Real Activities-based Earnings Management Research Articles

Debt Maturity Structure and Earning Management: Evidence from Emerging Markets

This study aims to examine the non-linear impact of debt maturity structure on earnings management (EM) in international data settings. Panel dataset of 5129 non-financial listed firms from 9 Asian Emerging Economies (AEE) is analyzed covering the period from 2000 to 2021. EM is measured using Accrual-Based Earnings Management (AEM) and Real Activity-Based Earnings Management (REM). Debt is categorized into Total Financial Debt (TFD), Short-Term Debt (STD), and Long-Term Debt (LTD). Based on fixed effect regression model, results clearly reveal presence of non-linear relationship between debt maturities and EM. The study provides the evidence that firms of AEEs are engaged in accrual as well as real earnings management to report their earnings.TFD and STD have positive where as LTD has negative impact on AEM at low debt level. In the similar vein, TFD and STD have negative where as LTD has no impact on REM. The findings also demonstrate substitution of REM for AEM at varying debt levels. This study offer valuable insight for investors, creditors, policy makers, auditors and researchers.

The Earnings Management Strategy of Indebted Non-Listed Firms: The Case of Italy

Design/methodology/approach: For a sample of Italian non-listed firms that file full financial statements, we conduct a cross sectional regression analysis to determine whether the managers of indebted firms complement real activity-based (REM) with accrual-based (AEM) earnings management. To model each technique, we estimate OLS regressions with robust standard errors to avoid heteroscedasticity problems.Purpose: This research analyses whether the managers of highly indebted Italian non-listed firms, financed mainly by bank-loans, are likely to undertake real activity-based earnings management (REM) and accrual-based earnings management (AEM) as complementary activities to boost the impact of earnings management (EM) on reported earnings and achieve desired earnings targets.Findings: Consistent with the extant literature, we find that indebted firms are likely to complement REM with AEM to enhance their creditworthiness. We also provide evidence that high-quality audit companies constrain neither REM nor AEM initiatives. Finally, firms suffering from financial problems are less likely to engage in either initiative as they are under greater scrutiny from lenders.Originality: The paper investigates the complementary use of accrual-based and real activity-based earnings management techniques in non-listed firms, suffering from a high pressure from lenders in the case of indebtedness.Practical implications: This research should be of interest to banks, managers, and standard setters as it highlights the earnings management strategy employed by firms with a high leverage ratio and provides evidence on the relative costs associated with each earnings management technique.

The Effects of Business Strategy and Product Market Competition on Real Earnings Management

This research investigated the singular and combined effects of firm-level business strategy (BS) and industry-level market competition (MC) on real activities-based earnings management (REM). A composite strategy score based on Miles and Snow’s framework was used to empirically assess BS, while MC was measured through three distinct metrics, and REM was calculated based on Roychowdhury’s (2006) models of abnormal level of production, sales, and discretionary expenditures. Archival data from United Stated (U.S.) non-financial public listed firms in the period 1987-2020 was analyzed using Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) regressions, controlled for industry and year fixed effects. Findings suggested that firms following an innovation-oriented prospector strategy are associated with lower levels of REM than firms following an efficiency-oriented defender strategy. While MC alone did not have a significant effect on REM, the combined effect of BS and MC reveals that prospectors in more competitive markets engage less in REM activities, which confirms the relevance of competition in the relationship between BS and REM. This research contributes to earnings management literature by documenting that REM practices are affected not only by internal choices of resource allocation in accordance with a business strategy, but also by exogenous determinants of market competition.

Influential independent directors' reputation incentives: Impacts on CEO compensation contracts and financial reporting

We study how reputation incentives of influential independent directors (those holding multiple directorships) affect CEO compensation and firm financial reporting decisions. We find that CEO equity-based incentives, measured by CEO delta, vega and the number of equity grants are positively related to these directors' reputation incentives. These director reputation incentives also mitigate the perverse CEO incentives to inflate earnings, which arise from such high-powered compensation structures, by motivating increased board monitoring to limit discretionary accruals and real activity-based earnings management. These findings are invariant to endogeneity adjustments under multiple approaches, including exogenous changes in reputation incentives.

The Covid-19 outbreak, corporate financial distress and earnings management

This study explores the association between the Covid-19 outbreak, corporate financial distress and earnings management practices in China. We investigate whether firms took advantage of the downturn in economic conditions during the pandemic to adjust their earnings using different earnings management techniques. Utilising a sample of 1832 listed firms and underlying theoretical frameworks (i.e., positive accounting and signalling theory), we find that firms were more inclined to manage earnings during the pandemic period. They favoured using the accrual-based rather than the real activity-based earnings management technique. We also find that firms engaged more in income-increasing practices in the shadow of the outbreak. In addition, our results further demonstrate that financially distressed firms were involved in earnings management, particularly accrual-based earnings management. However, compared to privately-owned firms, state-owned enterprises seem to be involved less in earnings management during the Covid-19 pandemic. Findings from this study raise some concerns for policymakers about the credibility of financial reporting information during Covid-19.

Top Management Characteristics and Earnings Management Strategies: Evidence from Indonesia

This study examines whether the strategic choice of earnings management chosen by top management (such as CEO and CEO and a team separately) is related to characteristics of top management (i.e., genders, age, tenure, financial expertise, business experience, and education). This study employs regression analyses to analyse 707 firm-year observations of manufacturing companies listed in the Indonesian Stock Exchange (IDX) between 2010 and 2018. This study found that top management team tended to choose the strategic choice of real-based earnings management. Meanwhile, top management individually, both CEO and CFO tend to choose accrual earnings management strategies over real activity-based earnings management. These results are inline with upper echelon theory and financial reportpreparation and mechanism in companies, especially in selecting and appointing top-level executive.

External social networks and earnings management

Using a sample of U.S. listed firms for the 2000–2017 period, we examine how external social networks of top executives and directors affect earnings management in their firms. We find that well-connected firms are more aggressive in managing earnings through both accruals and real activities and that the results are robust after controlling for internal executive social ties. Using a difference-in-differences approach, we find that earnings management decreases after a socially connected executive or director dies. Additional analysis shows that connections forged by past professional working experiences have a greater impact on earnings management than connections forged by education and other social activities. Moreover, CFO social networks have a greater influence on earnings management than CEO social networks. Finally, we explore the underlying mechanisms, finding that 1) firms that are socially connected to each other show more similarities in their earnings management than firms that do not share a connection, and 2) more connected firms are less likely to incur accounting restatements. Collectively, our findings indicate that the external social networks of top executives and directors are important determinants of both their accrual- and real activity-based earnings management.

The Impact of Board Internationalization on Real Earnings Management: Evidence From China

In this article, we examine the impact of board internationalization on real earnings management. Using the annual data of 2,899 Chinese listed non-financial firms with 16,638 firm-year observations over the period from 2008 to 2017 for empirical analysis, we find robust evidence that higher proportion of foreign directors on corporate boards reduces real earnings management. Results support the hypothesis that foreign directors increase boards’ effectiveness in monitoring the management and, consequently, lead to less earnings management by corporate executives. Our results are robust to alternative measures of board internationalization, instrumental variable analysis, and adding additional control variables. We further observe that foreign directors are more effective in reducing earnings management in firms with local directors with foreign experience and in Chinese provinces with developed institutional environment. Moreover, Chinese firms complement accrual and real activities–based earnings management, and board internationalization is effective in reducing both types of earnings management. Overall, our findings imply board internationalization improves the quality of reported earnings to outside shareholders.

English

The research expands the earnings management (EM) literature for Italian unlisted firms by investigating the drivers of both accrual-based (AEM) and real activity-based (REM) earnings management. According to prior literature, the reliability of financial statements of these firms concerns mainly lenders in assessing borrower creditworthiness, and Tax Offices in calculating corporate tax. We analyse unlisted firms as they represent 99.9% of Italian firms, consistent with most European countries. We estimate models using factors drawn from the literature which potentially influences both AEM and REM, along with some robustness tests. For AEM, ownership concentration is a positive driver, consistent with the entrenchment hypothesis, and firm leverage is a positive driver, suggesting the use of debt covenant violation avoidance strategies. Quality auditor engagement tends to constrain AEM, while size has a negative impact. However, tax drives AEM and profitability has a positive impact. For REM, ownership concentration has no impact, and leverage has a positive impact. The engagement of Big 4 constrains REM. Our expectations are confirmed when the total earnings management variable is used as the dependent.   Key words: Earnings management, accrual-based earnings management, real activity-based earnings management, determinants, unlisted firms, Italy.

Opportunistic CSR Assurance

Companies that have poor corporate social responsibility (CSR) reporting quality despite purchasing external assurance are more likely to be opportunistic greenwashers. Using more than 39,000 firm-year observations from 20 countries we show that such opportunistic companies exhibit their opportunistic behaviour in several ways. They are more likely to engage in real activity-based earnings management and have higher information asymmetry after controlling for the endogeneity of CSR reporting assurance purchase. However, no obvious market failure is documented as we find that investors value the opportunistic companies relatively lower and the indexer is less likely to include them in a sustainable index. Furthermore, opportunistic assurance behaviours are more prominent in weaker investor-protection countries in which we also confirm that external assurance has a weaker effect on improving the reporting quality of these opportunistic companies. The key policy implication is that more regulatory efforts should be put into improving the oversight of the assurance standard and quality.

Policy Uncertainty, Presidential Elections and Earnings Management: Evidence from South Korea

This study investigates South Korean firms’ earnings management (EM) practices when policy uncertainty increases during the presidential election period. We adopt the Economic Policy Uncertainty (EPU) index, a recent development in economics research, as a proxy for policy uncertainty. A heightened EPU contracts economic activity, thereby restricting a firm’s real activity-based earnings management (RM) rather than its accrual-based earnings management (AM). Nonetheless, we argue that South Korean firms become more reluctant to use AM than RM when EPU rises during a presidential election period due to their unique political environment. The constitution stipulates a single five-year presidential term, and it is common for an incoming government to conduct a series of inspections of the economic policies of the outgoing government. In this political system, South Korean firms can be easily entangled with political scandals such as allegations of bribery or corruption, which will increase the cost of AM because it is easier to detect than RM. Results show that South Korean firms are less likely to use AM as EPU increases in the presidential election period, while they are less likely to use RM when EPU rises during the non-election period.

Do firms substitute earnings management methods? The case of the MENA region

The purpose of this paper is to empirically test whether firms substitute accruals-based earnings management with real activities-based earnings management or complement the two methods in the MENA region. Further, this paper seeks to investigate the impact of IFRS adoption on accruals-based earnings management. To test the research hypotheses, this paper employs a panel fixed-effects regression model for a sample of 798 non-financial listed MENA region firms over the period 2008-2015, inclusively. The research findings provide evidence that firms complement accruals-based and real activities-based earnings management methods rather than substituting one earnings management method for the other, which suggests that MENA firms conduct both methods concurrently to achieve earnings targets and are not constrained by the relative costs of employing a particular method. Furthermore, a significant positive association between GDP growth and accruals-based earnings management is found, which provides evidence that economic growth leads to a greater degree of accruals-based earnings management behavior in MENA region firms.

Does Foreign Ownership Restrict Earnings Management? The Case of China

This study examines the effects of foreign ownership on Chinese firms’ earnings management practices. Given that foreign shareholders are expected to increase the transparency of the firm’s management, this study anticipates that foreign ownership would restrict earnings management of both the accrual-based earnings management (AEM), and real activity-based earnings management (REM). Using the panel dataset of the B-share and H-share firms from 2003 to 2015, this study finds that the H-share firms which cross-listed on both the mainland China and Hong Kong Stock Exchanges are more likely to manage earnings through the discretionary accruals as well as the changes in the firms’ operations. In contrast the B-share firms are less likely to manage earnings by using the discretionary accruals. This study also finds that state control and large shareholdings of foreigners can restrict the B-share firms’ earnings management through the discretionary accruals. The findings noted in this study imply that foreign investors who want to invest in Chinese firms must be more cautious about market inefficiency and the information asymmetry problem in the Chinese stock markets.

The effect of family ownership on accrual-based and real activities based earnings management: Evidence from the French context

Research Question: What is the effect of family ownership on accrual-based earnings management (ABEM) and on real earnings management (REM)? Motivation: Despite the importance and the predominance of family companies among the worldwide listed firms, there is a few study having examined earnings management in family businesses when compared to non-families ones. Their particular characteristics distinguishing them from typical public companies, family firms could provide an interesting setting for the purpose of investigating their earnings quality. Idea: Using agency theory and socio-emotional wealth (SEW) theory, we suggested and explained the impact of family ownership on earnings management. Data: We analyze a sample of French firms listed in CAC All-Tradable index in the period ranging from 2014 to 2016. Tools: We adopts the Generalized Least Squared (GLS) technique correcting heteroskedasticity and serial correlation problems related to panel data. Findings: We document that family ownership has no significant effects on ABEM, but it has a positive and significant influence on REM. In fact, this study conducted on French family firms shows that they are more involved in upward earnings management than non-family firms. Our results supports the hypothesis that family firms suffer from type II agency problems, and it can be explained by the desire to ensure the control and influence among the firm. Contributions: This study is expected to increase the understanding of the family firms’ behavior in terms of their earnings management practices building on the both agency and SEW theory.

The Switch‐Up: An Examination of Changes in Earnings Management after Receiving SEC Comment Letters

ABSTRACTThe SEC has long asserted that earnings management practices result in adverse consequences for investors. We examine whether SEC oversight affects firms' accounting quality in terms of earnings management trade‐offs. We expect that increased firm‐specific regulatory scrutiny, in the form of an SEC comment letter, will induce management to switch from accrual‐based earnings management (AEM), which is a main focus of the SEC, to real‐activities‐based earnings management (REM), which is not likely to be commented on in the SEC's review process. Consistent with our predictions, we find that AEM is lower and REM is higher following the receipt of a comment letter, relative to non‐comment‐letter years and a propensity‐score‐matched sample of non‐comment‐letter firms. However, we do not find a significant difference in total earnings management (i.e., the sum of AEM and REM), suggesting that the higher REM acts as a substitute for lower AEM activity. We further find that our results are driven by accounting comments relating to estimates and accruals and not by classification‐only comments, which suggests that a comment letter that does not question specific issues associated with estimates and accruals is not a strong enough signal to induce the firm to change earnings management behavior. Additionally, the shift to REM is attenuated for firms with high institutional ownership. These results collectively suggest that the comment letter process effectively constrains AEM but has the unintended consequence of firms, on average, switching to REM.

The Effects of Corporate Social Responsibility on Real and Accrual‐based Earnings Management: Evidence from China

AbstractThis study examines the relationship between Chinese firms’ corporate social responsibility (CSR) and their earnings management (EM) practices. As China rapidly emerges as one of the largest exporters as well as importers, an understanding of Chinese CSR practices is increasingly important not only to Chinese authorities and firms, but also to international stakeholders. However, Chinese CSR has been largely underestimated in previous studies, and this CSR–EM relationship has never been sufficiently examined with regard to Chinese firms. In addition, this study measures the level of EM using two different methods: accrual‐based EM (AEM) and real activity‐based EM (REM). In general, REM is regarded as more costly but less detectable, while AEM is regarded as less costly but more detectable, owing to the fact that AEM is subject to greater scrutiny from auditors and regulators. The results show that Chinese firms’ enhanced CSR generally decreases their EM practices. On the contrary, state‐controlled firms and firms operating in more institutionally developed regions are more likely to engage in REM, while increasing their CSR activities. These findings provide new evidence that managers in Chinese firms tend to opportunistically adopt CSR practices according to the firm's institutional environment.

The effect of investor sentiment on the means of earnings management

Prior research has shown that a firm’s tendency to meet or beat earning targets is greater during bad economic times than good times. The paper extends this line of research by investigating which means of earnings management is used in different states of economy. A sample of non-financial companies listed on Korea Securities Market from 2003 to 2011 is used for empirical tests. The findings of this study are summarized as follows. The magnitude of discretionary accruals is negatively related to investment sentiment, indicating that firms tend to use positive discretionary accruals to manipulate reported income upward when the sentiment is pessimistic. However, the real activity based earnings management is not significantly associated with the state of economy. Collectively, this study contributes to behavioral finance and accounting literature by suggesting that managers use discretionary portion of accruals, but do not change their real operating activities, in order to meet or beat earnings targets in economic downturn.

Engagement partner attributes and earnings quality: evidence from Borsa İstanbul

This paper investigates the effects of engagement partners' attributes on earnings quality using 725 firm*year observations between 2008 and 2013 from Borsa Istanbul manufacturing industry firms. We use two indicators of earnings quality to test the effects of gender, educational background, experience and certification from among engagement partners' attributes. Our findings emphasise that engagement partners' attributes do not have any impact on real activities-based earnings management but have an impact on accruals-based earnings management. Female engagement partners have a negative effect on the absolute value of discretionary accruals, especially in negative discretionary accruals. On the other hand, we find that engagement partners with longer experience have negative impact on the absolute and negative discretionary accruals.

세무상 이월결손금의 실현가능성과 공제기한 변경이 실질이익조정에 미치는 영향에 관한 연구

세무상 이월결손금의 실현가능성과 공제기한 변경이 실질이익조정에 미치는 영향에 관한 연구

How do Normative and Compliant CSR Affect the Earnings Quality of Japanese Firms?

This study investigates the empirical relation between the corporate social performance (CSP) and earnings quality of public firms in Japan. To investigate this query, we adopt several measures, including accruals-based earnings management (AEM) measures and real activities-based earnings management (REM) measures. In general, the comprehensive measurement of the CSP of Japanese firms is positively associated with earnings quality, suggesting that corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities may improve the earnings quality of Japanese firms. However, a more detailed investigation using CSP dimensional indices reveals a number of in-depth findings. First, before controlling for financial performance, normative CSR is more strongly associated with the AEM measures, whereas compliant CSR is more strongly associated with the REM measures. Second, after controlling for financial performance in the regression analysis, the regression slopes of the compliant CSR dimensions are no longer statistically significant, implying the existence of a spurious correlation between compliant CSR and earnings quality. Finally, the slopes of the normative CSR dimensions remain significant even after controlling for financial performance. Overall, these results indicate that the managers of firms that show high normative CSR values tend to avoid adopting AEM and REM measures and that those firms that are conscious of CSR are more likely to gain investor confidence.