The relevance to firm valuation of research and development expenditure in the Australian health-care industry. (August 2014)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Mitrione, Lorena; Tanewski, George; Birt, Jacqueline
• Is Part Of: Australian journal of management. Volume 39:Number 3(2014:Aug.)
• Page Start: 425
• Page End: 452
• Publication Date: 2014-08
• Subjects: M40 -- M41 -- M48; biotechnology -- capitalised -- expenditure -- expensed -- health care -- IAS 38 -- research and development -- value relevance; Management -- Periodicals; Management -- Australia -- Periodicals; Business enterprises -- Finance -- Periodicals; Industrial management -- Australia -- Periodicals; 330
• DOI: 10.1177/0312896213496256
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0312-8962

Abstract

The health-care industry requires large expenditure on research and development (R&D), with many projects undergoing long development cycles, usually with uncertain outcomes. Extant research has mainly concentrated on the health-care industry in the United States, where R&D costs are expensed as incurred. Previous Australian research has found mixed results in relation to R&D expenditure and changes in share price. This study investigates whether R&D expenditure reported in the health-care industry since the introduction of IAS 38 is significantly associated with share price. Results of the study show that expensed R&D is value-relevant, while a comparison of the pre and post-IAS 38 periods (including pre-global financial crisis (GFC) and GFC periods) shows a statistically significant improvement in the explanatory power of the regression model post-IAS 38, suggesting that R&D expenditure reported under the new standard IAS 38 is more useful for decision-making by investors compared with reporting under AASB 1011.