於科技日新月異的時代中，企業提供之產品以及服務需與時俱進，尤其軟體業競爭激烈，投入研發與創新為必然，管理階層應謹慎評估投資計畫，避免研發計畫失敗導致企業遭到市場淘汰。然，研發支出之會計處理向來為較具爭論之議題，研發資本化支持者認為，管理階層會藉由裁減研發費用，操弄財務數字，進而造成研發投資不足之現象，但另一派學者認為研發資本化並非完美，資本化導致管理階層不願放棄失敗風險高之投資計畫，使計畫產生過度投資之情形。然而，企業資金有限，基於外部融資成本較高之考量，公司就企業內有限資源最大化研發投資效率。故本文旨在探討研發資本化與後續研發過度投資之關聯性，以2003年至2017年美國軟體業公司為樣本。實證結果顯示，研發進入資本化階段後，易發生過度投資之現象。此外，本研究更進一步發現，企業自由現金流量較多時，會加劇研發資本化與後續過度投資之關聯性。

　　In the ever-changing era of technology, the products and services provided by enterprises should keep up with the times. Especially the software industry is fiercely competitive. It is inevitable to invest in R&D and innovation. The management should carefully assess the investment plan and avoid the failure of R&D projects and cause companies to be out of the market However, the accounting treatment of R&D expenditure has always been a controversial issue. Supporters of R&D capitalization regard that management will cut R&D expenses to manipulate financial figures, which will lead to insufficient R&D investment, but the other scholars believe that R&D capitalization is not perfect. Capitalization has led management to reluctant to abandon project although the high risk of failure, making the project over-investment. However, the company's funds are limited, considering for the higher external financing costs, the firms should maximize the investment efficiency of the limited resources within the enterprise. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to discuss the correlation between R&D capitalization and subsequent R&D over-investment. Using the sample of U.S. software firms from 2003 to .2017. The results show that capitalizing firms are prone to over-investment. In addition, the study further indicates that the company with the higher level of free cash flow, the more positive correlation between R&D capitalization and subsequent over-investment.

第一章緒論1
第一節研究動機1
第二章文獻回顧5
第一節研發支出之特性5
第二節研發支出報導方式對研發投資決策之影響7
第三節自由現金流量9
第三章假說發展與研究設計11
第一節假說發展11
第二節研究設計14
第三節變數衡量15
第四節資料來源與樣本篩選22
第四章實證結果分析23
第一節敘述性統計分析23
第二節相關係數分析25
第三節實證結果27
第四節額外測試32
第五章研究結論與建議35
第一節結論35
第二節研究貢獻、限制與未來研究建議36
參考文獻37

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