研究與發展可使企業不斷創新產品，以達永續發展的目的，所以研究發展支出的認列方式，對企業而言也相當重要。然而，研究發展支出到底是應該資本化，還是費用化，長期以來，一直是一個紛爭不斷的議題。因此，本研究分別以可靠性、裁決性以及穩健性的角度來探討對於我國研究發展支出而言，最適用的認列方式。

首先，本文從可靠性的角度觀察研究發展支出，估計研究發展投資未來效益的不確定性的程度，並比較研究發展支出與資本支出之未來盈餘的變異性。其次，本文探討假使財務報導編製者對研究發展支出的攤銷具有裁量權，則財務報導產生的可能效益為何，為了提供關於此議題的實證證據，本文針對在不同研究發展支出的會計政策之下，會對盈餘與帳面值解釋股價之程度造成何種影響進行研究。第一種會計政策即為要求公司資本化並對研究發展支出進行攤銷，但管理階層並不具有裁量權。其他的會計政策即為，在研究發展支出認列為資產且進行攤銷的過程中，漸漸增加裁量權的能力。最後，本文探討研究發展支出的保守會計與研究發展支出的過去成長性對於下列兩者之影響：(1)統合盈餘(以股價平減)與同時期的報酬之間的關聯；以及(2)由剩餘收益評價模型導出的價值估計與權益市場價值之間的關聯。

本文的研究成果為：(1)發現研究發展支出所產生的未來效益比資本支出產生的未來效益更具不確定性；(2)發現隨著賦予裁量權能力的增加確實可增加對於股價的解釋能力；(3)在研究發展支出高成長的公司中，研究發展支出的保守會計對於盈餘/報酬關係具有顯著的影響。此外，穩健原則會影響所有的觀察值，未來成長越低的公司對於剩餘收益評價估計會有越大的影響。

The firms will innovate products continually and perpetual operation , since Research and Development(R&D). It is very important to firms that recognizable approach of R&D. However,it is a issue that R&D expenditures should be capitalization or expensing. Hence, it is three perspectives, such as reliability, discretion and conservatism to find the best recognizable method for R&D expenditures in this study.

First, my study implements a method to estimate the relation between R&D investments and the uncertainty of future benefits from those investments, and compares the relative contributions of current investments in R&D and capital expenditures . Second, this study investigates the extent to which potential financial reporting benefits from capitalizing and amortizing R&D expenditures depend on increasing the level of discretion permitted to financial statement preparers. To provide evidence on this issue, we examine the impact of alternative accounting schemes for R&D expenditures on the extent to which earnings and book values jointly explain the observed distribution of share prices. One alternative requires firms to capitalize and amortize R&D outlays, but provides them with no more discretion than that permitted under current rules. The other alternatives reflect increasing discretion over which R&D expenditures are recognized as assets and the periods over which these assets are amortized. Finally, this study evaluate the effects of conservative accounting for R&D and past growth in R&D on: (1) the relation between aggregate earnings(deflated by price) and contemporaneous stock return, and (2) the association between estimates of value derived from the residual income valuation model (i.e., RIV estimates) and equity market value.

There are several outcomes in this study: (1) R&D investments generate future benefits that are far more uncertain than benefits from investments in capital expenditures. (2) ability to explain the distribution of share prices increases with discretion, and suggest that substantial managerial discretion is likely to be a necessary ingredient of any alternative R&D accounting scheme that is capable of producing economically significant financial reporting benefits. (3) conservative treatment of R&D affects the earnings/return relation only for firms that experience high growth in R&D durning the return interval of interest. It will be affect all observations. For low future growth firms, past growth also influence RIV estimates, for high growth firms,it doesn’t affect RIV estimates in low conservatism, but past growth can affect RIV estimates in high conservatism.

一、中文文獻

林愛倫，2002，研發成本最適認列方式之探討：會計資訊品質攸關性與可靠性之權衡，國防管理學院國防財務資源研究所未出版碩士論文。

陳哲誠，1996，研究發展支出費用化之規定對台灣製造業研究發展支出之影響，成功大學會計學研究所未出版碩士論文。

劉正田，1999，企業商譽與研發投資關係之研究，科技管理學刊第4卷第2期，頁105-124。

劉正田，2001，研發支出資本化之會計基礎股票評價，會計評論，第23期。

劉紀芬，2001，穩健性原則對會計基礎評價模式之影響，國立中山大學財務管理研究所未出版碩士論文。

薛兆亨、張裕詮，2002，研究發展支出是否應資本化：我國、美國及國際會計準則有關研究發展支出規定差異之研究，會計研究月刊，第198期，頁66-72。

謝建新，2006，認識三十七號公報-無形資產之會計處理，證券暨期貨月刊，第24卷，第12期，頁20-24。

台灣財務會計準則委員會，2006，財務會計準則公報第三十七號-無形資產之會計處理準則，財團法人中華民國會計研究發展基金會 。

二、英文文獻

Aboody, D.,J. Hughes, and J.Liu.2002. “Measuring Value Relevance in a (Possibly)Inefficient Market.”Journal of Accounting Research 40 (September):
965-986.

Aboody,D., and B. Lev. 1998. “The Value Relevance of Intangibles:The Case of Software Capitalization.”Journal of Accounting Research 36 (Supplement):166-191.

Altman,E.I.1968. “Financial Ratios,Discriminant Analysis,and the Prediction of Corporate Bankruptcy.”Journal of Finance 23:589-609.

Andrews,D.1991. “Heteroskedasticity and Autocorrelation Consistent Covariance Matrix Estimation.”Econometrica 59:817-858.

Assmus,G.,J.Farley and D.Lehmann.1984. “How Advertising Affects Sales:
Meta-Analysis of Econometric Results.”Journal of Marketing Research 11:65-74.

Baber, W. R., P. M. Fairfield, and J. A. Haggard. 1991. “The Effect of Concern About Reported Income on Discretionary Spending Decisions:The Case of Research and Development.”The Accounting Review 66:818-829.

Ball, R. W.1981. “Discussion of Accounting for Research and Development Costs:The Impact on Research and Development Expenditures”Journal of Accounting Research 18:17-37.

Ballester, M., M. Garcia-Ayuso,and J. Livnat. 2000. “Estimating the R&D Intangible Asset”Working paper,New York University.

Banz, R. W.1981. “The Relationship Between Return and Market Value of Common Stocks.”Journal of Financial Economics 9:3-18.

Barth, M.1994. “Fair Value Accounting Evidence from Investment Securiyies and Market Valuation of Banks.”Accounting Review 69, 1-25.

Barth, M. E., W. H. Beaver, and W. R. Landsman. 1998. “Relative Valuation Roles of Equity Book Value and Net Income as a Fuction of Financial Health.”Journal of Accounting and Economics 25:1-34.

Barclay, M. J., C. W. Smith and R. L. Watts.1995. “The Determinants of Corporate Leverage and Dividend Policies. “Journal of Applied Corporate Finance 7,4-19.
Batra, R., J. Myers and D. Aaker.1996. Advertising Management. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice-Hall.

Beatty, R., and R. Verrecchia.1989. “The Effect of Mandated Accounting Change on the Capitalization Process.” Contemporary Accounting Research 5:472-493.

Beaver, W. H., P. Kettler and M. Scholes.1970. “The Association Between Market Determined and Accounting Determined Risk Measures.” The Accounting Review 45:654-682.

Beaver, W.1989.Financial Reporting:An Accounting Revolution.Upper Saddle River,NJ:Prentice Hall Inc.

Beaver, W. and S. Ryan.(2000). “Biases and Lags in Book Value and their Effects on the Ability of the Book-to-Market to Predict Book return on Equity.”Journal of Accounting Research 38:127-148

Begley, J., J. Ming and S. Watts.1996. “Bankruptcy Prediction Errors in the 1980s:An Empirical Analysis of Altman’s and Ohlson’s Models.” Review of Accounting Studies 1:267-284.

Berger, P. G., E. Ofek, and I. Swary.1996. “Investor Valuation of the Abandonment Option ” Journal of Financial Economics 42:257-287.

Bierman, Jr., H. and R. E. Dukes.1975. “Accounting for Research and Development Costs.” The Journal of Accountancy,January:48-55.

Burgstahler, D. C., and I. D. Dichev.1997. “Earnings,Adaptation and Equity Value.”The Accounting Review 72:187-215.

Chambers, D., R. Jennings, and R. Thompson.1999. “Evidence on the Usefulness of Capital Expenditures as an Alternative Measure of Depreciation.”Review of Accounting Studies 4:169-195.

Chambers, D., R. Jennings, and R. Thompson.2002. “Excess Returns to R&D-Intensive Firms. ”Review of Accounting Studies, 7:133-158.

Chambers, D., R. Jennings, and R. Thompson.2003. “Managerial Discretion and Accounting for Research and Development Cost.” Journal of Accounting Auditing and Finance 18:79-113.
Chan, S., J. Martin and J. Kensinger.1990. “Corporate Research and Development Expenditures and Share Value.” Journal of Financial Economics 26:255-276

Chan, L. K. C., J. Lakonishok, and T. Sougiannis.2001. “The Stock Market Valuation of Research and Development Expenditures.” Journal of Finance 56:2431-2456.

Cheng, Q. 2005. “What Determines Residual Income? ” Accounting Review 80:85-112.

Clarke, D.1976. “Econometric Measurement of the Duration of Advertising Effect on Sales.” Journal of Marketing Research 13:345-357.

Collins, D. W., AND Kothari, S. P. 1989. “An Analysis of Intertemporal and Cross-Sectional Determinants of Earnings Response Coefficients.” Journal of Accounting and Economics 11:143-181.

Collins, D, W., E. L. Maydew, and I. S. Weiss.1997. “Changes in the Value-Relevance of Earnings and Book Values Over the Past Forty Years.” Journal of Accounting and Economics 24:39-67.

Collins, D. W., M. Pincus, and H. Xie.1999. “Equity Valuation and Negative Earnings: the Role of Book Value of Equity.” The Accounting Review 74:29-61.

Dukes, R. E., T. R. Dyckman and J. A. Elliott .1980. “Accounting for Reseach and Development Costs: The Impact on Research and Development Expenditures” Journal of Accounting Research 18, 1-26.

Dechow, P. M.1994. “Accounting Earnings and Cash Flows as Measures of Firm Performance: The Role of Accounting Accruals.” Journal of Accounting and Economics 17:3-42.

Elliott, J., G. Richardson, T. Dyckman, and R. Dukes.1984. “The Impact of SFAS No. 2 on Firm Expenditures in Research and Development:Replications and Extensions.”
Journal of Accounting Research 22:85-102.

Fama, E. and K. French. 1992 “The Cross-Section of Expected Stock Returns” Journal of Finance 47:427-465.

Fama, E and K. French. 1997 “Industry Costs of Equity” Journal of Financial Economics 43:153-193.

Fama, and J. MacBeth. 1973 “Risk Return and Equilibrium: Empirical Tests” Journal of Poltical Economy 81:607-636.

Feltham, G. and J. Ohlson 1995. “Valuation and Clean Surplus Accounting for Operating and Financial Activities” Contemporary Accounting Research 11:689-731.

Feltham, G. and J. Ohlson 1996. “Uncertainty Resolution and the Theory of Depreciation Measurement.” Journal of Accounting Research 34: 209-234.

Green, J. P., A.W. Stark and H. M. Thomas. 1996. “UK Evidence on the Market Valuation of Research and Development Expenditures.” Journal of Business Finance & Accounting 23:191-216.

Healy, P. M., S. C. Myers, and C. D. Howe. 2002. “R&D Accounting and the Tradeoff Between Relevance and Objectivity” Journal of Accounting Reseach 40:677-710.

Hirschey, M. and J. Weygandt. (1985). “Amortization Policy for Advertising and Research and Development Expenditures .” Journal of Accounting Research 23:326-385.

Horowitz, B., and R. Kolodny. 1980. “The Economic Effects of Involuntary Uniformity in the Financial Reporting of Research and Development Expenditures.” Journal of Accounting Research 18:38-74.

Kothari, S. P., T. E. Laguerre, and A. J. Leone. 2002. “Capitaliztion versus Expernsing: Evidence on the Uncertaninty of Future Earnings from Capital Expenditures versus R&D Outlays” Review of Accounting Studies 7:335-382.

Lev, B., and T. Sougiannis. 1996. “The Capitalization, Amortization and Value-Relevance of R&D” Journal of Accounting and Economics 21:107-138.

Lev, B. and P. Zarowin. 1999. “The Boundaries of Financial Reporting and How to Extend Them” Journal of Accounting Research 37:353-385.

Lev, B., B.Sarath, and T. Sougiannis. 1999. “R&D-Related Reporting Biases and Their Consequences” Working paper, New York University.

Lev, B., B. Sarath, and T. Sougiannis. 2004. “R&D Reporting Biases and Their Consequences.” Contemporary Accounting Research 22:977-1026.

Loudder, M. L., and B. K. Beth. 1995 “Alternative Income Determination Rules and Earnings Usefulness: The Case of R&D Costs” Contemporary Accounting Research 12:185-205.

Monahan, S. 1999 “Conservatism, Growth and the Role of Accounting Numbers in the Equity Valuation Process” Working paper, University of Chicago.

Monahan, S. 2005 “Conservatism, Growth and the Role of Accounting Numbers in the Fundamental Analysis Process” Review of Accounting Studies 10:227-260.

Ohlson, J. A. 1995 “Earnings, Book Values, and Dividends in Equity Valuation” Contemporary Accounting Research 11:661-687.

Oswald, D. R. 2000 “The Determinants and Value Relevance of the Choice of Accounting for Research and Development Expenditures in the United Kingdom”.

Penman, S. H., and X-J. Zhang. 2002. “Accounting Conservatism, the Quality of Earnings and Stock Returns.” The Accounting Review 77 (April):237-264.

Sougiannis, T. 1994. “The Accounting Based Valuation of Corporate R&D.” The Accounting Review 69:44-68.

Voung, Q. H. 1989. “Likelihood Ratio Tests for Model Seletion and non-Nested Hypotheses.” Econometrica 57:307-333.

Wasley, C., E. and T. J. Linsmeier. 1992. “A Further Examination of the Economic Consequences of SFAS No.2.” Journal of Accounting Research 30:156-164.

Woolridge, R. 1988. “Competitive Decline and Corporate Restructuring: Is a Myopic Stock Market to Blame?” Journal of Applied Corporate Finance 1:26-36.

Zhang Xiao-jun. 2000. “Conservative accounting and equity valuation.” Journal of Accounting and Economics 29:125-149.