한국의 기업집단과 재무제표의 비교가능성

[Purpose]This study examines the association between business group and financial statement comparability. The prior research into the determinants of accounting comparability has mainly focused on the role of accounting standards such as IFRS adoption. However, reported accounting information is not only determined by accounting standards. Institutional incentives and environment such as governance also play an important role. This motivates our study of the role of business group in Korea. [Methodology]The comparability of the firms belonging to the domestic business group from 2006 to 2013 was measured based on the difference in profitability and discretionary accruals. We also examined whether there is a difference in the comparability of the companies belonging to the domestic business group and examined the difference in control－ownership disparity. [Findings]For a sample of Korean companies for the period 2006 to 2013, we find evidence consistent with business group increasing the comparability of reported earnings. In addition, we also examine whether the effect of business group is affected differently by the degree of control－ownership disparity of each business group. [Implications]The result shows that the comparability among firms belonging to the business group with low control－ownership disparity is higher than that among firms in the business group with high disparity.