연구개발비 정보의 기업가치 관련성에 관한 연구: 산업별 비교

We empirically examine whether accounting information of R&D expenses has similar level of association with firm values, relative to that of R&D assets. To provide evidence on this issue, we compare the association in the sample of firms from the industries of information technologies and communications(henceforth ITC, or R&D intensive firms) with that of non-ITC firms. The results are summarized as follows: First, both R&D assets and expenses have been positively correlated with firm values(proxied by share prices) in the sample of ITC firms, while only R&D assets have been significantly associated in the sample of non-ITC firms. Secondly, only in the sample of ITC firms, adjusted numbers of book values and earnings based on assumed capitalization of R&D expenses have shown greater power(relative to unadjusted numbers) in explaining firm values. Thirdly, the change of R&D-related accounting standards in 1998 has not influenced on the value relevance of R&D expenses, but economic depression during 1997-1999 has lowered the level of relevance. These results support the assertion that management discretion should be allowed to choose capitalization of R&D expenditures, which was recently raised in the countries(for example, the United States) which prohibit the capitalization.