This research presents an empirical study about the use of different measure of quality
of earnings on different industries. The notion is; since there is no agreed-upon
definition or technique to measure the quality of earnings, one company or one
industry cannot be labeled as having low quality of earnings based on one technique of
measurement.
In another words, the company or the industry can be judged as having low or high
quality or earnings only if there is consistency among the results of more than one
approach or technique for measurement.
This research concludes that the financial analysts and any governmental agency
dealing with the company should apply more than one measure for the quality of
earning in order to have strong evidence about the level of quality before taking any
corrective action or making any decision related to that company. If one company is
having low quality of earning according to one technique and high quality of earnings
according to another, the stakeholders cannot have a final conclusion about that
company and they need more investigations and analysis to assess the quality of
earnings.