high, medium, and low. It is important to mention that faculty were asked to confirm the validity of questionnaire. Gathered data were then processed. Considering the steps of fuzzy Delphi method, certain numbers that were announced by experts must be converted to fuzzy numbers. The fuzzy numbers used in this study were trapezoidal fuzzy numbers. Therefore, the fuzzy score for each range (high, medium, low) was found to be (6,8,10,10), (3,4,6,7), and (0,0,2,4) for high, medium, and low range, respectively. Hence, the certain (de-fuzzy) scores for each range were 8.5, 5, and 1.5, respectively. Then, the last step of the first round of fuzzy Delphi method was finished by finding the average of experts’ evaluation of each factor through necessary calculations. In order to reach a consensus on evaluation factors gathered for the purpose of this study, fuzzy Delphi method must be continued. Therefore, a new questionnaire, which was also validated by faculty, was developed. For each expert, the new questionnaire also contained the difference between his/her evaluation number of each factor and the average calculated in previous step. All experts were then asked to either improve or confirm their evaluations. Collecting the second questionnaire, the average of experts’ evaluation numbers for each factor was again calculated. The new averages were compared with corresponding results from previous round and the difference between two numbers for each factor was calculated. In order to reach a consensus on each evaluation factor, it was stipulated that the difference must not change dramatically. The results of the second round reveal that experts reach the consensus on only two factors. Hence, the fuzzy Delphi method must be continued. The process was repeated 5 times until consensus on all factors was reached. Consequently, the qualified evaluation factors must be determined. Based on some investigations, it was decided that only factors with more than 2/3 (approximately 66%) of all scores to be the final factors of this study. It implies that only evaluation factors with scores greater or equal to 6.16 are qualified to be considered. After finishing all required calculation, it was found that 16 factors have the qualified score to be as the final factors. Thus far, final evaluation factors were selected. The final factors that can be categorized in 4 groups of Liquidity, Profitability, Market Value, and Growth are as follows: Quick Ratio, Earnings Per Share (EPS), Return on Equity (ROE), Operating Profit Margin, Basic Earnings Power Ratio (BEP), Dividend Per Share to Price Ratio, Earnings Per Share Coverage, Dividend Per Share (DPS), Cost of Goods Sold (COGS) to Sales Ratio, Price-Earnings Ratio(P/E), Intrinsic Value Per Share, Equity Growth, Earnings Per Share Growth, Operating Profit Growth, Sales Growth, and Capital Growth. Discussion and In order to be able to invest correctly, employing a good investment model can be very helpful. This study was an effort to determine all important evaluation factors that must be considered by investors to choose a good investment. To find the factors, experts’ opinions were considered. The final results that have been presented as a list of factors, not only must be complete and comprehensive, it also must be easy, user-friendly, and fast. It is important because it serves investors for whom time is an essential factor in investment, especially in a market such as exchange. In this study, to achieve such a result, the following steps were taken: first, searching the literature, a primarily list of important evaluation factors was prepared and experts were asked to evaluate the factors. In selecting the factors, attempts have been made to eschew the redundancy and similarity of factors. It was also tried to choose factors that have huge impact on evaluating companies. Then, all selected factors were put into a questionnaire and distributed between experts. It is important to mention that experts were also asked to add to the list of evaluation factors, if necessary. Adding this option to the questionnaire reduced the possibility of dropping any important factor. Eventually, using fuzzy Delphi method, the best factors were selected and presented as the final result.

This study investigates the impact of institutional and governmental owners on audit fees in listed companies of Tehran Stock Exchange. Audit fees depend on certain features of both the auditor and the client. Researches indicated that ownership structure of client’s company as one of the key components of corporate governance can impact on audit fees through impacting on three descriptive elements such as the risk, size and complexity of the firm. Ownership structure can be examined and classified from various aspects. If we classify the ownership structure as internal and external owners, institutional and governmental owners are the main group of external owners that can be very effective. The nature of owners can impact on the expropriation risk of minority shareholders, effective oversight of the company's major shareholders and in particular financial reporting and therefore audit fee. Also we investigated ownership concentration, because in low investor protection countries, weaker investor protection gives shareholders incentives to maintain more shares to have a better control on managers. Consequently in such countries, ownership is more concentrated; as a result agency conflict between managers and shareholders is reduced, but agency conflicts between concentrated shareholders and minority shareholders will increase. However, the nature of concentrated shareholders is likely to influence the risk of minority expropriation. If concentrated owner is an institution, under the “Active Monitoring Hypothesis” it can reduce the expropriation risk of minority because of its monitoring role. Thus concentrated institutional shareholders are engaged in the company’s affairs including the financial accounting and reporting process which is likely to reduce the inherent risk of material misstatements in financial reporting. Hence this low-risk situation leads to lower engagement efforts from auditors and a lower risk premium, therefore, audit fees should decrease in such firms. But under the “Private Benefits Hypothesis” institutions may not have incentives to encourage the director for qualified and clear financial reporting to the market. This situation can lead to higher audit fees. Governmental ownership represents a hybrid of dispersed and concentrated ownership. Although governmental-owned corporations formally have very concentrated ownership, they ultimately belong to people of the country, and so ultimate ownership is extremely dispersed, so it leads to higher audit fees. Presence of the government in a company is a signal of reputation of firm in the market, so the auditors will decrease the scope of auditing and then audit fees. So in this study we investigated ownership structure from two aspects of concentration and nature of concentrated ownership; 74 listed companies in Tehran Stock Exchange in the years of 1386-1390 were chosen as a sample. Research Hypotheses According to theoretical background, our hypotheses are as follows: 1.1. Institutional ownership has a significant impact on audit fees. 1.2. Concentrated institutional ownership has a significant impact on audit fees. 2.1. Governmental ownership has a significant impact on audit fees. 2.2. Concentrated governmental ownership has a significant impact on audit fees. Our statistical population includes all firms listed in Tehran Stock Exchange by the end of fiscal year 1390. With the systematic elimination method based on the statistical criteria for companies, 74 listed companies in the years of 1386-1390 were chosen as a sample. The criteria are as follows: The fiscal period of the sample firms ended in Esfand month. During the investigated period, our sample firms have not changed their fiscal year. Sample firms are not financial institutions. The data are available. For examination of the research hypothesis, we used from the panel data analysis. Research method is exploring and determining the relationship between dependent and independent variable by using regression and correlation. For statistical analysis and testing our hypothesis, descriptive statistics and inferential statistics are used. Our results showed that level of institutional ownership has a positive significant impact on audit fees; concentrated institutional ownership has a negative significant impact on audit fees. Also we found that the level of governmental ownership has a negative significant impact on audit fees, but concentrated governmental ownership has no significant impact on audit fees. Discussion and According to the results of our first hypothesis, increase in the level of institutional ownership will increase audit fees and increasing in concentrated institutional ownership will decrease audit fees. It is suggested that the presence of institutional owners in firms, due to the value of information for these owners and their inherent characteristics and influence over the management, oblige management to use high quality auditing leading to high audit fees. Also management tries to encourage institutions to invest more in firms by using high quality audit services. Also concentrated institutional ownership is likely to decrease agency conflicts leading to low audit fees. According to the results of our second hypothesis, increase in the level of governmental ownership will decrease audit fees because the presence of a governmental owner in a firm will decrease the risk of minority expropriation, signal the reputation to the market and decrease complexity in firm’s affairs.

Over the last decades, the behavior of stock return has been one of the most important and widely documented issues on capital markets. Based on Capital Asset Pricing Model (CAPM), the systematic risk was the unique explanatory factor of return differences among firms. However, the weaknesses of CAPM’s forecasting led to the idea that the securities pricing method is the result of an interplay of different variables. These abnormalities were also interpreted as the evidence of capital market inefficiency. In this regards, in the last decade of the twentieth century, studies by Fama and French showed that both the size and the book value to market value ratio of companies could better explain the differences between stock returns. Further researches also showed that other accounting variables have strength impact in explaining stock return volatility and they contain useful financial information. Hence, various models were proposed to assess factors, which affect the firms’ return. In the meantime, consideration of only one financial statement fails to take into account the role of information content of variables of the other financial statements. Thus, taking a comprehensive collection of information, including financial statements data and other external environment characteristics such as growth opportunities and stock turnover, would provide a more realistic perspective on the factors affecting return to decision makers. To this end, considering the overlap degree of variables, this paper aims to investigate the relationship between group and individual financial and accounting variables, and the return of publicly listed firms in Tehran Stock Exchange (TSE). Besides, the study attempts to identify the underlying factors that explain the common covariance of the variables that affect the return. Research Hypothesis: H1: There is a significant relationship between individual characteristics of listed companies in TSE and their returns volatility. H2: There is a significant relationship between combined characteristics of listed companies in TSE and their returns volatility. Data and Using systematic filtering, 113 firms from the period 2001 to 2009 of TSE were selected. Since most of the selected companies belonged to only “automotive” and “non-metal mineral” sectors, the analysis in industry level were performed among the mentioned two industries. Using univariate and the unbalanced multivariate panel data analysis hypotheses were tested in two levels and in each level, two specific questions were answered. Factor analysis utilized for the sake of multicollinearity problem between explanatory variables. Factor analysis is based on the same key elements that are sensitive to the covariance between the observed variables. The findings show that 14 out of 30 variables were significantly associated with the stock returns. The results of factor analysis indicate that “profit per share”, “current ratio”, “the ratio of sales to price” and “the traded market value to total market value” are the most effective variables, such that they are able to explain about 60 percent of average changes of the stock returns. Moreover, four econometrics models are proposed for predicting the stock returns of TSE. The results of individual effect of each explanatory variable on stock returns in the automotive industry show that 15 variables out of 30 variables were significantly associated with stock returns. Using factor analysis, four factors were extracted and they could explain about 75 percent alteration of stock returns. Based on the factor loading, the variables “EPS”, “Reten”, “LnMV” and “MVtrade” are the most effective variables in the factor scores. Furthermore, six models were obtained from factor analysis. The results of individual effect of each explanatory variable on stock returns in the non-metal mineral industry show 13 variables out of 30 variables were significantly associated with stock returns. In another stage, using factor analysis, four models obtained from factor analysis and the extracted variable could explain about 70 percent alteration of average stock returns. Based on the factor loading, the variables “EY”, “CFMtP”, “Grow” and “MVtrade” are the most effective variables in the factor scores. Discussion and The main objectives of this study were to investigate the relationship between "firm-specific characteristics" and stock returns as well as identifying the underlined factors, which express the common changes of correlated variables. Based on domestic and international studies, 30 variables as "firm-specific characteristics" were selected. Then the relationship between individual and grouping form of these variables and stock returns of 113 publicly listed firms of TSE during the period 1388-1380 were investigated. Besides, the analysis was repeated in industry level among “automotive” and “non-metal mineral” sectors. According to research results, the following recommendations would be presented to decision makers and especially investors. 1) In order to predict the future volatility of a variable, and for the sake of large sets of data collection, while considering all available information, especial attention should be paid to the underlined factors, which express the common changes of correlated variables. 2) Beside macroeconomic and financial variables, accounting variables should be taken in to consideration while doing analysis on future changes of capital markets and 3) Based on the comparative analysis and due to the instability of the variables that explain the variation of returns, rotation models are recommended to be used in factor analysis.

The meaning of corporate governance represents the governance that applies to a stock company and according to it, how corporate accountability to shareholders and other stakeholders is formed. The level of voluntary disclosure is one type of mechanisms of accountability to stockholders and other beneficiaries. Therefore, the purpose of this research is to study the relationship between corporate governance and the level of voluntary disclosure of the companies listed in Tehran Stock Exchange. Research Hypotheses: According to the theoretical basis and literature, three hypotheses were designed and tested: There is a significant relationship between institutional ownership and the level of voluntary disclosure of the companies listed in Tehran Stock Exchange. There is a significant relationship between the percentage of independent directors in the board director and the level of voluntary disclosure of the companies listed in Tehran Stock Exchange. There is a significant relationship between the chairman and CEO/chair duality and the level of voluntary disclosure of the companies listed in Tehran Stock Exchange. The population of the study consisted of all firms listed in Tehran Stock Exchange. In this research, 71 companies were surveyed during theyears 2003-2011. To determine corporate governance, institutional ownership, the percentage of independent directors in the board director and the chairman and CEO/chair duality have been applied. Moreover, Botosan (1997) check list which has been adjusted by Kashanipour et al. (2009) was utilized to measure the level of voluntary disclosure. The check list consisted of 71 indices through six section of background information, the summery of historical results, key non-financial statistics, segments information, projected information and management discussion and analysis. To test research hypotheses multivariate regression with panel data was utilized. The results showed that when independent directors in the board director increase, the level of voluntary disclosure will increase and CEO/chair duality reduces the level of voluntary disclosure. But, there is no significant relationship between institutional ownership and the level of voluntary disclosure of the companies listed in Tehran Stock Exchange.