Innovation Focused Strategy and Earnings Management

This study utilizes three approaches to investigate the extent to which firms with an innovation focused strategy engage in earnings management through the use of income smoothing, real activities, and the use of discretionary accruals. Several results are reported. First, firms with an innovative strategy report a greater percentage of earnings in the fourth quarter indicating greater earnings management. Second, innovative firms use real activities to a greater extent than non-innovative firms to manage earnings when income approaches certain earnings benchmarks. Lastly, innovative strategy firms engage in the use of discretionary accruals to a greater degree than other firms. DOI: 10.15458/85451.36