本研究主要探討台灣企業是否利用研究發展(簡稱R&D)活動從事盈餘管理以及這項盈餘管理決策是否會影響R&D 支出的會計選擇。我們發現在準則要求R&D 支出費用化時，經理人會藉由刪減R&D 支出達成盈餘目標，這與大部分實質盈餘管理文獻獲得的結論相同；但在準則允許發展支出得資本化後，與歐美企業不同地，台灣企業經理人仍然習於將R&D 支出當費用處理，而非利用資本化以提高報導淨利從事盈餘管理。此一發現說明了R&D 支出的盈餘管理需求確實影響了R&D 支出的會計處理決策，為台灣少有研發支出資本化實務提供了部分的解釋，同時也進一步說明準則對R&D 支出資本化的開放，並未達預期的效益。

This paper examines whether managers engage in earnings management by manipulating R&D activities and whether a firm's decision to manage earnings through R&D activities affects the firm's accounting choice of R&D costs. Consistently with most of the empirical evidence on real earnings management, we find that managers engage in real earnings management cutting R&D spending to meet earnings benchmarks while accounting standards require R&D cost must be expensing. However, while GAAP permit R&D costs to be capitalized as R&D assets, Taiwan's managers still used to expensing other than capitalizing such costs to manage earnings. This finding suggests that earnings management decision do affect subsequent accounting choice and provides a part of interpretation for the rare of capitalizing practice on R&D activities in Taiwan. Furthermore, this finding also suggests that the expected benefits about releasing the mandatory expensing rule have not been achieved.