The Value Relevance in Accounting Information: The Intermediary Role of Intellectual Capital and the Trust Transfer Effect of Strategic Deviation

HRMARS - This study examines the evolving value relevance of accounting information in China's A-share market from 2005 to 2024. Using an unbalanced panel dataset of 52,721 firm-year observations from the CSMAR and Wind databases, we employ panel data regression models to investigate the roles of intellectual capital and strategic deviation. We document a significant decline in the value relevance of earnings and book value, particularly post-2014. Our findings reveal that intellectual capital's association with firm value is fully mediated by traditional accounting performance, rather than providing incremental explanatory power. Furthermore, strategic deviation exhibits a dual moderating effect: it weakens the value relevance of earnings while strengthening that of book value, revealing a "trust transfer" effect. Cross-industry analyses establish a critical boundary condition: this trust transfer mechanism holds in traditional industries but completely breaks down in high-tech firms, where strategic deviance severely undermines earnings relevance without enhancing book value's role. Our findings illuminate the dynamic and contingent nature of accounting usefulness in emerging knowledge economies.