scholarly journals Real Earnings Management and Audit Committee Characteristics

2019 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 8
Author(s):  
Kamarul Abdul Manaf

Whether audit committee (AC) could discharge its responsibility effectively in monitoring financial reporting process has been an important issue in accounting literature. This paper examines whether AC characteristics are important factors in constraining earnings manipulation. In particular, we examine the effect of AC competence, independence, meeting and size on real earnings management. The sample is public firms listed on Bursa Malaysia over the period 2014-2017. Our results show that AC competence is important characteristic that could curb real earnings management. As the level of competence increases, the level of real earnings management decreases. We also find that AC meeting is positively associated with real earnings management. The result suggest that AC meets more often when there are issues in financial reporting. However, AC independence and size have no relationship with real earnings management. This study provides insights on the role of AC with policy implication on regulator.

Author(s):  
Lars Helge Hass ◽  
Monika Tarsalewska

Financial intermediaries such as venture capitalists (VCs) not only provide financing, they also play an active role in firm governance and in financial practices before a firm goes public. Venture capitalists are actively engaged in monitoring and advising their portfolio firms. Thus, one also expects them to exert significant influence over the development of financial reporting practices. This chapter reviews recent literature and empirical evidence on VCs and financial reporting quality in newly public firms. It surveys the role of VCs in such activities as earnings management. In particular, it discusses how their monitoring activities and reputation can impact how their portfolio firms establish financial reporting practices. Subsequently, it also reviews the consequences of misreporting, and whether they affect VC behavior ex ante. Finally, the chapter uses recent data to provide empirical evidence on the effect of VCs on accrual and real earnings management.


2020 ◽  
Vol 23 (3) ◽  
pp. 379
Author(s):  
Widya. A. Sudarman, Widi Hidayat

This study has a purpose to investigate the effect of committee audit on earnings management. Using a sampel of companies companies listed in Indonesia Stock Exchange (IDX) 2013-2017. Results of this study shows that gender of audit committee significantly effect earnings management, it explains that female on audit committee are more careful and allow for discretion in terms of financial reporting. The results explain gender theory that women are more risk averse and ethical than men. This research provides new insights for management so that they can consider gender in the selection of committee audit to be appointed by the company with regard to the financial reporting process.


2021 ◽  
Vol 18 (3) ◽  
pp. 19-30 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sana Mardessi Masmoudi

The purposes of this study are to shed light, on the one hand, on the effect of audit committee characteristics, namely independent members in audit committee, a financial expert in audit committee, frequency of meetings and audit committee size on financial reporting quality proxied by real earnings management. On the other hand, it aims to investigate the moderating role of audit quality in the relationship between audit committee characteristics and financial reporting quality. The objective is to contribute to the new evidence on the role of audit committee characteristics towards the financial reporting quality with audit quality as a moderator, particularly the appointment of Big 4 company. This study uses the ordinary least squares (OLS) regression to achieve the research purpose by evaluating the data collected from 90 public listed companies from 2010 to 2019 in the Dutch context. The results state that audit committee characteristics have a statistically significant relationship with real earnings management. However, the effect of audit committee meetings on abnormal operating cash flow and discretionary expenses is not significant. There is also evidence that audit quality positively moderates the audit committee and real earnings management links. Lastly, the findings of this study will help professional accountancy bodies and governments to highlight the relevance of earnings management in safeguarding trustworthy financial information, owners’ wealth and to enhance audit committee characteristics in improving audit quality, especially after the enforcement of the Dutch Corporate Governance Code in 2016.


2012 ◽  
Vol 1 (4) ◽  
pp. 100-116 ◽  
Author(s):  
Murya Habbash

The existing literature documents that the quality of financial reporting is higher when firms have effective audit committees. However, recent studies find that audit committees are not effective in family firms where agency conflicts arise between controlling and non-controlling shareholders. This study extends the previous findings by investigating the effectiveness of audit committees in firms with similar agency conflicts when one owner obtains effective control of the firm. Compared to firms with a low level of block ownership, high-blockholder firms face less agency problems due to the separation of ownership and management, but more severe agency problems between controlling (blockholders) and non-controlling shareholders (minority shareholders). Using a unique hand-collected sample, this study tests the largest 350 UK firms for three years from 2005 to 2007, and shows that firms with effective audit committees have less earnings management. This study also documents that the monitoring effectiveness of audit committees is moderated in firms with high blockholder ownership. The results are not sensitive to the endogeneity test and hold for alternative specifications of both dependent and independent variables. Overall, these findings suggest that audit committees are ineffective in mitigating the majority-minority conflict compared to their effectiveness in reducing owners-managers conflicts. These conclusions, along with some recent similar evidence (e.g., Rose, 2009 and Guthrie and Sokolowsky, 2010), may raise doubts about the monitoring role of blockholders asserted by agency theorists and widely accepted in corporate governance literature.


2014 ◽  
Vol 37 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-36 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brant E. Christensen ◽  
Adam J. Olson ◽  
Thomas C. Omer

ABSTRACT Tax-related accounts are complex and often the last accounts finalized in the financial reporting process. Accordingly, these accounts can be used as a “last-chance” earnings management tool (Dhaliwal, Gleason, and Mills 2004). We investigate the extent to which an audit firm's industry expertise constrains earnings management through the tax accounts. We find that national industry audit experts constrain earnings management through the tax accounts. We also find that audit firm tax expertise constrains earnings management through the tax accounts when the audit firm is not considered an industry audit expert. Finally, we find evidence that providing both audit and tax services facilitates a nonexpert firm's ability to constrain earnings management through the tax accounts, which suggests that knowledge spillover plays an important role in reducing “last-chance” earnings management. All findings hold among smaller clients and when the extent of earnings management is below quantitative materiality thresholds. Data Availability: All data are publicly available as noted in the text.


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sana Mardessi

Purpose The purpose of this study is to address the impact of audit quality on financial reporting quality proxied by real earnings management. To further clarify the mentioned links, this study empirically assesses the moderating effect of audit quality. Design/methodology/approach The study is based on a sample consisting of 90 non-financial companies that are listed in the Amsterdam stock exchange in AEX all share index over the 2010–2017 period. This study applies a quantitative approach and secondary data as the main source of information for analysis. This paper performs an ordinary least squares regression to examine the moderating effect of audit quality on the relationship between financial reporting quality. Findings Empirical findings demonstrate that corporate governance mechanism, mainly independence members, financial expert and audit committee size has a statistically significant relationship with real earnings management. However, the effect of audit committee meetings on real earnings management is not significant. There is also evidence that audit quality moderates the audit committee – real earnings management links. Originality/value This study extends the existing literature by examining the moderating effect of audit quality on the relationship between financial reporting quality proxied by real earnings management in the Dutch context.


2015 ◽  
Vol 31 (2) ◽  
pp. 661 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dorra Talbi ◽  
Mohamed Ali Omri ◽  
Khaled Guesmi ◽  
Zied Ftiti

<p>This study seeks to provide empirical evidence of the efficacy of board characteristics in constraining management opportunism, measured by real earnings management. The paper uses regression analysis to document empirical evidence regarding the impact of the independence of boards of directors and the independence of committees on real earnings management in 7,481 US firms over the period 2000 to 2009. This study contributes to empirical studies on the role of corporate governance in financial reporting quality by demonstrating the role of the independence of boards of directors and the independence of committees in constraining real earnings management. These results should contribute to providing an orientation for future regulators regarding possible amendments, especially in the wake of the current financial crisis.</p>


2019 ◽  
Vol 19 (6) ◽  
pp. 1167-1186 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lara Al-Haddad ◽  
Mark Whittington

Purpose This paper aims to investigate the impact of corporate governance (CG) mechanisms on real (REM), accrual-based earnings management (AEM) and REM/AEM interaction in Jordan following the 2009 Jordanian CG Code (JCGC). Design/methodology/approach The study used a sample of 108 Jordanian public firms covering 2010-2014. Hypotheses are tested using pooled OLS-regression models. Findings The authors find that both institutional and managerial ownership constrain the use of REM and AEM. In contrast, both independent directors and large shareholders are found to exaggerate such practices, and CEO-duality is found to exaggerate REM only. However, foreign ownership does not appear to have a significant impact. They further find that managers use REM and AEM jointly to obtain the greatest earnings impact. Practical implications The findings have important implications for policymakers, regulators, audit professionals and investors in their attempts to constrain earnings management (EM) practices and improve financial reporting quality in Jordan. Originality/value The authors believe this to be the first Jordanian study examining the relationship between CG mechanisms and both REM and AEM following the introduction of the 2009 JCGC, as well as the first in Jordan and the Middle East to examine board characteristics and REM. Moreover, it is the first to test for the potential substitution of REM and AEM since the 2009 JCGC enactment. As such, the findings draw attention to EM practices and the role of monitoring mechanisms in Jordan.


2018 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
pp. 1
Author(s):  
Fatima Zakiya Razani ◽  
Liu Xia

One of the Auditor and Audit committee role is to ensure the quality of corporate financial reporting process. This study aims to test the effect of the length of auditor tenure and audit committee on earning quality measured by the absolute value of discretionary accruals. A sample of 465 companies has been selected and data covering the period 2009-2014 has been collected from these firms, where 2325 observation were used in this analysis. The data collected form CSMAR and analyzed using GLS regression analysis. This study found that the short audit tenure on Chinese listed company in Shenzhen Stock Exchange has a significance negative influence on earning quality, meanwhile this study found that audit committee which is measure by the size of the committee does not has a significance influence on earning quality. This study suggests that auditor should have a longer tenure to gain adequate knowledge of client’s business. Moreover companies should strengthen the role of their audit committee in monitoring financial reporting process by improved their activity and financial knowledge of the member.


2020 ◽  
Vol 19 (3) ◽  
pp. 185-221
Author(s):  
Nor Irdawati Mahyuddin ◽  

"This paper aims to empirically investigate firms’ earnings management (EM) behaviour, representing an issue in the realm of corporate financial reporting. Specifically, it explores the strategic roles of two common governance elements of ownership (managerial, institutional and family) and external audit in shaping the firms’ EM behaviour based on the two common EM attributes of Discretionary Accruals (DA) and Real Activities EM (REM). The analyses based on 227 survived Malaysian listed firms throughout the sixteen-year period from 2001 to 2016 (3,632 firm-year observations) indicate a dynamic EM behaviour depending on the presence of different ownership structures. Whilst a high percentage of family and institutional ownership mitigates DA, it however does not hold true for REM. Further, this paper also shows that the external control mechanism of audit quality is not significant in mitigating both EM attributes. The empirical results suggest that firms facing different challenges would affect the firms’ financial reporting behaviours in their choice of EM. The paper adds to the growing body of empirical knowledge dealing with the determinants of DA and REM from the lens of an emerging economy like Malaysia. KEYWORDS: Earnings management, discretionary accruals, real earnings management, accrual earnings management, financial reporting quality."


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document