Smooth Earnings Research Articles

Financial reporting quality of ESG firms listed in China.

Given the growing importance of environmental protection in China, this study investigated the determinants of the financial reporting quality of environmental, social and governance (ESG) firms listed in China. The quality of financial reporting shows how informative the accounting numbers are for decision-making. Because business outlook can influence financial reporting quality, this study examined predictable, moderately predictable and unpredictable business outlooks. The study randomly selected 100 firms from the 2021 China ESG Top 500 Outstanding Enterprises published by the Sina Finance ESG Rating Centre and then analysed those firms in 2018, 2019 and 2020. It investigated determinants (financial health, governance and earnings management), controlling for the influence of known variables (firm age and firm-specific risk) on financial reporting quality measured as accruals quality and earnings smoothness. Ordinary robust least square regression was conducted. Financial health had a negative influence, but governance variables and earnings management did not affect financial reporting quality. Firm-specific risk had a positive effect, but firm age did not influence financial reporting quality. Changes in business outlook had no impact on the determinants' effect on financial reporting quality. The study found that ESG firms did not engage in earnings management and aggressively manage earnings, pointing to ethical behaviour. This is the first study to contribute to understanding the financial reporting quality of ESG firms listed in China. It examined different business outlooks to understand ESG firms' behaviour towards financial reporting quality. The findings invite replicable studies outside China to understand the contextual validity and reliability of the financial reporting quality of ESG firms, and to investigate the effect of determinants not examined in this study.

Customer Concentration and Income Smoothing Activities

We examine how customer concentration affects managers’ income smoothing incentives to signal their private information about risk and future earnings. We find a negative relation between customer concentration and income smoothing, suggesting that improved information sharing from suppliers to customers through private channels reduces managers’ incentives to smooth earnings. To mitigate endogeneity issues, we perform (a) a change in variables analysis, (b) a propensity score matching approach, and (c) a two-stage least squares regression analysis. Finally, we document that managers’ income smoothing activities decrease as the length of the relationship between a supplier and its major customers increases, corroborating our main findings. Prior studies have paid relatively little attention to the effects of various stakeholders, especially customers, on managers’ income smoothing activities. Our study fills this void in the literature by illustrating that customer concentration is an important determinant of income smoothing incentives.

Financial reporting and disclosure practices in China

We study financial reporting and disclosure practices in China using survey methods similar to prior studies of U.S. firms (i.e., Graham et al., 2005; Dichev et al., 2013). Comparing earnings features, motives to manage and smooth earnings, and voluntary disclosure practices between the two countries, we reveal three major differences. First, Chinese firms exhibit a stronger preference for predictive, relative to verifiable, attributes of earnings that can signal stable firm performance to their stakeholders. Second, smooth earnings are desired by various stakeholders and can be achieved through coordination among connected stakeholders, which is conceptually different from earnings management. Third, Chinese firms consider public disclosure as less relevant in the reduction of the cost of capital. In addition, Chinese firms do not have a bias towards conservative reporting. We explain and reconcile these differences as resulting from some unique institutional features of China. Our study provides novel field evidence that contributes to, expands, and directly corroborates existing empirical studies.

Using Available‐for‐sale Securities to Smooth Earnings: Evidence from China

Utilizing a large sample of non‐financial public firms in China from 2009 to 2016, we find robust evidence that non‐financial firms smooth their earnings through realized gains and losses on available‐for‐sale (AFS) securities. This effect is more pronounced for firms with weaker internal and external corporate governance. Firms with an incentive to manipulate up their earnings are also less likely to smooth earnings through AFS securities. Moreover, firms with more accrual earnings management or real earnings management tend to smooth earnings to a greater extent through AFS securities. Firms smooth earnings only when their net income is positive or when net income is negative and the gains from AFS securities are large enough to offset negative earnings. We do not find supporting evidence for engaging in big bath earnings management through the realization of losses on AFS securities. These findings suggest that gains and losses on AFS securities allow non‐financial firms to actively smooth their earnings. Last, the accounting standards amendments in 2017 that essentially disable earnings smoothing through AFS securities increase price efficiency.

Pengaruh Capital Expenditure dan Cash Holding terhadap Perataaan Laba

This study aimed to determine the effect of capital expenditure and cash holding on earnings smoothing in manufacturing companies listed on the Indonesia Stock Exchange know 2016 to 2021. The data analysis method in this study uses multiple linear regression to predict the effect of independent variables. The population in this study are manufacturing companies listed on the Indonesia Stock Exchange from 2016 to 2021. The sampling method in this study was the purposive sampling method. The results showed that capital expenditure affects earnings smoothing. This proves that adding fixed assets, as capital expenditure indicates, increases profits. Suppose the increase in capital expenditure will increase the profit level significantly. Cash holding affects earnings smoothing. This proves that the higher the cash holding or, the higher the cash in the company, the higher the earnings smoothing.

Economic policy uncertainty and incentive to smooth earnings

We examine how economic policy-induced uncertainty influences managers' discretionary accounting choices to achieve a smoother earnings stream. We find that managers offset the partial risk of policy uncertainty on reported earnings by using discretionary accruals. We mainly observe that firms report more negative discretionary accruals when managers are less certain about their prospects. We further show that managers' engagement in income-decreasing earnings management is more significant when firms’ current period pre-managed earnings are higher. To complete the story, we also find that the propensity of reversal of discretionary accruals is positively associated with levels of policy uncertainty. Our results imply that managers opportunistically use discretionary accruals around an uncertain exogenous environment to smooth earnings.

The effect of real earnings smoothing on corporate labour investment

This study investigates the impact of real earnings smoothing on labour investment efficiency. Our results show that real earnings smoothing is significantly associated with higher labour investment efficiency, supporting the private information signalling view of earnings smoothing. We also fine information asymmetry as a plausible channel through which real earnings smoothing improves labour investment efficiency. Further analyses find that the positive impact of real earnings smoothing on labour investment efficiency is primarily driven by the informational component rather than the garbling component of earnings smoothness, and is more pronounced for financially constrained firms with equity-based financing incentives and loss-making firms. Our paper advances the understanding of corporate labour investment and the benefits of real earnings smoothing.

The impact of short sale prospect on income smoothing

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of short sale prospect on future income smoothing.Design/methodology/approachThis study examines how short sale prospect impacts future income smoothing. This study follows prior research and uses two measures of income smoothing. One is the correlation between the change in prediscretionary income and the change in discretionary accruals. The other is the variability of earnings relative to the variability of cash flows.FindingsThis study finds that short sale prospect has a negative impact on future income smoothing. This finding is robust to use different measures of short sale prospect and income smoothing and to subsample tests. Additional analysis reveals that short sale prospect, by curbing income smoothing, reduces future stock price crash risk.Originality/valueTo the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first to examine the impact of short selling on firms’ subsequent smoothing of reported income. This study contributes to the earnings quality literature by demonstrating the governance role of short selling on future earnings smoothness.

Fair value accounting and earnings variability: Evidence from global real estate firms

This study explores the relationship between earnings quality and fair value accounting beyond market-based measures, financial industry-related settings, and US firms. It analyzes the effect of discretionary fair value measurement of investment properties and earnings distribution using a sample of 2,658 observations between 2006 and 2017 from real estate firms in 36 countries. The results indicate that applying the fair value model to investment properties subject to International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) increases earnings variability and decreases earnings smoothness. These links are found for a fair value model dummy and incrementally for investment property fair values. Managers do not seem to exploit their discretion in lower-level fair value measurements to smooth out further earnings fluctuations. Among fair value model appliers, earnings variability appears to further increase, and earnings smoothness appears to further decrease, in the case of strong investor protection and real estate sector-specific institutional governance.

Do Firms Smooth Earnings Less When They Can Hedge Noise Better?

Do Firms Smooth Earnings Less When They Can Hedge Noise Better?

The Effect of Free Cash Flows on Stock Crash Risk with Focused on the Role of Earnings Smoothing

با توسعه بازار سرمایه در ایران، توجه به عواملی که به نحوی بر تصمیم­‌گیری فعالین بازار موثر است، از اهمیت ویژه‌ای برخوردار است و طی سال‌های اخیر، مساله ریسک سقوط قیمت سهام به­عنوان یکی از ریسک‌­های تاثیرگذار بر شرکت‌­ها، مورد توجه ذی‌نفعان و محققین قرار گرفته است. در پژوهش حاضر، تاثیر جریان‌های نقد آزاد بر ریسک سقوط قیمت سهام با تاکید بر نقش تعدیلی هموارسازی سود، بررسی شده است. برای این منظور با انتخاب 161 شرکت پذیرفته‌­شده در بورس اوراق بهادار تهران طی سال‌های 1394 تا 1400 این مساله مورد بررسی قرار گرفت. آزمون فرضیات پژوهش نیز ازطریق رگرسیون خطی چند متغیره بوده و داده‌­ها از نوع ترکیبی می­باشند. در این مطالعه برای تجزیه و تحلیل داده­‌ها از نرم‌افزار ایویوز10 بهره گرفته­‌شده­‌است. نتایج پژوهش حاکی از آن است که جریان­های نقد آزاد به طور مثبت و معناداری بر ریسک سقوط سهام شرکت­ها موثر بوده و همچنین، هموارسازی سود این ارتباط را به‌طور منفی و معناداری تعدیل می­کند

PERFORMANCE-BASED COMPENSATIONS AND EARNINGS SMOOTHING IN THE NIGERIAN INDUSTRIAL SECTOR

One of the motivations for managing earnings as argued in the extant literature is compensation. This has raised some questions on the nature relationship between managers’ compensation methods and EM. To answer this question, this paper focused on share-based compensations, bonus-based compensations and profit-based compensation. Financial data were retrieved from the annual reports of the selected pubic industrial and consumer goods firms over 10 years spanning from 2012 to 2021. The study adopted four separate panel regression (random effect model). The results revealed that; share-based compensations, bonus-based compensations, profit-based compensations affected earnings smoothing positively and significantly. This implies that, the higher the share-based compensations, bonus-based compensations, profit-based compensations, the more managers smooth their earnings. Performance-based compensations influence earnings smoothing of quoted industrial and consumer goods firms in Nigeria significantly. Consequently, the study recommends that, the regulatory agencies should revisit the governance code in order to review the compensation options available to managers and directors of the company. Again, owners and other key stakeholders should be cautious of the tendency for managers to engage in earnings smoothing especially when the outcome is favourable to managers. Keywords: Share-Based Compensations, Bonus-Based Compensations, Profit-Based Compensations, Earnings Management.

Audit Quality and Earnings Management by Listed Firms in Nigeria

Purpose: We herein investigate the effect of quality of audit on management of earnings in Nigerian listed firms by (i) ascertaining the effect of audit quality on discretionary accruals, (ii) determining the effect of audit quality on earnings smoothing, as well as (iii) establishing the effect of audit quality on earnings per share. Methodology: The study follows an ex-post facto research design. It draws data from the annual reports of 10 firms. These consisted of five financial and five non-financial firms, purposively selected for a period of 10 years (2010-2019). Descriptive and inferential analyses were employed in data analyses. Findings: The findings indicate that audit quality significantly affected earnings smoothing. Moreover, audit quality did not significantly affect discretionary accruals and earnings per share. Furthermore, it is recommended that management of firms should put in place policies for predicting earnings (in profit) to help forecast future earnings, which can be achieved by audit quality Originality/Value: This study is meant to raise awareness on the need to improve the financial statement/reporting practices of publicly listed companies with respect to earnings management; discretionary accrual, earnings smoothing and earnings per share. It is hoped that the forwarded recommendations support the competent authorities in addressing the identified existing issues, thus enabling them to enhance the financial reporting practices and render them improved vehicles for development in publicly listed companies.

재량적 이익유연화와 악재에 대한 비대칭적 인식이 이익유연화와 정보비대칭의 비선형적 관계성에 미치는 효과

Previous studies have reported conflicting results on the relationship between earnings smoothing and information asymmetry depending on the positive and negative roles of earnings smoothing. For these contradictory results, Jayaraman(2008) confirmed that there is a U-shaped non-linear relationship between earnings smoothing and information asymmetry due to discretionary earnings smoothing. This study tried to verify the nonlinearity of earnings smoothing and information asymmetry by focusing on the conflicting correlation between cash flow and accrual between discretionary earnings smoothing and asymmetric recognition of loss recognition(ATLR). The main findings are as follows. First, as the frequency of ATLR increases, the negative correlation between cash flow and accrual weaken and earnings volatility increase；thus the frequency of ATLR is a factor that lowers the level of earnings smoothing. Second, earnings smoothing and information asymmetry have a positive (＋) relationship in the smooth earnings group, whereas, earnings smoothing and information asymmetry have a negative (-) relationship in the volatile earnings group. This result means a non-linear relationship between earnings smoothing and information asymmetry depending on the volatility of earnings. Third, it is found that information asymmetry increased as the frequency of ATLR increased. This means that as the frequency of ATLR increases, the volatility of earnings increases, and uncertainty about investors’ future earnings and cash flow forecasts increases, resulting in increased information asymmetry.
 Finally, discretionary earnings smoothing provides a positive (＋) effect to earnings smoothing based on the negative (-) correlation between cash flow and accrual, and results in a positive (＋) relationship between earnings smoothing and information asymmetry. On the contrary, ATLR provides a negative (-) effect on earnings smoothing based on the positive (＋) correlation between cash flow and accrual, and results in a negative (-) relationship between earnings smoothing and information asymmetry. As a result, a non-linear relationship between earnings smoothing and information asymmetry is induced from the conflicting correlation of cash flow and accrual between discretionary earnings smoothing and ATLR.

Corporate governance and earnings quality: the behavioral theory of corporate governance (evidence from Iran)

PurposeThis study aims to examine the relationship between corporate governance (CG) and various measures of earnings quality in listed companies on Tehran Stock Exchange (TSE). The theoretical intuition for prediction of any relationship between earnings quality and CG is based on the behavioral theory and the institutional settings in Iran.Design/methodology/approachThis study used the data of 117 listed companies on the TSE for the period from 2005 to 2019. The authors use panel data regression as the main methodology, along with principal component analysis, t-test and rank-sum test.FindingsThis study finds that the CG has a positive association with earnings quality. More precisely, better CG mechanisms cause lower earnings smoothness, more predictable and persistent earnings, and higher levels of timeliness, conservatism and value relevance. The relationship between CG and earnings quality is statistically and economically significant for all models.Originality/valueThe findings further the understanding of the role of CG in improving earnings quality in an Islamic and emerging country. First, this study provides evidence on the relation between CG and earnings quality by focusing on the behavioral theory, which suggests that corporate decision-making is not only influenced by formal CG mechanisms, but also by informal CG arrangements. In this case, this study departs from the restrictive theories (specifically, agency theory) that are widely used in past literature. Second, this study constructs an index that fits to corporate context of Iran rather than applying indexes introduced in Anglo-American environments.

Managerial discretions and loan loss provisions in Nigerian banks

Aim: The high level of non-performing exposures and the existing crisis in the Nigerian banking sector is a source of concern. To create a basis for solving the troubles caused by the loan loss crisis, this study investigated the managerial discretionary use of loan loss provisions (LLPs) by Nigerian deposit money banks (DMBs). This is considered in the context of solvency risk and reforms embedded in the adoption of International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRSs).
 Design/research methods: Datasets related to the variables of the study were hand-collected from annual reports of a sample of 16 Nigerian deposit money banks over the period of 2007-2017. The analyses were performed using principal components analysis to derive the managerial discretions index (MDI), Prais-Winsten ordinary least square regression to segregate LLP into reported LLPs (TLLP) and discretionary LLPs (DLLP) and appropriate panel data regression models to test the study’s hypotheses subsequent to series of diagnostic tests.
 Conclusions/findings:The results revealed that managerial discretions negatively influence TLLP and DLLP represented by absolute value of DLLP (ADLLP). This represents an increase in profitability without manipulatingloan loss provisions. However, the reforms embedded in IFRSs revealed the use of LLPs for managerial discretions despite reduction in provisioning level noticeable during IFRS. The situation of Nigerian banks threatened by solvency risk use of LLPs for managerial discretions while attempting to increase profit was exemplified in the increase in ADLLP rather than TLLP. However, improvement was noticeable for risky Nigerian banks during IFRS. The managerial discretionary use of LLPs especially during IFRS was engendered by use of LLPs for capital management and earnings smoothing rather than earnings signalling as further revealed. This shows that adoption of International Financial Reporting Standards reduces reporting quality of Nigerian banks in their loan loss decisions.
 Originality/value of the article: The derivation of MDI from measures of earnings smoothing, capital management and earnings signalling is the study’s contribution to accounting for loan losses literature. The adjustments to LLPs to reduce variability of earnings, meet up with minimum regulatory bank capital adequacy ratio and signal strength to absorb future losses encapsulate earnings smoothing, capital management and earnings signalling respectively.
 Implications of the research:The discretionary use of LLPs found in this study beckons an increased level of surveillance, oversights and reforms on the part of the regulators for compliance level devoid of managerial opportunistic behaviour to be identifiablewith Nigerian banks.
 JEL: D22, G21, G28, L20, M41.

Does earnings quality impact firms’ performance? The case of Portuguese SMEs from the mold sector

PurposeThis study aims to study the impact of earnings quality on firms’ financial performance.Design/methodology/approachAn unbalanced panel data of 237 small- and medium-sized Portuguese companies from the mold industry, using 2010–2018 yearly data was analyzed. While most studies focus only on earnings management when assessing earnings quality, in this study six proxies for earnings quality are used, namely, accruals quality (a proxy for earnings management), earnings persistence, earnings predictability, earnings smoothness, earnings timeliness and earnings conservatism. Moreover, two proxies of financial performance are considered, the return on assets and the economic value added. An econometric model was estimated using either a fixed-effects or a random-effects specification to account for the individual firm-specific effects and ensure heteroscedasticity corrected estimates.FindingsThe results show that managers must be concerned with the quality of reported earnings, as it can affect positively firms’ financial performance, especially regarding accruals quality. Persistence, predictability, smoothness, timeliness and conservatism are shown not to exert significant influence on financial performance in the sample.Research limitations/implicationsThis work contributes not only as a literature review on these thematic but also to firms’ managers and stakeholders, who have information that helps them select strategies that guarantee earnings quality and improve firms’ financial performance.Originality/valueThis study proposed an econometric model that studies the relationship between earnings quality (using several proxies for it) and financial performance that can be applied to all companies.

Discretionary earnings smoothing, credit quality, and firm value

This paper examines the conditional association between earnings smoothing via discretionary accruals and firms’ credit quality and value. We argue that the information environment is important in how the market assesses earnings smoothing. We construct a smoothing index that measures the impact on reported earnings per share volatility from the use of accounting discretion. We find confirming evidence of a stronger association between discretionary earnings smoothing and firms’ cost of debt and Tobin's Q when the information environment for the firm is weaker. We also document that during the pre-Reg FD period smoothing firms with a low information environment appear more systematic, suggesting that managers of more opaque firms are more able to capture hidden cash flows when using accounting discretion to smooth earnings.

Earnings quality determinants in pre-corona crisis: another insight from bank core capital categories

PurposeDiscretionary accruals are earnings quality proxies that illustrate that the greater the value of discretionary accruals, the greater the practice of earnings management and vice versa. High-quality financial reports (especially earnings quality) are expected to help investors and potential investors to make decisions. This study analyses the factors that affect earnings quality, such as pre-managed earnings, liquidity and efficiency. Furthermore, the authors identify the moderating effect of the governance mechanisms proxied by the proportion of independent commissioners in conventional commercial banks listed on the Indonesia Stock Exchange.Design/methodology/approachThis study uses 226 banking data in the pre-corona crisis period 2013 until 2019. The data were analyzed using EViews 10 for hypothesis and MS Excel for a differential test.FindingsThe results show that pre-managed earnings, liquidity and efficiency affect earnings quality. The governance mechanisms can moderate liquidity and efficiency on earnings quality, while pre-managed earnings cannot be moderated. The different bank categories (BUKU) of earnings management mechanisms are shown for each BUKU (BUKU 1, 3 and 4 perform earnings management by increasing earnings, BUKU 2 lowering earnings). Another thing is information on the earnings quality between BUKU 2 with BUKU 3 and BUKU 4 because of differences in capital and bank operating coverage regulations.Research limitations/implicationsFurther research expects to analyze the factors affecting banking earnings quality concerning applying IFRS 9 (PSAK 71) in Indonesia. Future researchers expect to apply mixed methods to verify the financial statement data and provide comprehensive discussion and genuine insight from their study. Future research requires more samples from companies or an international scale (cross country) to obtain maximum results and be generally accepted.Practical implicationsThis study implies that managers should have more control over pre-managed earnings and bank liquidity as manager's incentive to do earnings smoothing. Managers should also pay attention to cost-efficiency and effective implementation of governance mechanisms to maximize earnings quality. This study also implies that policymakers can encourage commercial banks to apply more prudential principles in terms of a reserve for failed loans to minimize earnings management in banking.Originality/valueThe significance of this study revealed in the discussion of the difference test between bank core capital categories (BUKU) and its relation to earnings quality.

Financial reporting and book-tax conformity: A review of the issues

This work reviews accounting research on book-tax conformity (BTC) with specific reference to financial reporting issues. There is an ongoing debate in the accounting literature about the impact of BTC levels (weak/strong) on accounting quality and on tax avoidance. Policymakers have discussed at length the opportunity to reform BTC as well. Proponents of a strong BTC argue that it can deter both financial reporting ma-nipulation and aggressive tax planning by creating contrasting incentives between book earnings maximisation and taxable income minimisation. Further controls on book earnings assured by taxing authorities will reinforce such beneficial ef-fects. Opponents of a strong BTC suggest that financial accounting decisions should not interfere with tax accounting and vice versa, as financial reporting and tax reporting have different purposes. Furthermore, under a strong BTC, managers will tend to smooth earnings to minimise income taxes, thus reducing earnings in-formativeness. Even if a strand of research based on the Tax Reform Act (TRA 86) in the US corroborates the position of opponents, a large body of literature formed in international settings has not yet reached a consensus over the conse-quences of BTC. This circumstance makes BTC a relevant topic to the current de-bate on financial reporting quality.