발생액과 현금흐름의 지속성에 대한 대부분의 국내외 선행연구들은 발생액에 포함된 회계적 왜곡으로 인하여 발생액의 지속성이 현금흐름보다 더 낮다는 것을 보이고 있다. 이에 대하여 Fairfield et al.(2003)은 기업의 영업활동에의 증분투자(즉, 순영업자산의 증가로 측정되는 성장 요소)가 발생액에 포함될 경우, 한계수익률 체감에 따라 발생액의 지속성이 현금흐름보다 더 낮아진다고 주장하였다. 그러나 Richardson et al.(2006)은 Fairfield et al.(2003)의 주장을 인정하면서도 동시에 발생액에 반영된 신뢰성 요소에 따라 발생액의 지속성이 여전히 낮아진다고 주장하였다. 이에 따라 본 연구는 Fairfield et al.(2003)과 Richardson et al.(2006)의 주장이 우리나라에서도 유의하게 나타나는지 분석하는 것을 첫 번째 연구목표로 하였다. 이 때, Fairfield et al.(2003)는 순영업자산의 증가 중에서 영업운전자본을 발생액으로 정의하고 있음에 비하여 Richardson et al.(2006)는 순영업자산의 증가 전체를 발생액으로 정의하고 있다. 이러한 발생액에 대한 인식의 차이를 반영하여 본 연구에서는 순영업자산의 증가를 유동발생액과 비유동영업발생액으로 구분한 후, 이들 각각에 대해 다시 성장 요소와 신뢰성 요소로 구분하여 어느 요소가 발생액의 낮은 지속성에 유의한 영향을 미치는지 분석하는 것을 두 번째 연구목표로 하였다. 이는 Fairfield et al.(2003)과 Richardson et al.(2006)의 연구를 확장한 것으로 본 연구의 중요한 연구주제가 된다. 이상에 제시한 내용의 분석을 위하여 1986년부터 2013년까지 매년 말 기준으로 우리나라 유가증권시장에 상장된 12월 결산기업 9,799개 기업-년의 표본을 대상으로 분석을 수행한 결과, Fairfield et al.(2003)과 Richardson et al.(2006)의 주장은 우리나라의 경우에도 유의하게 타당한 것으로 나타났다. 특히, 두 번째 연구목표와 관련하여 유동발생액과 비유동영업발생액의 성장 요소와 신뢰성 요소는 각각 미래이익에 대해 유의한 음(-)의 관계를 갖는 것으로 나타나 발생액의 낮은 지속성에 모두 유의한 영향을 미치는 것으로 나타났다. 특히 K-IFRS가 적용된 2011년 이전에는 유동발생액의 신뢰성 요소 때문에, 그 이후에는 비유동영업발생액의 성장 요소 때문에 미래이익에 대한 발생액의 지속성이 크게 낮아지는 것으로 나타났다.
Many prior foreign and domestic studies investigated whether two components of earnings, cash flows and accruals, affect the magnitude of earnings persistence and showed that accrual persistence is lower than cash flow persistence because of accounting distortions reflected in accruals. However, contrary to the results of prior research, Fairfield at al.(2003, hereafter FWY) argue that the lower persistence of accruals stems from the diminishing marginal returns on investment, which is driven from growth in net operating assets (hereafter, ). FWY divide into two growth components, accruals and growth in long-term net operating assets (hereafter, ). Here, accruals are defined as , the growth (net change) in operating working capital accounts (other than tax liabilities) minus current-period depreciation and amortization expenses. As the marginal returns on investment is decreased as investments increase, future returns on is decreased due to the increased investments reflected into . However, Richardson et al.(2006, hereafter RSST) define itself as accruals whereas FWY define accruals as . RSST divide into two components, accounting distortion factor and growth factor. Therefore, the effects of accounting distortions also decreases accrual persistence as well as the effects of growth factor due to the diminishing marginal returns on increased investments Following the arguments of FWY and RSST, the first purpose of this paper is to investigate whether the lower persistence of accruals is observed in South Korea, consistent with FWY’s argument and/or RSST’s argument. The second purpose of this paper is started from the fact that there is a difference in recognition of between FWY and RSST. FWY use as a measure of firm growth from increased investments and decompose it into and but don’t reflect accounting distortion perspective in the two components. Whereas, RSST define accruals as and decompose it into growth factor and accounting distortion factor but don’t consider each of and in each growth factor and accounting distortion factor. Based on the above conjecture, I make four combinations of 2×2 matrix by combining (, )×(growth factor, accounting distortion factor). And for each combination, accrual persistence is investigated. Then, the result will show which components of affect the magnitude of accrual persistence. This is the second purpose of this paper. The results are as follows. First, after controlling for current earnings, has a negative relation to future earnings, which is consistent with FWY’s argument and shows that accrual persistence is lowered due to the diminishing marginal returns in South Korea as in FWY. Second, in the analysis of decomposing into growth component and accounting distortion component, the two components have a negative relation to future earnings, which is consistent with RSST’s argument and shows that accrual persistence is lowered due to accounting distortions as well as the diminishing marginal returns in South Korea. In addition, I analyze the effect of the K-IFRS adoption on the persistences of growth and distortion components. The persistence of distortion component is lower than that of growth component before K-IFRS adoption but vice versa after K-IFRS adoption. Namely, the persistence of growth component is lower than that of accounting distortion component after K-IFRS adoption. Finally, based on four combinations of 2×2 matrix by combining (, ) vs. (growth factor, accounting distortion factor), both of growth component and distortion component of have a negative relation to future earnings, the results of which is also shown similarly in two components of . However, there is a difference in the magnitude of the persistence of two components, growth component and distortion component, and between and . Especially, as for , the persistence of growth component is different from that of distortion component. However, as for of , the persistence of growth component is not different from that of distortion. And after adopting K-IFRS, the negative relation of to future earnings is affected by the distortion component of and the negative relation of is affected by the growth component of . In summary, in South Korea, makes accruals less persistent than cash flows and accounting distortions still make significantly negative affections on accrual persistence. And this results are shown similarly in and .