Value creation of EVA and traditional accounting measures: Indian evidence

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to examine the superiority of economic value added (EVA) over the traditional accounting performance measures, i.e. earnings per share, return on assets and return on equity. For this purpose, the relative and incremental information content of EVA and accounting measures are tested by examining the relationship of these measures with stock returns. Design/methodology/approach - The analysis is performed for a sample of 50 Indian companies selected from the index Nifty 50 for the period of 2008-2011. The penal regression models are applied to examine the relative and incremental information content of EVA and traditional performance measures. Findings - The study finds that EVA has more relevant and incremental information content than accounting measures for analyzing shareholder value creation. These results confirm that EVA is better performance measure than traditional accounting measures. Research limitations/implications - The study could be further extended for the sample of other firms covering the specific industries and sectors. The calculation of EVA could be modified with respect to the adjustment in profit after tax and the calculation of cost of capital. Practical implications - The study has implications for the managers who are responsible to generate the wealth of shareholders by formulating the corporate financial policies. The findings also help investors who are closely concerned with the financial health of the firm while taking their investment decisions. Originality/value - The novelty of this study is that it relates total return of firm's stock with the financial measures unlike the previous literature.