Research and Development and Earnings Management. an Empirical Analysis of Analysts’ Reactions During Conference Calls

Bachelor Thesis from the year 2015 in the subject Business economics - Investment and Finance, grade: 1,0, LMU Munich (Instituts fur Rechnungswesen und Wirtschaftsprufung), language: English, abstract: This study is an attempt to combine two important streams of accounting research: The problem of earnings management (hereafter EM) and the role of conference calls (hereafter CCs) as disclosure medium. In doing so, I focus on real activities manipulation (hereafter RM) through cutting R&D expenses. I contribute to the existing literature by answering two questions: Firstly, whether the risk of managers engaging in RM via R&D spending affects the probability of analysts, or management addressing those cuts during CCs. Secondly, if the analyst community benefits from such discussions, by obtaining useful information, not accessible via other information channels. To answer these questions, I examine the 4th quarter earnings conference call transcripts of 300 firm years with an increased RM risk. I use content analysis to measure analysts’ and managers’ reactions, and create dummy variables that contain the information found.