The Impact of Accounting Conservatism on Optimization of Investment

The importance of investment for economic and social growth and development is such an important issue which has changed it to one of the powerful levers of development. But it should be considered that as the close attention to this issue has the ability to cause economic growth and prosperity, overlooking this may result in economic loss. In this regard, one of the influential factors in investment is accounting conservatism. For this reason, in this study we investigate the relationship between accounting conservatism and investment efficiency, to inform managers, investors and professional accounting bodies about high quality of accounting conservatism as a qualitative characteristic of accounting information.
The study sample consists of 100 companies studied between 1381 to 1390. The results reveal that there is significant correlation between accounting conservatism and future investment at corporate level and also at 7 industry groups' level. There have been significant negative correlation between firm size and future investment at company level and chemical, food and pharmaceutical industries; there also have been significant and positive correlation between ratio of market value to book value and future investment at company and wood and textile, chemical, metal and ceramic industries; another result reveals that there have been significant negative correlation between financial leverage and future investment at company level and pharmaceutical and food industries.We can conclude that the more companies are conservative, they have less willing to invest far from optimal levels.