The Effect of International Diversification on Accounting Earnings and Conservatism: Roles of Corporate Governance and Information Asymmetry

Abstract

Purpose -The purpose of this study is to examine the impact of international diversification on accounting earnings. More specifically, this study investigates whether international diversification is associated with accounting conservatism and then test whether corporate governance affects the relation between international diversification and accounting conservatism. In addition, this study explores the role of information asymmetry as a mediating variable for the relation between international diversification and accounting conservatism. Design/methodology/approach - We collect financial data from KIS-VALUE and TS-2000 from 2002 to 2013 and implement regression analysis in order to test our hypotheses. Accounting conservatism is estimated as a C-Score developed by Khan and. Watts (2009) and international diversification is proxied by the ratio of foreign sales and foreign currency assets. Findings - Empirical results show the positive relation between international diversification and accounting conservatism and also shows that the positive relation is more pronounced for the firms with high corporate governance. Furthermore, we find that information asymmetry plays a mediating variable in the relation between international diversification and accounting conservatism. Research implications or Originality - First, this study implies that firms with high international diversification are likely to demand more conservative financial reporting in that conservative reporting can provide an enhancing role of information quality for firms with more foreign segments. Second, this study provides evidence that information asymmetry plays a mediating variable and corporate governance is a moderating variable in the relation between international diversification and accounting conservatism. Hence, this study provides a useful and meaningful evidence to investors, creditors, standard-setters, practitioners, among others in making economic decisions in capital market.