Second, accruals and cash flows are the two most commonly examined
components of earnings.Opera ting accruals represent accountants’ attempt to
transform operating cash flows into earnings that are more informative about
firm performance and thus make earnings a more useful measure for
contracting and/or in fundamental analysis or valuation.How ever, selfinterested
managers might use accounting discretion opportunistically and
manipulate accruals, which would distort earnings as a measure of firm
performance.Tes ts of accrual management hypotheses based on positive
accounting theory examine accounting accruals’ properties.These tests provide
a motivation for research in the time-series properties of accruals and cash
flows and other earnings components (e.g., current and non-current accruals,
operating and investing cash flows, etc.).