abstract
Francis and Martin (2009) test whether accounting conservatism induces managers to
make better acquisition decisions. This discussion highlights three main issues. First, the
hypothesized links between conservatism and future investments are potentially
incomplete. In particular, the possibility that conservatism can have dysfunctional
outcomes if acquisition decisions are based on anticipated earnings effects is ignored.
Second, the evidence is insufficient to infer a causal relation between conservatism and
acquisition profitability. Third, the hypothesis development fails to indicate whether
timely loss recognition or the asymmetric timeliness of loss versus gain recognition is
the more appropriate measure of conservatism given the context.
& 2009 Published by Elsevier B.V.