기업의 고객집중도가 이익의 질에 미치는 영향

[Purpose]This paper examines the effect of customer-concentration on earnings quality using the manufacturing firms listed in the KOSPI market. [Methodology]In this study, earnings management and earnings persistence are used as substitutes for earnings quality. Specifically, according to Kothari et al.(2005), we use the value of discretionary accruals in response to performance for accrual based management and according to Roychowdhury(2006), we use three individual and comprehensive measurements for real earnings management. Earnings persistence is measured according to the earnings persistence model suggested by Sloan(1996). [Findings]First, customer-concentration firms prefer both accrual based and real earnings management than other firms. Second, as the customer-concentration ratio increase, the firms do more real earnings management, and the earnings persistence decrease. Third, as the customer-concentration ratio increase, the decrease of earnings persistence continued after 2 and 3 years. In other words, as the customer-concentration increase, the incentive for earnings management decreases the earnings persistence and finally decreases the quality of earnings. [Implications]A results of this study suggest that customer concentration information can act as an important factor for information users to make decisions such as predicting the future earnings of the firm and exploring the manages' earnings management.