Accounting Earnings Management Research Articles

Earnings management and judicial recovery: evidence for brazilian companies

Purpose: This study investigated the relationship between judicial recovery and insolvency with the Real Earnings Management (REM) level of publicly traded Brazilian companies in the period 2016-2020. Methodology: The estimated econometric model was panel data regression. The dependent variable was the level of REM measured based on Roychowdhury (2006), which estimates the manipulation of real activities through the analysis of abnormal movements in operating cash flow, discretionary expenses and production costs. The sample collected from 2016 to 2020 consists of 723 non-financial companies. Results: As main results, the study was able to demonstrate that there is an inverse relationship between judicial recovery and insolvency with earnings management. In other words, companies that are in judicial recovery or insolvent tend to have less earnings management. The findings of this research suggest that managers of companies undergoing judicial recovery have less incentive to engage in discretionary practices, as they are thus able to highlight their financial difficulties and obtain the judicial benefits of the process. Contributions of the Study: Although many studies evaluate the factors that influence earnings management, this work seeks to contribute to the study of accounting earnings management and uses an operational proxy, associating it with companies undergoing judicial recovery. Furthermore, with evidence of less earnings management by these companies, there is a possible improvement in the shareholders' perspective regarding the future of the company's finances, thus also contributing to investors' decision-making.

Real versus accounting earnings management: The effect of performance measure timing constraints

AbstractWe study the influence of stricter rules for determining performance measures for compensation contracts on managers' choice between real and accounting earnings management. Constraints, like accounting regulation or corporate governance, limit managers' influence on performance measures. We find that tighter constraints intensify real earnings manipulation, because they reduce incentives for managers to supply effort on investment activities. In turn, discretion allows managers to anticipate future benefits of investment and reduces real earnings management. The results hold when contracts include forward‐looking information and suggest that constraints on managers' influence on performance measures drive the choice between accounting and real earnings management.

AUDIT QUALITY AND REAL EARNINGS MANAGEMENT: EVIDENCE FROM TUNISIAN BANKS

The beginning of the 21st century was marked by a multitude of financial scandals, notably the Enron affair in 2001 and the fall of the auditing firm Arthur Andersen (2002). Such scandals have called into question of the financial reporting quality. The main cause of these scandals was the failure of the external audit quality which is considered crucial to ensure the reliability and relevance of accounting information. Moreover, following the promulgation of the SOX law (2002), managers tend rather towards the real activities manipulation to avoid the detection of the accounting earnings management. In fact, managers can resort to certain adjustments whose opportunistic or optimal nature is difficult to discern by auditors, in particular the reduction in selling prices, the granting of more lenient credit terms, overproduction and the reduction or postponement of research and development (R&D) and advertising expenditure. This study therefore aims to show the role that external audit quality can play in limiting real activities manipulation and therefore in the quality of accounting information. For this, we conducted an empirical study with a sample of the main. Tunisian commercial banks observed over a period from 2006 to 2019, using the panel data method. The results indicate that the presence of a reputable auditor limits real earnings management. However, the results show that the tenure of auditors increases these discretionary practices.

Recruiting Dark Personalities for Earnings Management

Prior research indicates that managers’ dark personality traits increase their tendency to engage in disruptive and unethical organizational behaviors including accounting earnings management. Other research suggests that the prevalence of dark personalities in management may represent an accidental byproduct of selecting managers with accompanying desirable attributes that fit the stereotype of a “strong leader.” Our paper posits that organizations may hire some managers who have dark personality traits because their willingness to push ethical boundaries aligns with organizational objectives, particularly in the accounting context where ethical considerations are especially important. Using several validation studies and experiments, we find that experienced executives and recruiting professionals favor hiring a candidate with dark personality traits into an accounting management position over an otherwise better-qualified candidate when the hiring organization faces pressure to manage earnings. Our results help to illuminate why individuals with dark personality traits may effectively compete for high-level accounting positions.

Recruiting Dark Personalities for Earnings Management

Prior research indicates that managers’ dark personality traits increase their tendency to engage in disruptive and unethical organizational behaviors including accounting earnings management. Other research suggests that the prevalence of dark personalities in management may represent an accidental byproduct of selecting managers with accompanying desirable attributes that fit the stereotype of a “strong leader.” Our paper posits that organizations may hire some managers who have dark personality traits because their willingness to push ethical boundaries aligns with organizational objectives, particularly in the accounting context where ethical considerations are especially important. Using several validation studies and experiments, we find that experienced executives and recruiting professionals favor hiring a candidate with dark personality traits into an accounting management position over an otherwise better-qualified candidate when the hiring organization faces pressure to manage earnings. Our results help to illuminate why individuals with dark personality traits may effectively compete for high-level accounting positions.

Determinants of the Attitudes of Portuguese Accounting Students and Professionals Towards Earnings Management

We revisit religiosity, gender, age, ethics education and experience as drivers of ethicality, while expanding prior research from Anglo-Saxon and Asiatic/Euro-Asiatic countries to a Latin European country, Portugal. We apply the Merchant (1989) instrument of attitudes towards earnings management, in a sample of Portuguese accounting students and alumni. We find no significant evidence of a positive association between religiosity and accountants’ judgments on earnings management. However, gender, age, education (and accounting ethics education) and experience are significant predictors of accountants’ judgments. The results are unchanged when we control for the intent (selfish benefit) of earnings management. Females, older individuals and alumni judge accounting earnings management more harshly than males, younger individuals, and students (who have not yet completed an accounting ethics course). A higher level of accounting work experience induces accountants to judge accounting earnings management as a less ethically questionable practice. This finding is theoretically relevant because it underscores the necessity of taking people’s constraints in the workplace into consideration when studying ethical behavior in business contexts. The results are also practically relevant, as they highlight the importance of a systematic ethics education throughout the accountant’s life.

Corporate Governance and Accounting Earnings Management: The Case of Tunisia

This paper aims to test the impact of some corporate governance characteristics on the management of the accounting earnings measured by discretionary accruals. As for the prior research we treat the level of management of accounting earnings as a "proxy" for the quality of the accounting and financial information published by companies. Empirical analysis is based on the modified Jones model (1995) to estimate discretionary accruals and a panel data model applied to a sample of 21 companies listed on the Tunis Stock Exchange (BVMT) over a period of 3 years from 2008 to 2010. The main findings of the current study reveal that, in the Tunisian context, the affiliation of auditors to a "Big" international network and the independence of the board of directors significantly constrain the practice of managing the accounting earnings and, consequently, they improve the quality of the published result. However, the number of independent members in the audit committee has a negative but not significant impact on the practice of earnings management, whereas the duration of the audit mandate does not affect this practice.Finally, the control variables taken into account in our study have a significant effect on the quality of the accounting result.Thus, the results of this study helped to improve our understanding of earnings management in Tunisian companies, with reference to some characteristics of corporate governance.

Ownership structure of a company and accounting earnings management

The objective of our study is to investigate whether the ownership structure of a company, including ownership concentration, managerial ownership and the presence of institutional investors, affects accrual earnings management practices. We first modelled discretionary accruals using the modified approach of Jones (1991), and then we built the model describing the relationship between discretionary accruals and elements of ownership structure of companies and control variables, determining regression using the least square method. We provided evidence of negative dependence between the magnitude of accrual earnings management and shareholder concentration. We do not corroborate the relationship between accrual earnings management and managerial ownership. The presence of institutional investors reduces the magnitude of accrual earnings management. We do not provide evidence that the presence of State Treasury affects accrual earnings management. We do not confirm that accrual earnings management is used for meeting or beating earnings benchmarks.

Analysts’ reactions to firms’ real activities management

PurposeFirms’ real activities management (RAM) can have a more detrimental effect on firms’ future performance than accrual earnings management. This paper aims to examine whether analysts, who play an important role as information intermediaries, understand the negative effect of RAM on firms’ future performance and respond to it accordingly.Design/methodology/approachThe authors investigate whether analysts lower their earnings forecasts and stock recommendations of the firms with RAM. The authors measure RAM by examining firms’ abnormal decreases in discretionary expenses, abnormal increases in production and abnormal decreases in cash flow from operations following prior literature.FindingsThe authors find that after controlling for earnings surprises and other important firm characteristics, analysts lower their forecasts of future annual earnings and stock recommendations of the firms that show signs of RAM.Research limitations/implicationsFirst, as in other RAM studies, the results in this study are subject to measurement errors inherent in the estimation of RAM (i.e. abnormal production costs, abnormal CFO and abnormal discretionary expenditures). Second, we include only firm-year observations that barely make positive income in our samples following the previous study. This sample selection criterion helps increase the power of the test by examining the “suspect firms group,” which are more likely to engage in earnings management. However, one can challenge that our findings on the association between RAM and analysts’ reactions could be only case-specific and cannot be generalized.Practical implicationsThis study contributes to the literature on earnings management and especially on RAM. Specifically, none of the previous studies clearly examines whether analysts understand the negative impact of RAM on firms’ future performance and respond accordingly, although there are studies showing the negative association between RAM and firms’ future operating performance and studies showing the negative association between analysts following and RAM. Thus, filling the gap, this study provides a specific reason for the negative association between the analyst following and real earnings management presented in previous studies.Social implicationsThe findings will be of interest to regulators, who are concerned about the potential negative consequences in which tighter accounting standards can result. For example, Ewert and Wagenhofer (2005) theoretically demonstrate that tighter accounting standards can prompt more RAM instead of accounting earnings management. The study provides important evidence supporting that such suboptimal operating activities are closely watched by analysts and are potentially penalized by the market. If the market is able to detect RAM and allocate fewer resources to the firms that engage in it, then the concerns associated with the substitution effect between accrual-based earnings management and RAM can be diminished.Originality/valuePrior research suggests that tighter accounting regulations (e.g. the Sarbanes-Oxley Act) prompt more RAM than accounting earnings management. The study provides evidence supporting that such suboptimal operating activities are closely watched by analysts and are potentially penalized by the market.

The interaction between accounting and real earnings management using simultaneous equation model with panel data

The aim of this paper is to examine the association between accounting-based earnings management and real activities manipulation in a weaker regulatory environment. We measure accruals-based earnings management by modified Jones model. Real earnings management is identified through sales manipulation and discretionary expenditures. The relationship between accruals-based earnings management and real earnings management is examined by using simultaneous equation systems estimated with panel data. Based on a sample of Tunisian public offering firms, our findings support not only a complementary relationship between sales manipulation and accruals-based earnings management, but also a substitutive interaction between discretionary expenditures and accruals management. Tunisian firms do not face greater scrutiny from regulators and jointly use the two alternatives of earnings management. However, when income taxation becomes the main incentive for earnings management, Tunisian firms prefer real earnings management to discretionary accrual. It implies that accounting earnings management is jointly used with some real earnings management tools and serves as substitutes for other real activities manipulations. Contrary to results of previous studies, managers can use the two earnings management alternatives as substitutes and complementary tools at the same time.

Is Narcissism Sustainable in CEO Leadership of State-Owned Enterprises?

The state sector has been an important part of many economies. This study measures the narcissism of the chief executive officers (CEOs) of state-owned enterprises (SOEs) unobtrusively, and examines the effect of narcissism on the performance and accounting earnings management of firms. This study shows that the narcissism of CEOs positively affects the performance of SOEs, and that the positive effect is a result of real management decisions rather than accounting earnings management. It also shows that CEO narcissism does not affect the earnings management of SOEs. However, this relation changes as the tenure of the CEO gets longer. As tenure gets longer, a CEO’s narcissism negatively affects the performance of a SOE, and a CEO with high narcissism is likely to be involved in earnings management to make up for weak performance. This study suggests that narcissism is not a sustainable leadership style. It also suggests that the personal characteristics of executives in public corporations are important in determining the performance of firms. While a longer tenure ensures that a CEO will pursue his/her strategy steadily, the leadership of a narcissistic CEO becomes negative and ineffective as their tenure gets longer. Considering the importance of SOEs in the economy, this is an important policy implication, as the appointment of a CEO and length of tenure are likely to be determined by the government.

An Empirical Study on Earnings Management in KONEX

The KONEX market is the 3rd stock market providing funding opportunities for small and venture companies. We analyze whether firms listed in the KONEX manage their accounting earnings before the year these firms were listed as Initial Public Offerings (IPOs) to examine whether KONEX firms have differences in the terms of earnings management compared to Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) and Korea Securities Dealers Automated Quotation(KOSDAQ)-listed firms. We selected 57 firms which are listed as IPOs in the KONEX during the period from July 2013 to December 2015 and also selected 224 non-IPO firms, 107 KOISPI firms and 223 KOSDAQ firms during same period of the KONEX to perform a regression analysis. Results of this study showed the following. First, KONEX firms tend to manage their accounting earnings just before the IPO year to be listed in the KONEX market. Second, the KONEX firms tend to manage their earnings more aggressively than KOSPI and KOSDAQ-listed firms. In conclusion, the KONEX firms are performing agreesive accounting earnings management and it seems that the difference of market regulation with other stock markets causes that tendency. We expect our study contribute that adequate measures are needed to settle the KONEX market successfully.

Earnings management in non-public companies: the case of for-profit hospice organizations

We examine earnings management in non-publicly listed companies, with a focus on for-profit (FP) hospice organizations, and extend the accounting earnings management literature to the hospice industry. FP hospice organizations file Medicare cost reports that include complete financial statements not otherwise publicly available. Managers of FP hospice organizations have incentives to manage earnings to increase performancebased bonuses, meet or beat bond covenant requirements, or avoid public scrutiny. We find total accruals are significantly positively associated with profitability, debt, and size factors. However, discretionary accruals are significantly negatively associated with debt and size, but not profitability. Thus, monitoring and political cost factors appear to effectively mitigate earnings management in this industry sector.

The links between implementing ISA 540 and mitigating the practice of smoothing reported net earnings using write-offs of accounts receivable and inventory by reporting entities in Poland

The paper addresses the question of the links between implementing ISA 540 and mitigating the practice of smoothing reported net earnings using write-offs of accounts receivable and inventory by reporting en-tities in Poland. The research question stems from the previous analysis carried out by the author in which evidence was provided that reporting entities in Poland in the period 2000–2010 effectively used write-offs of accounts receivable and inventory in order to mitigate fluctuations of reported net earnings. This paper provides evidence that before implementing ISA 540 reporting entities used write-offs of receivables and inventory for income smoothing in effective manner, however in the period after implementing the standard (2009–2014) no link was observed between the write-offs and reduced fluctuations of reported net earnings. The research has been carried out using Wilcoxon signed-rank test used to check equality of medians of mean deviations of net earnings before write-offs of receivables and inventory and mean deviations of net earnings after write-offs. For the period before implementing ISA 540 there are grounds to reject the hy-pothesis of equality of medians of mean deviations of net earnings, however in the post-adoption period there is no justification to reject the hypothesis of equality of medians. The research provides evidence of positive impact of ISA 540 mitigating the processes of accounting earnings management. The indicated regularity does not apply to banks, because within this group of companies we have not observed the use of write-offs of loan receivables in order to reduce the variability of net earnings before implementing ISA 540 and in the period following the implementation of the standard.

Earnings management and evolution of the banking regulation

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the earnings management practices of Tunisian banks after the publication of the first International Monetary Fund (IMF) report (2002) over the period 1998-2007. Design/methodology/approach – The study relies on a mixed model that combines both the quantitative and qualitative approaches. First of all, we use the quantitative method to measure the discretionary loan loss provisions based on the model of Cornett et al. (2009), and then we validate the quantitative findings by using the interview approach. Findings – Since 2005, Tunisian banks have resorted less and less to accounting earnings management through the loan loss provisions, but conversely, real earnings management has been revealed instead by the sale of investment securities and the use of debt collection agencies. Despite the IMF recommendations, Tunisian banks continue to manage their earnings by changing only their strategies. Practical implications – The findings of this study show that the regulation cannot avoid earnings management. Even if the regulation limits the discretion of the manager, the latter finds new alternatives to manipulate the earnings. Originality/value – This is the first study that analyses the impact of the IMF recommendations on earnings management in an emerging economy.

Qualified Audit Opinion, Accounting Earnings Management and Real Earnings Management: Evidence from Iran

This study examines the relationship between qualified audit opinions and earnings management, as measured by discretionary accruals (accounting earnings management) and abnormal production cost (real earnings management), for listed firms on the Tehran Stock Exchange (TSE). For this purpose, four hypotheses are developed and tested by using multiple regressions and sample of 2818 firm-years. The results show that qualified opinions are related to accounting earnings management but are not related to real earnings management. Client financial characteristics, such as profitability, size, experience, type of audit opinion in previous year and prior year loss are determinants of the qualified audit opinion decision.

Portfoliové zajištění a řízení zisku

Přispěvek se zabýva zajisťovacim ucetnictvim portfolia aktiv a zavazků. Zaroveň poskytuje strucne porovnani soucasně ucinne upravy zajisťovaciho ucetnictvi vtělene ve standardu IAS 39 a nastupujici upravy v IFRS 9. Cilem přispěvku je zvýraznit možne spojeni mezi pravidly zajisťovaciho ucetnictvi a řizenim zisku, navic je ukazano, jak může být strategie řizeni rizik spolecnosti ovlivněna, aby mohlo být zajisťovaciho ucetnictvi dosaženo. Přispěvek zaroveň poskytuje kratký přehled doposud realizovaneho výzkumu v oblasti řizeni zisku a ucetnictvi derivatů.

Understanding of Accounting Students About Earning Management to Preparation of Financial Statements, and Code of Ethics for Accountant

OECD based on one component of Corporate Governance is the existence of an adequate financial reporting system. Wyatt (2004) mentions that there are weaknesses in accounting, is the greed of individuals and corporations, providing services that reduce independence, too ‘soft’ on the client and avoiding participation in existing accounting rules. Should give greater attention in accounting education on two things, namely the appreciation of the accounting profession and an appreciation of the ethical dilemmas. This can be manifested in a subject, teaching method to the preparation of the curriculum which is based on the values of ethics and morals. The development of accounting education based on ethics is needed feedback about the current conditions. This study aimed to determine students ‘perceptions with intent to know the understanding of earnings management in the preparation of the financial statements and the effectiveness of the existing curriculum in shaping students’ understanding of accounting. The study sample consisted of 139 students majoring in Accounting S1 Regular programs are divided into 100 final year students and 39 new students. It also conducted tests of differences with other accounting courses, the number of samples used in this study were 156 students in Accounting Diploma program, and 62 students of the Accounting Profession. Based on the research results, (1) that the disclosures of information to the problem avoid differences between groups of respondents. (2) The student refuses accounting earnings management. (3) The difference in the curriculum between studies in accounting education programs leads to differences in perception between students across the course. (4) The process of teaching in S1 has managed to give a better understanding to the students that accountants require interaction with the environment.

Book Reviews

Book Reviews

Investigating The Impact Of Historical Costing On Real Earnings Management: An Empirical Study

The current study examines the relationship between Historical Cost Accounting (HCA) and real earnings management. Accounting literature argues that HCA provides a chance for manipulation. HCA creates large unrealized capital gains/losses that are recognized in income statements only when managers decide to sell such assets. This may induce managers to manipulate earnings. Moreover, managers are able to decide which assets to sell and during which period. Therefore, managers can exploit HCA in real earnings management by interfering in the structuring of asset sale transactions. The current study aims to contribute to the ongoing debate over dropping HCA and replacing it with Fair Value Accounting (FVA). Using a sample of the 71 most actively traded non-financial firms listed on the Egyptian Stock Exchange during 20042010, multiple regression analysis is employed to test two main hypotheses: the income-smoothing hypothesis and the debt/equity hypothesis. The results provide evidence that managers in the Egyptian business environment exploit HCA in real earnings management to some extent. Managers with negative earnings changes tend to use HCA to smooth earnings, while managers with earnings changes do not. Moreover, there is no evidence for managers use of HCA to avoid violating debt contract terms based on accounting numbers.