本研究探討臺灣上市櫃公司財務報表的營收穩健性，以產業類別、研發費用、及訴訟風險之角度做比較。美國科技業公司股東訴訟風險環境較其他產業高，使得財報具有較高的穩健性。與美國相比臺灣訴訟風險較低，本研究嘗試從產業、研發費用和訴訟風險的角度出發，檢驗這些因素是否同樣會影響臺灣上市櫃公司財報的穩健性。由於較缺乏公正客觀評估穩健性的方法，故本研究以邊際利潤、資產報酬率、股東報酬率、以及來自營運活動的現金來捕捉財務報表的盈餘穩健特性，同時修改Basu (1997)的模型，以評估非條件性以及條件性穩健的程度。另一方面也嘗試從財務報表監督者的角度，探討會計師事務所簽證客戶財務報表的穩健程度。研究結果發現臺灣上市科技業財報的邊際利潤以及營運活動現金兩項指標表現，與預期情況不同；另外研究發展費用增加確實會增加非條件性穩健，訴訟風險增加也會增加條件性穩健程度。但從會計師事務所的角度研究卻得到不同的結果，非四大會計師事務所簽證客戶的財報似乎反而具有較高的穩健性。
This research investigates the extent and nature of income conservatism from a view of preparation of financial reports as related to the factor of industry factor, research and development expense, and litigation risk, and a view of supervisor of financial reports as accounting firm. Due to the lack of a generally accepted methodology, several proxies, there are, profit margin, accounting rates of return and operating cash flow are applied to value the conservatism of financial statements; meanwhile Basu’s earnings return model (1997) is modified to evaluate the degree of conditional and unconditional conservatism.
Also I suppose the financial reports of clients of Big 4 accounting firms should have more conservatism in order to protect their own reputation of Big 4. The result acclaims, relative to other companies, the effects on profit margin and operating cash flow of the technology firms do not follow the same direction as stated in the hypothesis; on the other hand, as predicted, large R&D expense does elevate unconditional conservatism, and the rise of litigation risk increases conditional conservatism. The financial reports of clients of Big 4 firms seem to have less conservatism.
