企业生命周期、应计特征与会计稳健性

THE CORPORATE LIFE CYCLE, ACCRUAL CHARAC-TERISTICS AND ACCOUNTING CONSERVATISM

本文探讨了戍计如何在企业生命周期的不同阶段影响会计稳健性。采用中国上市公司1998年至2005年的数据，运用基于整个现金流的信息组合构建企业生命周期的代理变量，发现中国上市公司的应计随着企业生命周期的变化，呈现规律性变化，会计稳健性的差异受到企业基本面的影响，随着应计和企业生命周期的变化也呈现规律性变化。由于应计在企业生命周期的不同阶段，其主导作用不同，使得在企业生命周期的初期，应计多且为正值，主要适用配比观，延缓了收益和损失的确认，应计起到平滑盈余的作用，企业的条件稳健性弱。相反，在企业生命周期的末期，应计为负值，主要适用市价观，应计及时确认了损失，企业的条件稳健性强。初步的证据表明在企业的整个生命周期中，会计稳健性大致呈现U型分布，由于应计的不同作用，对于总体稳健性的贡献，在生命周期的前半段，主要是由于递延确认收益造成的，在生命周期的后半段，主要是由于及时确认损失形成的。

This paper investigates how accruals affect accounting conservatism during the different life cycle stages of a company. Our research is based on data taken from Chinese listed companies between 1998 and 2005; cash flow pattern is used as a proxy for the corporate life cycle. The research reveals that the accruals of those companies present a systematic variation as the corporate life cycle passes through different stages. Moreover, the degree of accounting conservatism is affected by a company＇s fundamentals and also follows a systematic variation with changes in accruals over the life cycle. The dominant role of accruals differs at each stage of the cycle. Thus, in line with the matching principle, accru- als are mostly positive and much more numerous during the early stages of the cycle. The primary role of accruals is to defer recognition of revenue and losses. Accruals can thus smooth earnings, and the firm＇s conditional conservatism will be weaker. In contrast,according to the fair value concept, accruals are often negative during the end stages of the cycle. The firm promptly recognises any losses, and its conditional conservatism will be stronger. Preliminary evidence suggests that throughout the corporate life cycle, overall accounting conservatism generally shows a U-shaped distribution. Since accruals play dif- ferent roles, their contribution to overall conservatism varies with the different life cycle stages; during the early stages, their contribution is mainly the result of deferring recogni- tion of income, while during the end stages it is mainly due to the timely recognition of losses.