A study of the relationship between related party transactions and firm value in high technology firms in Taiwan and China

Related-party transactions are a facet of corporate governance, due to the fact that they are usually comprised of complicated transactions between a company and its managers, directors, subsidiaries and major shareholders. It is a fact that related-party transactions result in higher agency costs due to the alignment of decision-making rights and monitoring rights. The traditional accounting performance measures (return of equity, earnings per share) only reflect short-term performance, and are unable to express an enterpriseʹs long-term value. The sample of this study includes a list of high-technology firms in Taiwan and China from 1998 - 2008. We use the ordinary least squares method to test our hypothesis. Empirical results show that the account (notes) receivables and account (notes) payables from related-party transactions of high-technology firms in Taiwan exhibit a significant (positive) relationship with performance. However, the sales or purchases of goods from related party transactions of high-technology firms in China have a significant (negative) relationship with performance. We use Market value added (MVA), which is a powerful method for explaining market value. Economic value added (EVA) is also a high-power tool for explaining the relationships between related-party transactions and firm value, more so than other proxy variables of firm performance and reflects the true economic value of a firm. Therefore EVA and Market value added are used as an alternative performance measure.