THE VALUE-RELEVANCE OF R&D EXPENDITURE: EXPERIENCE FROM MALAYSIA

Authors

  • Kamarun Nisham Taufil Mohd Lecturer, Faculty of Finance and Banking, Universiti Utara Malaysia, Sintok, 06010 Kedah, Malaysia (email: kamarun@uum.edu.my)
  • Rohaida Abdul Latif Robiah Abu Bakar Wan Nordin Wan Hussin and Ku Nor Izah Ku Ismail Lecturers, Faculty of Accountancy, Universiti Utara Malaysia, Sintok, 06010 Kedah, Malaysia

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.31436/ijema.v14i2.124

Abstract

This paper examines the value relevance of R&D reporting among public listed companies in Malaysia for 2000 and 2001, subsequent to the introduction of FRS 109, Accounting for Research and Development (formerly known as MASB 4) which became effective in 1999. Beginning January 2006, FRS 138, Intangible Assets supersedes FRS 109. FRS 138 prescribes that a firm should expense its research costs and could capitalize the development cost as an intangible asset if the latter is expected to bring future benefits. Otherwise, the development expenditure is to be expensed. Test results based on Ohlson’s (1995) valuation model shows that for capitalizers, the amount of R&D expenditure, either expensed or capitalized, influences the stock prices positively. As for the expensers, even though the amount expensed influences stock prices, this relationship is driven by outliers; when we dropped the outliers, the result was no longer significant. These results indicate that R&D activities of capitalizers are expected to bring future benefits and consequently, lead to higher prices while the R&D activities of expensers are more difficult to evaluate given a small sample size and the presence of outliers.

JEL classification:M41, O30

Key words: Research and development, Value-relevance, Capitalisation

Downloads

How to Cite

Taufil Mohd, K. N., & Wan Nordin Wan Hussin and Ku Nor Izah Ku Ismail, R. A. L. R. A. B. (2013). THE VALUE-RELEVANCE OF R&D EXPENDITURE: EXPERIENCE FROM MALAYSIA. International Journal of Economics, Management and Accounting, 14(2). https://doi.org/10.31436/ijema.v14i2.124

Issue

Section

Articles