기업특성에 따른 연구개발비의 가치관련성에 관한 연구

Abstract

This study examined whether the effect of R&D expenditure on corporate value, and the explanatory power (R2) of capitalized and expensed R&D investment vary depending on four different firm characteristics: high-tech versus old economic and high-growth versus low-growth firms. Sampling for the study was done among KRX-listed companies included in KIS-VALUE published by Korea Investors Service from 2001 to 2010. The sample consisted of total 5,886 firms. The findings are summarized as follows. R&D investment of high-tech firms was found to have lower stock price relevance, compared to old economic firms, meaning that given equal expenditure, the stock price relevance of R&D cost is higher than the old economic firms. R&D investment of high-growth firms was found to have a positive effects on stock prices, compared to their low-growth counterparts. A possible interpretation is that the tangible outcome of R&D investment of high-growth firms are already reflected in their stock prices, contributing to their growth potentials. The analysis of the value relevance of capitalized and expensed R&D investment indicated that in high-tech and high-growth groups, though both types of investment had a positive relationship with stock price, expensed, compared to capitalized, R&D expenditure had a higher explanatory power of stock price. The interpretation is that expensed R&D investment, which is relatively larger in scale, is credited as a corporate assets and therefore reflected in stock prices in the capital market. In old economic and low-growth groups, on the other hand, only expensed R&D cost had a positive relationship with stock price, while no difference was observed between the two types of investment in terms explanatory power of stock price. The interpretation is that although the expensed R&D investment of these samples does influence stock price, due to the markedly small scale of their overall R&D investment, capital market investors do not distinguish between capitalized and expensed when making decisions. In conclusion, it is suggested that high-tech, compared to old economic, firms expand R&D investment continuously, in order to increase corporate value. In high-tech and high-growth firms, since their R&D expenditure, be it capitalized or expensed, has relevance to their corporate value, the sheer scale of investment deserves prior consideration than different accounting practices.