본 연구는 지배주주지분의 변화 전 기업의 이익조정 행태를 분석하여 이익조정이 지배주주의 부를 증진하는 방향으로 이루어지는지를 조사한다. 대부분의 한국기업에서 지배주주는 기업경영에 직접적으로 참여하거나 설령 기업경영에 직접적으로 참여하지 않더라도 기업과 관련된 제반 사안에 실질적인 영향력을 행사한다. 지배주주는 자신의 필요에 따라 자신이 통제하는 기업의 지분을 추가로 취득하거나 또는 이미 보유하고 있는 지분을 처분하는 경우가 빈번하다. 지배주주가 지분을 추가로 취득하거나 처분하는 데서 발생하는 이익은 주가에 의해 결정되므로 지배주주는 지분변동 직전의 회계이익을 조정하여 주가를 자신에게 유리하게 유도하려는 유인을 갖는다. 구체적으로 지배주주는 지분의 처분(취득) 전 기업의 이익을 양(음)으로 조정할 유인을 갖는다. 1995년부터 2004년까지 한국의 유가증권시장에 상장된 기업 중 지배주주의 지분 변화에 수반하는 이익조정을 분석한 결과 기업은 지배주주지분이 감소하기 전에 양의 이익조정을 하고, 지배주주지분이 증가하기 전에 음의 이익조정을 하였다. 또한 이익조정의 크기는 지배주주지분의 증감에 비례하였다. 이는 기업이 지배주주의 이익극대화를 위해 지배주주지분 감소 또는 증가 전에 이익조정을 한다는 것과 일관된 결과이다. 본 연구는 지배주주가 자신의 이익을 위해 외부주주로부터 부를 자신에게 이전하는 명시적 증거를 제시함으로써, 선행연구에서 추상적 가능성으로 논의되었던 주주간이해상충 문제를 구체적인 과정과 상황을 통해 설명하고, 선행연구에서 부족했던 지배주주와 외부주주사이의 이해상충문제에 대한 이해를 넓혔으며, 주주간이해상충문제 해결을 위한 제도적 시사점을 제시했다는데 그 공헌이 있다. 또한 양의 이익조정 뿐만 아니라 음의 이익조정 역시 외부주주의 부를 침해 할 수 있다는 것을 보여 줌으로써 그동안 관대했던 보수적인 회계처리의 문제점을 제기하였다.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the mechanism through which controlling owners expropriate minority shareholders. Specifically, This paper provides direct evidence that controlling owners expropriate minority shareholders through earnings management before they trade in their own firms’ stock. Controlling shareholders have strong incentives to expropriate wealth from minority shareholders to promote their own economic benefits through various self-dealing transactions(Shleifer and Vishny 1997, Johnson et al. 2000). Despite this claim, only limited systematic evidence is available concerning the specific mechanism used by controlling owners. How is expropriation actually achieved? This paper allows us to describe one such mechanism. Earnings management associated with controlling owner trading in Korea is particularly adequate to investigate the means of expropriation for several reasons. First, in an environment where most firms belong to business groups controlled by a single ultimate owner (i.e., controlling owner), controlling owners hold significant percentage of outstanding shares in their firms. They assume a significant role in managing their companies, usually holding the chief executive or chairmanship in their companies. This allows controlling owners to engage in earnings management to their benefit. When controlling owners trade in their own firms’stock, they will have strong incentives to sell high and buy low. Earnings management helps controlling owners achieve this. Second, earnings management through accounting accruals is an attractive means to set the stock price artificially high or low in the present context because it is hard to find earnings management to outsiders. This study finds strong evidence that controlling owners deflate (inflate) earnings before they buy (sell) their own firms’ stock. Since minority shareholders who transact with the controlling owner under this condition suffer from “unfair” prices attributable to earning management, this amounts to expropriation of minority shareholders by the controlling owner. This study's finding is unique on the symmetry between the gains of the controlling owner and the losses of minority shareholders. Because of such a symmetry, this study's results unambiguously show how controlling owners use earnings management to expropriate minority shareholders. This finding is also supportive of the observation by Shleifer and Vishney(1997) that the conflicts between the controlling shareholder and minority shareholders are important in firms with concentrated ownership, especially where ownership is not separated from management. This study adds further insights into both the insider trading and earnings management literatures. Since the possibility of active earnings management before controlling owners' trading has largely been ignored in the literature, investigating earnings management associated with controlling owners’ transactions enhances our understanding of the insiders’ opportunistic behavior. Second, unlike most earnings management studies, the current context enables us to interpret earnings management in the light of the conflicts between the controlling owner and minority shareholders. Since the controlling owner sells after overstating earnings and buys after understating earnings, minority shareholders lose by precisely the same amount as the controlling owner gains. From this perspective, this study poses earnings management as a strong and direct indicator of the means through which controlling owners expropriate minority shareholders. Given that evidence concerning how expropriation is actually achieved is scarce, this paper provides additional insights into the mechanism used by the controlling owner to expropriate minority shareholders.

Change of Controlling Shareholder's Equity Holdings, Conflicts between Shareholder's Interests, Controlling Owner, Minority Shareholder, Earnings Management