전략적 일탈이 이익예측가능성 및 현금흐름예측가능성과 가치관련성에 미치는 영향

We investigated whether the strategic deviance of firms affects predictability of earning and cash flow, and value relevance. Firms in the same industry ultimately exhibit similar strategic similarities because they seek to reduce future performance uncertainty and increase survival and growth potential by using similar strategies with leading companies in the same industry. However, there are firms that pursue strategies other than similar strategies to those in the same industry, and the difference between the trends of specific firms’ strategies and general tendency of strategies in the industry is a strategic deviance. Strategies that affect the entire firm can affect the usefulness of accounting information. When using a strategy different from that used by other companies in the same industry, that is, the greater the degree of strategic deviance, the lower the quality of financial statements and the lower the tendency to conduct conservative accounting. Therefore, the reliability and relevance of financial information are evaluated low, and users of information outside the firm tend to perceive information risks high. Taken together, higher strategic deviance would make it difficult for investors to predict future profits and cash flows using accounting information, and high uncertainty in financial performance would reduce the value relevance of accounting information. Our results shows that the higher the degree of strategic deviance, the lower the predictability of earnings and cash flow, and the lower the value relevance. These results imply that the higher the degree of strategic deviance, the more difficult it is for information users to predict the future performance, and accounting information is not sufficiently reflected in corporate evaluation due to low predictability. In addition, according to further analysis, the higher the managerial ability, the less negative the effect of strategic deviance on predictability and value relevance. These results mean that even if the degree ofstrategic deviance of a firm is large, the managerial ability to operate the strategy is high, and if the firm’s information can be delivered more effectively, the negative effect of strategic deviance on the usefulness of accounting information can be mitigated. This study is the first study to present corporate strategies as factors that influence predictability and value relevance, which are useful characteristics for accounting information users’ decision-making. Previous studies on accounting information usefulness and earnings predictability have mainly focused on the effect of financial statements on earnings predictability, and this study first confirmed the effect of corporate strategy characteristics on accounting information predictability. In particular, by verifying that the characteristics of the corporate strategy, which is an individual company’s overall business environment, are a determinant of earnings predictability, the research on accounting profit usefulness has been expanded, and financial information users can be provided with implications that corporate strategies should be considered to improve accounting information usefulness.