Abstract Prior studies provide consistent evidence that firms use a combination of management forecast guidance, accrual earning management (AEM), and real activity earnings management (REM) to meet or beat analyst expectations (MBE). While recent evidence (e.g. Kross, Ro, & Suk, 2011 ) suggests that management forecast guidance is a less effective MBE strategy for firms with longer strings of MBE, less is known about the use of AEM and REM to manage MBE strings as the string lengthens. Since managements' incentives and actions taken to maintain earnings strings may differ as the string lengthens and becomes more difficult to sustain, we examine the extent to which managers use AEM and REM to MBE as the string grows longer. We find evidence that while firms with shorter MBE strings appear more likely to use income increasing AEM to sustain their MBE strings, the use of income increasing AEM decreases for longer MBE strings. Further, we document that firms with longer MBE strings use more income increasing REM to avoid breaking the MBE string. Collectively, our results suggest that researchers investigating firms' earnings management choices to sustain MBE strings should control for the length of the MBE string in their research design.

中文翻译：

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维持一系列满足或超越分析师期望的盈余管理策略

摘要先前的研究提供了一致的证据，表明公司结合使用了管理预测指导，应计收益管理（AEM）和实际活动收益管理（REM）来达到或超过分析师的期望（MBE）。虽然最近的证据（例如Kross，Ro和Suk，2011年）表明，对于拥有较长MBE字符串的公司，管理预测指导是不太有效的MBE策略，但对于使用AEM和REM管理MBE字符串作为字符串的了解较少加长。由于管理层随着收入期限的延长而采取的激励措施和采取的行动可能会有所不同，并且变得越来越难以维持，因此，我们研究了随着收入期限的延长，管理人员对AMBE使用AEM和REM的程度。我们发现有证据表明，虽然具有较短MBE字符串的公司似乎更有可能使用增加收入的AEM来维持其MBE字符串，但是对于较长MBE字符串的使用增加收入的AEM会减少。此外，我们证明具有更长MBE字符串的公司使用更多的收入增加REM来避免破坏MBE字符串。总体而言，我们的结果表明，研究公司为维持MBE字符串而进行的盈余管理选择的研究人员应在其研究设计中控制MBE字符串的长度。