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(Received: October 14, 2020 / Revised: November 30, 2020 / Accepted: December 4, 2020)
ABSTRACT
The main purpose of this research is to analyze the effect of business diversity on the relation between profit sustaina-
bility, real earnings management and commercial credit in companies of Securities and Exchange Organization of
Iraq. In this research, dependent variable is business credit which is calculated through dividing trade payable ac-
counts of the company on the total asset (Petersen and Rajan, 1997; Giannetti et al., 2011) the independent variables
are profit sustainability and real earnings management; in order to calculate profit sustainability the Kormendi and
Lipemodel has been utilized while for calculating real earnings management the model that already has been used.
The research data has been gathered by using a sample made up of 35 companies during 2011-2016. The research
hypotheses were analyzed by hybrid data in SATA14 application. The results indicate that the modular effect of busi-
ness diversity on the relation of profit sustainability and business credit is positive and meaningful, and the modular
effect of business credit on the relation between real profit management and business credit is not meaningful.
Keywords: Business Credit, Profit Sustainability, Real Earnings Management, Business Diversity
new products to target markets is of high importance for While at the beginning of this century, the dominant atti-
managers and owners of these businesses. Considering tude amongst researches and workingmen was that corpo-
competitive situations surrounding economic institutions, rate diversification leads to depreciation of company’s
development of new products is the only way to survive value, several researches doubted about the company’s
their profitability. Big companies play an important role value. In their research, they came to this conclusion that
in countries’ economies and are usually of a high variety corporate diversification doesn’t lead to depreciation of
in business. Attentions are focused on stating strategy for company’s value by itself, and this effect is different
business entities rather than stating strategy for entities among particular industrial complexes, financial situa-
holding only one business. From Matususaka (2001) tions and administrative structures.
point of view variety is the process of seeking for busi- Dust and Dadbeh (2014) analyzes the company’s di-
nesses appropriate to entities’ abilities (Matususaka, 2001, versification, information asymmetry and company’s per-
409). When the competition gets intense and the risk rate formance. Their studies indicate that factors such as in-
goes up, this strategy is used in order to decrease the crease of unsteadiness and disturbance in industry, man-
competition risk and pressure and the probability of being agers’ focus on increasing stock value and growth and
let down; it means that instead of investing on one prod- emergence of new ideas about the company’s manage-
uct or becoming single-product, they start presenting ment have been reasons for make this company concen-
products in several different products. Diversification is trated again. They assessed a strategic business environ-
done in two concentric and nonconcentric ways that are ment of companies of Securities and Exchange Organiza-
the basis of presenting new related products and services tion of Tehran in a sample of 47 great companies in 2008-
to customers (concentric) or new products and unrelated 2012. The results have shown that the diversification of
services to customers (nonconcentric) (Ali-Ahmadi, 2010, great companies has affected the information asymmetry,
67). Diversification is a part of four main growth strate- and also the companies’ diversifications have effects on
gies presented by Ansoff product-market matrix. Ansoff their performance.
has pointed out that diversification strategy is excluded Chen et al. (2017) attempted to analyze the quality
from three other strategies. The first three strategies seek of accounting and commercial credit to see whether com-
for technical and financial sources and goods in order to panies with the lowest level of accounting quality can use
use the main product line, while diversification of a com- more of commercial credit as a financing resource. Due to
pany usually requires acquisition of new skills, techniques, the information asymmetry of those companies, providers
sources and facilities. Diversification is the riskiest strate- are more likely to provide the commercial credit for cus-
gy amongst the four strategies presented in Ansoff matrix tomers possessing a lower quality of accounting. The
and requires accuracy of investment in this strategy. En- results conform to this anticipation which means there is a
tering an unknown market with non-familiar offered negative, meaningful relation between companies’ quality
products means the lack of experience in new and essen- of accounting.
tial skills and techniques. Therefore, the company has Li et al. (2018) analyzed the financial report and
stepped into a great distrust. The definition of diversifica- commercial credit in 30 countries in 2000-2014. The
tion depends on subjective interpretation of new market main purpose of the research is the effect of applying
or new product that should reflect the customers’ compre- IFRS on commercial credit. Data show that companies
hension instead of those of the managers; in fact, products located in countries which apply IFRS collect more
lead to creation or instigation of new markets, and new commercial credit from their providers. Furthermore, the
markets improve the innovation of the product (Daadbeh quality of financial reporting has an important role in faci-
and Baqerabadi, 2012, 91). litating the financing.
Masahiro (2019) conducted a research entitled " the
effect of corporate governance on the relation between the
2. LITERATURE REVIEW quality of accounting and commercial credit: evidences
from Japan. The research was conducted since 201 t 2014.
Researches of Apostu (2010) have been generally The results indicate that commercial credit increases by
conducted on European countries and has studied the role increasing the quality of accounting. Also, the presence of
of diversification strategies in various financial items con- benefit between providers and customers weakens the
sidering the previous economic studies. Controlling the relation between the quality of accounting and commer-
size of the company, profitability, growth, tangible assets cial credit.
and operational risk, he concluded that geographical and Huang et al. (2019) conducted a research entitled “the
commercial diversification doesn’t have any effect on the commercial credit and companies’ sustainable growth in
structure of the capital. China” through the data from financial statements of
Erdorf et al. (2012) proceeded to analyze the influ- 208989 companies since 2003 until 2017. The results of
ence of corporate diversification on the company’s value. this research indicated that there is a positive, meaningful
Kadhim, Hasan, and Khalbas: Industrial Engineering & Management Systems
Vol 19, No 4, December 2020, pp.908-915, © 2020 KIIE 910
relation between commercial credit and sustainable depends on the subjective interpretation about the new
growth of the companies, and also that the relation be- market or the new product that must reflect the customers’
tween commercial credit and sustainable growth of com- understanding of that market rather than those of manag-
panies while having less access to financing is greater. ers. Actually, products lead to creation or instigation of
Moqarrabi (2012) has studied the effect of corporate new markets, and new markets improve the innovation of
diversification on company’s performance using the ratio the product (Daadbeh and Baqerabadi, 2012).
of Tobin’s Q. The results show that corporate diversifica-
tion doesn’t affect the company’s performance and that 3.2 Commercial Diversification
there is no meaningful relation between geographical
diversification and company’s performance. In commercial diversification, the company pos-
Almzade (2013) has assessed the effect of corporate sesses diversity in activities, and is active in two or sever-
diversification on cash holding in companies accepted in al parts of the market, and each commercial part is a se-
Securities and Exchange Organization of Tehran. The parable part of the business entity that presents a related
results state that the influence of corporate and commer- product or service or a group of related products or of
cial diversification on cash holding is negative and mea- services, and contains risk and interest different than other
ningful, and geographical diversification has no relation parts of the business entity. Factors below must be consi-
with cash holding. dered in mind while determining about related products
Aflatuni and Nemati (2018) analyzed the role of fi- and services:
nancial reporting’s quality and disclosure’s quality in in- a) The nature of products or services
creasing the commercial credit. The sample of the re- b) The nature of productive processes
search included 146 companies accepted in Securities and c) Customers’ type or class for products or services
Exchange Organization of Tehran during 1383-1395. The d) Methods of product distribution or service provi-
acquired results indicate that by increasing the quality of sion
financial reporting and disclosure, the commercial credit e) The nature of relevant principles; for instance,
rate increases. banking and insurance regulations (Iran’s ac-
counting standards, no. 25)
MARKETSHAREit (market share): is company’s •They must not be financial institutions (banks) and
sale divided on the total of sale of industry in fiscal year. financial intermediary companies.
The second hypothesis test: The companies accepted in stock exchange were 122
APit=β0+β1EMit+β2DGOODSit+β3EM*DGOODSit that after applying mentioned features, 35 companies
+β4SIZEit+β5SALEGROWTHi,t+β6AGEi,t were analyzed.
+β7AGE2i,t+β8ROAi,t+β9ARi,t+β10TOBINSQi,t
+β11CASHi,t+β12DEBTi,t 4.3 Research Data
+β13MARKETSHAREi,t+εi,t
EM: real earnings management According to the results of the Table 1 it seems that
average of the commercial credit is 0.298. The profit sus-
tainability’s average is 0.005. These results show that the
4. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION sample Iraqi companies have profitability continuity on
average but the quantity is low. Results also indicate that
The population of the research includes the compa- the average of real earnings management is 0.008. The
nies accepted in Securities and Exchange Organization of averages of the size of the company and the sale are re-
Iraq in the period since 2011 until 2016 (1390-1395). spectively 9.703 and 0.259. The average age of available
companies are approximately 31 and the averages of nat-
4.1 Sampling Method ural logarithm of company’s age and the total of its
squares are respectively 3.358 and 11.419. The averages
In this research in order to acquire an available sta- of the return of the assets, the ratio of accounts receivable
tistical population, all of the companies of the statistical and the ratio of Tobin’s Q are -0.012, 0.263 and 4.153.
population which possess the features below, have been The average of the ratio of cash is 0.163 and those of the
selected as the available statistical population: ratio of debt and the market share are 0.395 and 0.113 .In
•Companies must have been accepted in Securities what follows, the results of normality test indicates that a
and Exchange Organization of Iraq before 2011, low number of variables don’t possess a normal distribu-
and haven’t exited until the end of 2016. tion. But, because of a not so much difference in the aver-
•Companies must not have changed fiscal year dur- age and the median, and since the number of observations
ing the studied period. (210 observations) are more than 30, it can be stated on
•Financial data of companies in the studied period the basis of the central limit theorem that variables follow
must be available. a pretty normal distribution (Greene, 2011).
The correlation coefficient between two variables credit in this model. Furthermore, the results of the first
measures the degree of linearly dependence between hypothesis test show that the effect of commercial di-
those two. The correlation coefficients of the research’s versification (PS*DGOODS) on the relation between
main variables are presented in the table below: the profit sustainability and the commercial credit is
According to the results of Table 3, the amount of positive and meaningful. Therefore, the first hypothesis
the coefficient of determination states that dependent is confirmed. In other words, the commercial diversifi-
and control variables explain about 85% of the indepen- cation has a positive, meaningful effect on the relation
dent variable’s changes. Meaningfulness of Wald statis- between the profit sustainability and the commercial
tics (689.21) state the general meaningfulness of the credit. Other results show that in this model, size, return
model related to the first hypothesis of the research. of assets, the ratio of accounts receivable and the ratio of
Data indicate that commercial diversification has a mea- Tobin’s Q and the ratio of debt has a positive, meaning-
ningful, positive effect on the companies’ commercial ful relation with commercial credit. But, the relation
Table 2. Pearson’s coefficient of correlation between the main variables of the research
Variable AP PS EM SIZE SG AGE AGE2 ROA AR TQ CASH DEBT MS
AP 1
PS 0.08 1
EM 0.04 0.15* 1
SIZE 0.15* -0.04 -0.19 1
SG -0.07 0.28* -0.08 0.04 1
AGE 0.19* -0.13 -0.09 0.02 0.02 1
AGE2 0.18* -0.14* -0.10 0.01 0.03 0.99* 1
ROA -0.42* 0.40* 0.15 0.02 0.16* -0.42* -0.42* 1
AR 0.42* 0.03 -0.01 0.26* -0.07 -0.16* -0.17* -0.06 1
TQ 0.22* 0.13 0.04 -0.26* 0.02 -0.13 -0.14* 0.01 0.17* 1
CASH -0.16* 0.18* 0.12 -0.12 0.03 -0.24* -0.24* 0.29* -0.24* -0.12 1
DEBT 0.86* 0.04* 0.01 0.10 -0.04 0.29* 0.29* -0.59* 0.30* 0.10 -0.14* 1
MS 0.00 0.17* -0.04 0.65* 0.09 -0.23* -0.24* 0.26* 0.05 -0.04 0.17* -0.01 1
between other control variables and the commercial cre- hypothesis show that the commercial diversification has a
dit is not meaningful. positive, meaningful effect on companies’ commercial
Regarding the data of Table 4, the amount of the credit. Furthermore, the results of the research’s first hy-
coefficient of determination indicates that dependent and pothesis indicate that the effect of commercial diversifica-
control variables explain approximately 85% of the inde- tion (PS*DGOODS) on the relation between the profit
pendent variable’s changes. The meaningfulness of Wald sustainability and the commercial credit is positive and
statistic (715.49) shows the general meaningfulness of the meaningful. So, the first hypothesis is confirmed. In other
model related to the second hypothesis of the research. words, the commercial diversification has a positive,
Results prove that in this model, the commercial diversi- meaningful effect on the relation between the profit sus-
fication has a positive, meaningful effect on the commer- tainability and the commercial credit. Other results show
cial credit. Besides, the data of the second hypothesis of that in this model, size, return of assets, the ratio of ac-
the research show that the effect of the commercial diver- counts receivable and the ratio of Tobin’s Q and the ratio
sification (EM*DGOODS) on the relation between the of debt has a positive meaningful relation with the com-
real earnings management and the commercial credit is mercial credit. But, according to the acquired results
not meaningful. Therefore, the second hypothesis of the which reject this hypothesis the relation between other
research is not accepted. The results also indicate that in control variables and the commercial credit is not mea-
this model, size, return of assets, the ratio of accounts ningful.
receivable and the ratio of Tobin’s Q and the ratio of debt
has a positive meaningful relation with the commercial 5.2 The Second Hypothesis
credit. But, there seems no meaningful relation between
In this hypothesis, the testing of the effect of the
other control variables and the commercial credit.
commercial credit on the relation between the real earn-
ings management and the commercial credit was con-
ducted. The results of the second hypothesis prove that
5. CONCLUSION the commercial diversification has a positive, meaningful
effect on the commercial credit. Besides, the data of the
5.1 The First Hypothesis second hypothesis indicate that the effect of the commer-
cial diversification (EM*DGOODS) on the relation be-
The test of the effect of companies’ commercial cre- tween the real earnings management and the commercial
dit on the relation between the profit sustainability and the credit is not meaningful. Therefore, the second hypothesis
commercial credit has been done. The results of the first of the research is not confirmed. Results also show that in
The Effect of Business Diversity on the Relation between Profit Sustainability, Real Earnings Management and Commercial Credit in Companies of Securities and Exchange Organization of Iraq
Vol 19, No 4, December 2020, pp.908-915, © 2020 KIIE 915
this model, size, return of assets, the ratio of accounts Science Letters, 4(2), 315-324.
receivable and the ratio of Tobin’s Q and the ratio of debt Erdorf, S., Hartman-Wendels, T., and Heinrichs, N. (2012),
has a positive meaningful relation with the commercial Corporate diversification and firm value: A survey of
credit. But, there seems no meaningful relation between recent literature, Working Paper, Cologne Graduate
other control variables and the commercial credit. Now, School.
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commercial credit is not meaningful. What you sell is what you lend? Explaining trade
credit contracts, Review of Financial Studies, 24(4),
1261-1298.
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