過去有關盈餘管理的文獻，多數係以總應計數作為衡量的基礎，而使用特定應計項目去探討管理盈餘的則相對很少。本研究的重點是，透過現有的研究文獻，選出三種最常見的盈餘管理情境：現金增資、企業購併及避免盈餘下降，來檢驗特定應計項目的變化。
本研究基於成本效益原則，考慮企業的盈餘目標和所承擔的潛在盈餘管理相關成本後，預期企業在現金增資和企業購併前，未預期應收帳款是主要的應計管理項目，而未預期營業外收入及費用則是希望避免盈餘下降公司主要的應計管理項目。此外，本研究亦同時探討其他的應計項目(未預期存貨、未預期應付帳款、未預期應計負債以及未預期折舊費用、未預期營業外收入、未預期處分資產利得及未預期處分投資利得)，是否不是本研究所選擇的情境下主要的應計管理項目。衡量未預期特定應計項目盈餘管理的情況是採用Kothari et al. (2005)的績效配對方式。
本研究發現進行現金增資的公司似乎較喜歡向上管理盈餘，使用暗示未來的盈餘水準將會持續的機制。故和預期一致，這些公司的應收帳款特別高，顯示這些公司較喜歡以提早收入認列，而不是延遲費用認列的方式進行盈餘管理。此外，本研究並未發現進行企業購併的公司有在購併前使用應收帳款管理盈餘的證據，但實證結果顯示在企業購併的情境下，公司傾向於採用未預期存貨和未預期營業外收入及費用的來管理盈餘。至於避免會計盈餘下降的公司，本研究預期公司較不會考量其盈餘水準看起來是否具有持續性，而較願意使用營業外收入及費用項目來增加盈餘。實證結果亦發現其未預期營業外收入及費用之中位數高於其他公司，尤以在經濟不景氣時為然。
總之，透過探討現金增資、企業購併及避免盈餘下降三種不同情境下進行盈餘管理的實證結果顯示，没有一項應計項目具有解釋全部研究發現的能力。亦即，没有任何單一特定應計項目在這三種情境都是最顯著被用來進行盈餘管理，表示公司用來達成盈餘目標的特定應計項目，確實會隨著盈餘管理背後的動機而變化。

Total accruals account is the major measure used in past research regarding Earnings Management. The specific accruals method is not often used in this area. This paper focuses on three earnings-management contexts: equity offerings, merger, and firms avoiding earnings decreases, in order to examine the efficacy of specific accruals in Earnings Management.
Considering both the objective of Earnings Management and its potential management cost based on the cost effectiveness concern in this paper, I predict that unexpected AR is the main accruals item in the case of equity offerings and merger, while unexpected non-operating income and expense is frequently employed in firms avoiding earnings decreases. The other accruals items (such as unexpected inventory, unexpected AP, unexpected accruals liability, unexpected depreciation unexpected non-operating income and unexpected capital gain and unexpected investment gain) are also examined in this paper for their suitability in three specific Earnings Management scenarios. The methodology employed to measure specific Earnings Management is performance matching, as developed by Kothari et al. (2005)
I find that firms issuing equity appear to prefer managing earnings upwardly. Namely, firms imply that the future income will be continually increased. As a result, the level of AR seems to be particularly higher in these companies. It infers that firms prefer to accelerate revenue recognition rather than postpone expense recognition. Moreover, no evidence on the specific accruals used to manage earnings through AR in pre- or post-merger period. However, the empirical evidence does illustrate that firms attempt to utilize unexpected inventory and unexpected non-operating income to manage earnings in the case of merger. Otherwise, I predict the continuation of yielding earnings cannot be concerned in the scenario of firms avoiding earnings decreases. These firms attempt to enlarge their income through unexpected non-operating items. The empirical research also demonstrates that the mode of unexpected non-operating items in these firms is higher than others, particularly in the situation of economic depression.
In summary, no empirical evidence shows that the same specific accruals can be employed under three different earnings-management settings identified in this paper. Namely, no individual accrual in specific context is implemented for Earnings Management. It suggests that the specific accruals used to reach earnings goals would depend on the motivation behind earnings management.

摘要 i
目錄 Ⅰ
表次 Ⅱ
第一章 緒論 1
第一節 研究動機與目的 1
第二節 研究流程 4
第三節 論文架構 5
第二章 文獻探討 6
第一節 盈餘管理相關理論 6
第二節 盈餘管理的動機 8
第三節 盈餘管理的成本 20
第三章 研究方法 27
第一節 假說建立 27
第二節 選樣程序與資料來源 30
第三節 變數定義與衡量 32
第四章 實證研究結果與分析 41
第一節 現金增資盈餘管理實證結果 41
第二節 企業購併盈餘管理實證結果 42
第三節 避免盈餘下降盈餘管理實證結果 44
第四節 額外測試 45
第五章 研究結論、限制與建議 47
第一節 研究結論 47
第二節 研究限制 49
第三節 研究建議 49
參考文獻 76

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