This study investigates how corporate liabilities affect firm value by distinguishing between liability levels and changes, as well as between increases and decreases in liabilities, using non-financial firms listed on the Korean stock market from 2011 to 2023. Firm value is measured by Tobin’s Q and its year-over-year change, while liabilities are represented by static leverage ratios and dynamic liability growth measures. Employing linear, nonlinear and asymmetric specifications, the analysis reveals several key findings. Higher liability levels are generally associated with lower firm value, consistent with financial distress and agency cost arguments. In contrast, moderate increases in liabilities are positively related to changes in firm value, suggesting that debt expansion may signal growth opportunities. Nonlinear results indicate an inverted U-shaped relationship between liability changes and firm value, implying diminishing marginal benefits of debt growth. Furthermore, asymmetric analyses show that liability reductions have a stronger negative valuation effect than comparable liability increases, reflecting investors’ greater sensitivity to downside risk. Overall, the findings demonstrate that the valuation effects of corporate liabilities are dynamic, nonlinear, and asymmetric, underscoring the importance of managing both the level and adjustment of liabilities in corporate financing decisions.

Korean firms record the cost of entertaining customers and counterparties in a separate account and report it on its own where they judge it material. The COVID-19 pandemic interrupted the activity that account pays for. This study asks whether the stock market’s valuation of that spending changed around the interruption. Using 19,334 firm-years on 2331 Korean listed firms from 2016 to 2025, Tobin’s Q is regressed on reported entertainment expenditure scaled by sales and interacted with indicators for the pandemic years 2020 to 2021 and the years that followed, with firm and year fixed effects and standard errors clustered by firm. Entertainment intensity was positively associated with firm value before the pandemic, although that association is carried by the heaviest spenders and does not survive their removal. The pandemic interaction is imprecise, running from −20.81 to 11.66 against a benchmark of 21.916. After the pandemic, the association was eliminated: the interaction is −29.655, and it holds across nine measurement and deflator variants. The association changes sign around 2022; a test that does not impose the date locates the change there, but a discrete break and a decline that steepens cannot be separated. Advertising and research intensity attenuate at least as much, so the change belongs to discretionary expenditure as a class rather than to entertainment alone.

This study examines the effect of foreign ownership on corporate tax avoidance among firms listed on the Korean stock market and investigates whether this relationship is nonlinear and moderated by the adoption of International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) in 2011. As foreign investors have become more influential in Korea's capital market, they play an important role in shaping firms' tax behavior. While prior studies suggest that foreign ownership can reduce tax avoidance through stronger monitoring, this study also considers whether high levels of foreign ownership may support managerial interests or allow aggressive tax practices. Using panel data from KOSPI-and KOSDAQ-listed firms from 2001 to 2023, tax avoidance is measured by book-tax differences (BTD) and discretionary book-tax differences (DDBTD). The results reveal an inverted U-shaped relationship between foreign ownership and tax avoidance, indicating that tax avoidance increases at low levels of foreign ownership but decreases after reaching a certain threshold due to enhanced monitoring. This relationship remains after IFRS adoption, although the degree of nonlinearity becomes weaker in the post-IFRS period. These findings suggest that the influence of foreign ownership on corporate tax behavior depends on both the level of ownership and changes in the institutional environment, and they provide important implications for understanding the governance role of foreign investors in emerging markets. (c) 2025 The Authors. Published by IASE. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).

This study investigates the impact of corporate debt levels on tax avoidance among companies listed on the Korean stock market from 2001 to 2023. Using eight empirical models, the analysis examines the relationship between corporate debt and firm value (Models 1–4) and the effects of debt level fluctuations on corporate value (Models 5–8). The findings indicate that corporate debt serves as a mitigating factor for tax avoidance, as evidenced by a negative correlation between debt levels and tax avoidance measures (DDBTD, BTD). This supports the primary hypothesis that higher corporate debt levels are associated with lower tax avoidance activities. Additionally, changes in debt levels, whether increases or decreases, consistently exhibit a negative relationship with tax avoidance. This result reinforces the secondary hypothesis that fluctuations in corporate debt further reduce tax avoidance behavior. These findings suggest that Korean listed firms utilizing external debt financing to enhance internal cash flow and benefit from interest expense deductions tend to engage less in tax avoidance. This study contributes to the literature on corporate financial behavior by highlighting the role of debt financing in shaping tax planning strategies. The results provide practical implications for policymakers and corporate decision-makers concerned with tax compliance and financial management.

This study investigated how donation expenditures—as a proxy for corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities—moderate the relationship between tax avoidance and corporate value among companies listed on the Korean stock market from 2000 to 2021. Unlike previous studies that relied on third-party CSR evaluations, this research utilizes the actual donation amounts disclosed in financial statements to measure CSR engagement, thereby enhancing the objectivity and relevance of the analysis in the Korean context, where donation-related corporate tax deductions are capped by law. The empirical analysis modified Ohlson's (1995) corporate valuation model, employing the discretionary difference between book and taxable income (DDBTD) as the principal indicator of tax avoidance. Control variables included donations, the largest shareholder's equity ratio, sales growth rate, and firm age. By estimating interaction effects through hierarchical regression and robustness checks with alternative donation measures, this study addressed both endogeneity and scale effects. The results indicate that donation expenditures have a significant positive moderating effect on the relationship between tax avoidance and corporate value. Notably, this moderating impact was statistically significant only among firms in the highest quartile of donation intensity, suggesting that the value relevance of tax avoidance increases above a certain donation threshold. This finding remains robust across different measurement approaches and subsample analyses. This research contributes new evidence showing that, within the unique regulatory and disclosure environment of Korea, firms may leverage donations both as a CSR strategy and as part of tax planning. It clarifies that donations strengthen the positive association between tax avoidance and firm value, principally when donation activities are large enough to be salient. These results highlight the importance of considering both regulatory context and the scale of social contribution in assessing the value implications of tax avoidance strategies in capital markets.

This study investigates the impact of R&D investments on tax avoidance among companies listed on the Korean stock market from 2011 to 2023. It classifies R&D investments into two categories: R&D expenses, recorded as ordinary business expenses, and development costs (capitalized R&D expenses), recognized as assets. The research examines whether these two forms of R&D investment have distinct effects on tax avoidance and explores whether these relationships follow linear or nonlinear patterns. Using an empirical model, the study employs tax avoidance measures (BTD and DDBTD) as dependent variables, with R&D expenses and development costs as key independent variables. The findings reveal that R&D expenses are positively associated with tax avoidance, whereas development costs exhibit a negative relationship. Furthermore, the relationship between R&D expenses and tax avoidance is nonlinear, following an inverted U-shape: Tax avoidance increases with R&D expenses up to a certain threshold but decreases beyond that point. In contrast, development costs consistently show a linear negative relationship with tax avoidance. This study suggests that in the Korean stock market, companies primarily engage in tax avoidance through R&D expenses. However, excessive R&D expenses can lead to a decrease in tax avoidance. By exploring the connection between R&D investment and tax avoidance, this study provides new insights into how companies use R&D strategies for tax planning.

This study examines the impact of research and development (R&D) expenditures, training expenditures, and entertainment expenditures (business promotion expenditures) on firm value in the Korean electronics and metal industry. Extending the theoretical foundation of James March’s exploration and exploitation theory, this study analyzes the impact of R&D and training investments on firm value to explore new capabilities from a long-term perspective, and the impact of entertainment costs on firm value to achieve short-term organizational goals. Using Tobin’s Q methodology, which uses the ratio of a firm’s market value to its asset replacement cost as a proxy for firm value, this study finds the relationship between these types of expenditures and firm value. The analysis finds that R&D expenditures and training expenditures are significantly correlated with increases in firm value, suggesting that these investments play an important role in enhancing a firm’s competitiveness and performance. On the other hand, while we hypothesize that the balance of exploration and exploitation within an organization will affect firm value, we find that entertainment expenditures, which are business promotion expenditures, do not show a significant relationship with firm value. This suggests that these expenditures by companies in Korea’s electronics and metals industry contribute to the achievement of the organization’s short-term goals but do not have a significant impact on firm value. These findings suggest that resource allocation in the electronics and metal industries where technological innovation is important should be more heavily weighted toward investments in R&D and training for long-term exploration in order to increase firm value. To increase firm value, firms should prioritize investments that drive sustainable growth and enhance competitive advantage. This research allows for a deeper examination of how different types of costs contribute to firm value and underscores the need for strategic clarity in resource allocation decisions.

This study examined the role of universities in innovative industrial clusters with a focus on ambidextrous strategies for technology management and technology entrepreneurship education.The university pursues an entrepreneurial university and its role as an agent of innovation and entrepreneurship is very important.Case study, issue analysis and scenario planning were conducted based on the theory of technology management, entrepreneurship, and industry-academia cooperationbased education regarding the role of universities in innovative industrial clusters.The strategic direction of the entrepreneurial university was established through scenario planning methods.The first strategic direction to become an entrepreneurial university is for the university to have a technology management education system as well as knowledge creation and research and development system.The second is to have the capacity to upgrade the entrepreneurship education system to enable regionalbased startups.The third is to not only advance the system to support the growth of local companies through technology transfer, but also to establish an education system based on industry-academia cooperation.This paper can be said to be significant in that it sets a strategic direction for developing into an entrepreneurial university at a time when the role of universities in innovative industrial clusters is being emphasized in the region.

Purpose - This study aims to verify whether the effect of tax avoidance on corporate value is non-linear in the Korean financial markets. Design/methodology/approach - This study believes that the cause of the inconsistent empirical analysis results of previous studies that verified the relationship between tax avoidance and firm value may be an error in assuming linearity, and verifies whether a nonlinear relationship exists. The sample company in this study is a December settlement corporation listed on the Korean stock market, and the analysis period is from 2000 to 2021. In the empirical analysis model, Tobin’s Q is used as a proxy for corporate value, tax avoidance is used as the main independent variable, and a regression model is designed with corporate size, growth rate, and debt ratio set as control variables. Findings - As a result of the empirical analysis, it can be confirmed that there is an inverted U-shaped nonlinear relationship between tax avoidance and corporate value. In the additional analysis using Ohlson (1995) firm valuation model for the robustness of the results of the empirical analysis, the same nonlinear value relationship between tax avoidance can be confirmed. Research implications or Originality - This study is considered to be meaningful in that it verifies the non-linear relationship of tax avoidance, which has not been attempted in previous studies. The meaning of the inverted U-shaped nonlinear relationship presented in this study is that corporate tax avoidance acts as a factor that increases corporate value up to a certain level, but rather becomes a factor that decreases corporate value when it exceeds a critical point. These results are expected to provide new perspectives and perspectives on tax avoidance to companies belonging to the Korean capital market.

Research and development (R&D) expenditures are generally thought to increase a firm's market value. This study examines the nonlinear value relevance of R&D expenditures from 2006 to 2015 for manufacturers listed on capital markets in Korea, the USA, Japan, and China. In this regard, the study uses a nonlinear validation method based on an analytical model that adds R&D investment variables to a corporate valuation model. The results indicate that Korean and Japanese firms experience an increase in corporate value when they make R&D expenditures but if the firms exceed their R&D expenditure limits, corporate value falls. In US and Chinese firms, R&D expenditures prompt a dramatic rise in corporate value when such expenditures are initially set to exceed certain limits, although R&D activities reduce corporate value in their early stages. Such findings have practical relevance for international investment decisions.

This study investigates how the value relevance of accounting information is changing as a result of the shale revolution that began in 2012. The empirical analysis of this study shows that the value relevance of R&D expenditures has declined dramatically since 2012, when shale gas extraction began in US. It also shows that in the energy industry, operating cash flow and company size are not important value-related factors in increasing corporate value. Conversely, operating income is the most important value relevant variable for corporate value since 2010. The results also suggest that accounting information from the energy equipment and services industry group is more useful than information about firms in the oil gas consumable fuel industry. This study shows that there is a change in the value relevance of firm value variables in the energy industry after the shale revolution.

This study investigates the impact of the asset components on firm value in listed Korean stock markets during the period of 2000-2015. This paper extends conventional studies on a firm valuation by including asset components in an Ohlson (1995) model. Analytical results show that all asset components have a significantly positive impact on firm value. However, performance variables are negatively associated with business value. The results of this study show that the asset component on the balance sheet has a more positive effect on the increase in corporate value than the profitability and performance variables on the income statement and the cash flow statement. The empirical evidence of this study suggests that asset components should be regarded as major corporate value related variables in the Korean stock market. This study also suggests that intangible assets are the most important factors that should be considered in firm value.

This article investigates whether investment in education and training and welfare expenses can help promote corporate value. If such expenditures are found to affect enterprise value, this evidence should lead to a revision of the current accounting treatment of education and training and welfare expenses in the Republic of Korea. The empirical results show that the book value of equity, education and training expenses and welfare costs has positive relationships with enterprise value, whereas accounting earnings have significantly negative effects on them in both the full samples and subsamples (i.e., KOSPI, KOSDAQ, large-sized, small and medium-sized firms, high-tech, and low-tech groups). The results of this study provide empirical evidence on the effects of welfare and training costs on firm value. They suggest a need to discuss investments in human capital such as welfare and education and training expenses, which have been treated as expenses for the past decades. However, the results are based only on companies listed on the Korean capital market. It is necessary to analyse firms in other countries, such as Japan, the USA and China.

This paper aims to investigate the value relevance change before and after the mandatory adoption of Korea's international financial reporting standards (K-IFRS) in the listed Korean financial markets. This paper tests the value relevance change by dividing sample data into the periods before (2008-2010) and after (2011-2013) K-IFRS adoption. This study categorises sample data into several subgroups by firm size (large versus small and medium) and applicable financial market (KOSPI versus the KOSDAQ) for revealing further evidence of the value relevance change in Korean companies. The empirical results in this paper suggest that the value relevance of book value, accounting earnings, operating income, cash flows, and operating cash flows significantly changed before and after K-IFRS adoption. This paper's evidence suggests the possibility of a new debate regarding the primary value relevant factor before and after K-IFRS adoption among the companies listed on the Korea Stock Exchange.

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to compare the value relevance of various accounting information disclosed in financial statements of manufacturing companies listed on the stock markets of Korea, Japan, and China over ten years from 2006 to 2015. Design/methodology/approach - The study uses Ohlson (1995) valuation model for empirical investigation and the financial data extracted from the OSIRIS DB to analyze the enterprise value relevance of accounting information for Korean, Chinese, and Japanese companies and to investigate the differences among them. Findings - The results of the empirical analysis are as follows. First, the coefficient of accounting earnings is the highest in the samples of all firms in Korea, Japan, and China, followed by the coefficients for operating income, net cash flow, book value, and net operating cash flows. Next, Japan has the largest book value, followed by Korea, but China has a negative value. Japan has the largest coefficient of accounting earnings and net operating cash flow, followed by Korea and China. Japan has the largest coefficient of net cash flow and operating income, followed by China and Korea. The results show that the value relevance of accounting earnings is the largest among independent variables related to firm value, but the net operating cash flow is the smallest. In addition, the authors observe that the coefficient of Japan is the largest of all independent variables when compared by country. Originality/value - The contribution of this study is that it shows the comparative value relevance of accounting information in most economically developed Asian countries such as Korea, Japan, and China. In addition, it is worth showing the characteristics of the national value decision variable by showing different incremental value relevance levels among the three countries.

This study investigates the role of accounting information in valuing administrative issues specified by the causes of designation on the Korea Securities Exchange during 2000 to 2015. Administrative issues pertain to companies that should attract investors' interest. Even though their accounting information is not inappropriate for investors, the financial and non-financial conditions of issues are poorer than that of normal companies. Empirical findings show the book value of equity as the most value-relevant factor among research variables, regardless of firm size, membership of financial markets, and technology level, while performance variables such as accounting earnings, cash flows, operating income, and operating cash flows have very little or negative impact on enterprise value. The implication is that the book value of equity could play an alternative role, substituting for conventional value-relevant variables such as accounting earnings, cash flows, operating income, and operating cash flows in the Korea Securities Exchange.

Purpose of the research: This study identifiesthe most important value-relevant factor across profit and loss companies listed on the Korean Securities Exchange over the period 2000 to 2015.Weaim to improve understanding of the role of accounting information provided by financial statements in firm value across companies. Materials and methods: We use the residual income valuation model of Ohlson (1995). Results: The impact of accounting information on enterprise value is significantly different across profit and loss companies. We believe that this phenomenon occurs because of the assumption of linear information dynamics in theresidual income model. These findings show that accounting information of profitable companies is likely to reflect on the future firm value; however, accounting information of loss companies tends to provide no such information to financial markets.

This paper investigates the value relevance of corporate social responsibility. In particular, the paper examines the time lag value relevance of donation expenditure on firm value over the period of 2000–2014 in the listed Korean stock markets. Through empirical analysis, the paper provides evidence that donation expenditure has a significant effect on future firm value. The empirical results of this paper support research hypothesis 1 (donation expenses have an effect on firm value) and research hypothesis 2 (donation expenses have a time lag effect on firms’ future value). In particular, the results show that donation expenses have an effect on firm value and the time lag interval is from two to 12 years. These results suggest that donation expenses can be regarded as assets that have potential for firms’ future cash flows. The empirical evidence of this paper suggests there should be debate on whether the accounting treatment of donations should be changed in Korean accounting practices.

This paper explores the comparative value relevance of book value, accounting earnings, net cash flows, operating income, and net operating cash flows in listed Korean stock markets from 2000 to 2013. Especially this study classifies sample data into several subgroups according to firm size (large enterprise vs. small and medium-sized enterprises), financial markets (KOSPI vs. KOSDAQ), technology level (high technology companies vs. low technology companies), and economic conditions (before and after global financial crisis) to examine the value relevance change among main variables. The empirical evidence of this paper shows that net cash flows are most value efficient for the small and medium-sized, KOSDAQ, high-tech, low-tech, and pre-GFC groups, while operating income ranks first for the big firm, KOSPI, and post-GFC groups; accounting earnings are the least value-relevant for the high-tech, low-tech, and pre-GFC groups. Net cash flows are the most value-relevant factor before the GFC and the least after it. These results suggest that the comparative value relevance of book value, accounting earnings, net cash flows, net operating cash flows, and operating income mainly depends on firm size, financial market, technology level, and the GFC in listed Korean stock markets.

This paper investigates the nonlinear value relevance of advertising expenses in firms listed on Korean stock markets from 2003 to 2011. This study also categorizes the sampled data into several groups to examine the value relevance function of advertising expenses. The empirical findings of this paper show that advertising expenses has an inverted U-shaped relationship with enterprise value in various subgroups belonging to KOSPI markets, big firms, small and medium firms, and low technology firms classified by Himmelberg and Petersen (1994). The empirical results also provide the evidence that advertising expenses is nonlinearly associated with enterprise value with a U-shaped function in total sample firms, KOSDAQ firms, high technology firms classified by Himmelberg and Petersen (1994), and the high and low technology firm groups divided by R&D intensity.These results support the hypothesis of this study (H: Advertising expenses has nonlinear value relevance in Korean stock markets). The empirical findings of this study reveals that the value relevance shape of advertising expenses differ in accordance with the characteristics of individual firms.