실질활동조정을 통한 임계이익충족

I conduct empirical tests on whether Korean listed manufacturing firms beat earnings thresholds through real activity manipulations. First, I analyze how frequently Korean listed firms beat earnings benchmarks through real activity manipulations. Second, I investigate which is most frequently beaten among three earnings benchmarks: the zero earnings, the previous earnings, and the analysts' forecasts. Third, I also compare the magnitude of real activity manipulations between firms that beat earnings thresholds through real activity manipulations and other firms. In addition, I examine how frequently firms move to small profit interval from small loss interval through real activity manipulations. Further, I conduct analyses based on operating income per share in addition to EPS. According to my experiments, the beating proportion by Korean listed manufacturing firms is 28% on the zero earnings, 19% on the previous earnings, and 18% on the analysts' earnings forecasts, respectively. It tell us that loss avoidance is mostly achieved, earnings increases the next, beating analysts' forecasts the final. Real activity manipulations appear significantly bigger in the firms that beat earnings benchmarks through real activity than do other firms. I have the same results on the analyses based on operating income per share.