Earnings Smoothing、Supply Chain Relations And The Quality Of Firm Innovation

Suppliers and customers are the important stakeholders of an enterprise,and can have an important impact on the operation and strategy of an enterprise.The manufacturing industry integrates the business of supply,production and marketing with close dependence on each link.In the existing industry,the industrial chain is the most complete and the core enterprises and the members of the supply chain are highly interdependent.The industrial structure is constantly adjusting with the economic development,and the competition in raw materials and products markets is becoming increasingly fierce.The normal operation of enterprises and the improvement of market competitiveness are affected by the supply chain system.China Securities Regulatory Commission has continuously strengthened the disclosure requirements of important customer/supplier information in the Guidelines on Information Disclosure Content and Format of Publicly issued Companies,from"encouraging disclosure" to "mandatory disclosure" to "increasing disclosure dimensions and items".This trend not only reflects that supply chain members are important strategic resources for enterprises.It can also reflect the potential risks of business operation.In this context,how to optimize the supply chain relationship and enhance the supply chain resilience is the key to the sustainable and steady development of manufacturing enterprises.Meeting the needs of users of financial reports is one of the objectives of enterprises to disclose financial reports.Suppliers and customers are the key external stakeholders of enterprises and important users of financial reports.Earnings plays a pivotal role in the information disclosure of enterprises.It is not only an important basis for managers’ performance evaluation and investors’ decision making,but also a key reference information for signing and maintaining contracts with supply chain enterprises.It can influence supply chain members’ evaluation of enterprises through valuation and signal transmission,and thus affect the realization of accounting contracting function.Earnings smoothing reflects the long-term situation and characteristics of earnings and is a long-term financial strategy of enterprises.The motivation of the management to implement this strategy includes "opportunism attribute" and "information attribute".Then,as a long-term financial strategy choice,will the different attributes of earnings smoothing affect the development or maintenance of contracts between potential and existing customers/suppliers and enterprises,and thus affect the supply chain relationship of enterprises?Innovation quality refers to the behavior of an enterprise to launch new technology,develop new products and open up new markets through efficient integration of innovation resources in order to meet customer needs and obtain super profits.It lays more emphasis on the synergistic value in the innovation process and the realization of economic value in the transformation of results.The important way for enterprises to transform competitive advantages into economic benefits cannot be separated from the complementation of R&D,production and marketing.The development and maintenance of supply chain relationship affect the realization of innovation economic value and synergy value.Then,can the impact of earnings smoothing and its attributes on the enterprise supply chain relationship effectively promote the innovation quality of the enterprise?In order to answer the above questions,this paper constructs A research framework of "earnings smoothing--supply chain relationship--innovation quality".takes Chinese A-share manufacturing listed companies from 2008 to 2020 as samples,examines the influence of earnings smoothing on the relationship between enterprise supply chain,and explores its influence on enterprise innovation quality based on the relationship between the two.From the perspective of the overall structure of this paper,it is divided into five parts,including seven chapters,specifically:the first part is the introduction,namely the first chapter of this paper.Firstly,based on the research background of the paper,the research questions are refined,and then the research purpose and possible theoretical and practical significance are discussed.Secondly,the key concepts of the paper are defined,and the research methods and content of the paper are introduced in detail.Finally,the innovation of the paper is summarized.The second part is literature review and theoretical basis,namely chapter 2 and Chapter 3.In this part,relevant literature are sorted out and summarized on the three themes of earnings smoothing,supply chain relations and innovation quality respectively,and the basic theories are summarized based on the relationships among the three.The third part is the study on the relationship between earnings smoothing and its attribute and enterprise supply chain,namely chapter 4 and 5.This paper discusses the influence of earnings smoothing and its attributes on the enterprise supply chain relationship from two dimensions of supply chain concentration and supply chain stability.The fourth part is chapter 6,which theoretically analyzes and empirically tests whether earnings smoothing and its attributes influence supply chain relations to promote innovation quality.The fifth part is the research conclusions and policy suggestions,which is Chapter 7 of this paper.After summarizing the research conclusions,policy suggestions are put forward and research limitations and prospects are pointed out.The main conclusions of this paper are as follows:(1)By examining the relationship between earnings smoothing and its attributes and the concentration degree of enterprise supply chain,it is found that:first,earnings smoothing and information attribute earnings smoothing can reduce the concentration degree of enterprise supply chain.Second,in terms of enterprise supply chain power,enterprise supply chain power strengthens the role of earnings smoothing in reducing the concentration of enterprise supply chain.Thirdly,the heterogeneity of the vertical trend of earnings shows that the smoothing based on the upward trend of earnings can play a role in reducing the concentration of the enterprise supply chain.Fourthly,after distinguishing the competitive position of enterprises in the industry,it is found that smooth earnings can more significantly reduce the supply chain concentration of enterprises with low competitive position in the industry.(2)By examining the relationship between earnings smoothing and its attributes and the stability of enterprise supply chain,it is found that:first,information attribute earnings smoothing improves the stability of enterprise supply chain,while opportunism attribute earnings smoothing reduces the stability of enterprise supply chain.Second,in the moderating effect of the interaction degree of supply chain relations,the improvement of the interaction degree between enterprises and key customers enhances the effect of information attribute earnings smoothing on the stability of enterprises’ key customers.Third,after distinguishing the factors intensive types of enterprises,it is found that,compared with labor-intensive enterprises,information attribute earnings smoothing can play a better role in stabilizing supply chain relations in non-labor-intensive enterprises.Fourthly,by distinguishing the heterogeneity of enterprises’ competitive position in the industry,it is found that information attribute earnings smoothing can improve the supply chain stability of enterprises with low competitive position in the industry.(3)By examining the relationships among earnings smoothing,supply chain relations and enterprise innovation quality,it is found that:first,in the logical chain of earnings smoothing-supply chain concentration-innovation quality,information attribute earnings improves enterprise innovation quality by reducing supply chain concentration.Second,in the logic chain of earnings smoothing-supply chain stability-innovation quality,information attribute earnings smoothing improves the innovation quality of enterprises by improving the stability of key customers.The research contributions of this paper are mainly reflected in the following aspects:(1)expanding the research on the economic consequences of earnings smoothing.Starting from earnings smoothing and its attributes,this paper discusses the impact of earnings smoothing and its attributes on the enterprise supply chain relationship,which supports the transfer effect of financial information between supply chains and the contractual usefulness of accounting information,and provides empirical evidence for guiding earnings to play the governance role.(2)Based on the perspective of accounting information,the key influencing factors of supply chain relationship are explored.Based on the "contract usefulness view" of earnings information,this paper explores the influence of earnings smoothing on the enterprise supply chain relationship,and conducts heterogeneity analysis based on the perspective of supply chain relationship and enterprise characteristics,and verifies the optimization effect of earnings smoothing on the enterprise supply chain relationship.(3)Based on the perspective of supply chain relations,the mechanism of accounting information affecting enterprise innovation quality is expanded.Based on the contract usefulness of earnings,this paper explores the mechanism role of supply chain contract relationship in the influence of earnings smoothing on innovation quality.