Aiming to beat expectations : do growth firms set revenue targets above analyst forecasts?

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

Despite the increasing popularity of revenue measures, the accounting literature has remained focused on earnings targets. Using a hand-collected dataset on target information of S&P 1500 firms, this study provides the first large-sample examination of revenue targets and documents its difference to earnings targets. I find that revenue targets are in general set above revenue forecasts, whereas earnings targets are in general set below earnings forecasts. This phenomenon is robust to controlling for forecast errors. In addition, I find that growth opportunities increase the extent to which revenue targets are set relative to revenue forecasts, but do not find such effect on earnings targets. I attribute this effect to the incentive to beat revenue forecasts and document heightened effect when the benefits from beating revenue forecasts are larger. My research casts attention on the veiled yet popular revenue targets and documents its distinct characteristics from earnings targets.

목차 (Table of Contents)

• I. INTRODUCTION 1
• II. PRIOR LITERATURE 5
• III. HYPOTHESIS DEVELOPMENT 8
• IV. DATA AND RESEARCH DESIGN 10
• V. RESULTS 15
• VI. FURTHER ANALYSES 20
• VII. ROBUSTNESS CHECKS 22
• VIII. CONCLUSION 24
• APPENDIX A 26
• APPENDIX B 27
• REFERENCE 28
• FIGURE 1 31
• TABLE 32
• ABSTRACT IN KOREAN 44