On the credibility of intersegment revenues and the persistence of segment earnings

Yingxu Kuang, Xiaoyan Chu and Yu Zhang

International Journal of Accounting, Auditing and Performance Evaluation, 2016, vol. 12, issue 4, 333-359

Abstract: SFAS 131 that governs segment reporting requires disclosing profits/losses of reportable segments in multi-segment firms. By definition, segment profit/loss consists of income from both external transactions and intersegment transactions. Owing to the discretionary nature of the intersegment transactions, we suspect that management uses intersegment revenues to manipulate segment earnings. Examining the credibility of intersegment revenues relative to that of external revenues, we find the following: i) intersegment revenues have lower persistence than external revenues; ii) discretionary intersegment revenues have lower persistence than non-discretionary intersegment revenues and iii) the magnitude of discretionary intersegment revenues is consistent with the goal of maximising firm value.

Keywords: SFAS 131; segment earnings; intersegment revenue; earnings persistence; credibility; segment reporting; external revenue; firm value. (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2016
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