本研究探討穩健性會計是否能夠改善因商業策略而產生的投資不效率問題。本研究將分別探討前瞻者(Prospector)以及防禦者(Defender)的投資效率如何受穩健性會計影響。過去已有研究顯示，前瞻者因為以開發新產品及市場為策略，有過度投資的傾向；防禦者則因為以追求生產效率為策略，有投資過於保守的傾向。另有研究顯示，穩健性會計作為公司治理的一項工具，能夠監督及提升投資效率。於是本論文將延伸探討穩健性會計是否能夠監督與改善商業策略導因之投資不效率。
本論文以2010年至2017年美國公開上市櫃公司為樣本，實證結果發現：穩健性會計作為公司治理的一環，可以幫助董事會監督前瞻者過度投資的問題，因而提升未來的投資效率；但對於防禦者投資過度保守的問題，卻不會有明顯的改善。此外本論文使用幾項敏感性測試，例如邏輯式迴歸模型、額外三種穩健性會計衡量方式、除去分析者比對以及額外投資效率衡量方式，以測試主要模型的穩健性。

This study examines how accounting conservatism moderates the relationship between business strategy and investment efficiency. Prior literature has argued that the firms with an innovation-driven Prospectors strategy tend to conduct over-investment decisions, while the firms with an efficiency-driven Defenders strategy tend to conduct under-investment decisions. Other prior studies show that conservatism is a part of a corporate governance system that can mitigate investment inefficiency. Based on prior studies, I further examine the link between business strategy, accounting conservatism and investment efficiency.
My research is based on the U.S. publicly traded companies from 2010 to 2017. I conclude that conservatism could mitigate the level of future over-investment of Prospector firms, whereas there is no obvious mitigation of the level of future under-investment for Defenders. My results are robust to plenty of checks, for example, alternatives of conservatism proxies, the Ordinary least squares regression for only Prospectors and Defenders business strategy (excluding Analyzers), and an alternative measure of investment efficiency.

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