財務報表的穩健程度對公司而言，扮演著重要角色，但穩健原則若被過度使用，將造成財務報表無法忠實表達，使原來該發生的經濟事件失去攸關性，再者，財務報表為投資人對公司經營狀況資訊的主要來源，品質的高低，足以影響投資人或利害關係人對財務報表的信任程度，進而影響投資決策的品質。 因此，本研究採用1993-2003年台灣上市公司財務資訊為樣本，以Basu(1997)的會計穩健原則為基礎，探討公司特性對會計資訊品質的影響。以Basu(1997)發展之每股盈餘對報酬之時效性模式，且增加檢測每股營業活動現金流量與每股淨值對報酬迴歸模式之影響，實證結果顯示負報酬對每股盈餘、每股營業現金流量與每股淨值皆具有時效性影響，表示台灣上市公司財務報表具有穩健的表現；以及訴訟環境改變與多空投市場皆對財務報表穩健性有所影響；加入公司特性因子，發現資產規模大、負債比率高、資產報酬率低、無政府機構持股比率、無金融機構持股比率的公司、公司法人持股比率低的公司，財務報表皆有穩健的表現，顯示公司特性因子對公司財務報表穩健程度具有影響。因此，投資人與債權人可利用公司特性來觀察財務報表的穩健程度，以利分析與決策之依據。 Conservatism plays an important role in companies’ financial reporting. However overusing of conservatism will diminish the relevance and economic faithfulness of the information. In addition, financial reporting is the primary source for assessing a company’s economic performance. The quality of financial reporting determines the reliability of information and consequently affects the quality of investing decision of investors and other stakeholders. Following Basu’s (1997) conservatism model, this paper examines Taiwanese listed companies for a sample period of 1993-2003 and analyzes the effects of company-specific institutional factors on the quality of accounting information. The study extends Basu (1997) analysis to test the effect of the operating cash flows and net book value on the timeliness of earnings. The empirical results show that Taiwanese companies has the tendency to accelerate timeliness losses recognition on earnings, operating cash flows and net book value, indicating an increased degree of conservatism over time. Moreover, the litigation and market performance are important attribute of the supply of conservatism. In addition, the results from assessing company-specific institutional factors provide evidence that a company possessed of certain company-specific institutional factors will exhibit more conservative financial reporting (i.e., large company size, higher leverage ratio, low return on equity, non-government ownership, non-financial institutions ownership, and low ratio of legal person ownership). Therefore, investor and creditors could utilize the company-specific factors to determine the degree of a company’s conservatism which can provide decision-useful information.
