scholarly journals The Moderating Role of Earnings Management on the Relationship between Cash Flow Activities and Stock Returns in the Jordanian Manufacturing Firms

2020 ◽  
Vol VIII (Issue 4) ◽  
pp. 1011-1022
Author(s):  
Sinan
2020 ◽  
pp. 097215092093406
Author(s):  
Ahmad A. Toumeh ◽  
Sofri Yahya ◽  
Azlan Amran

Management engages in earnings manipulation for different reasons. This article argues that low-growth firms with high free cash flow will opt for income-increasing earnings management in order to obscure the low profits derived from their investments in negative net present value (NPV) projects. On the other hand, we argue that the listed companies might be interested in being listed in the first market due to its privileges and to preserve the competitiveness, through managing their earnings upwardly, so that they can satisfy the condition of achieving a particular earnings limit. This article should advance the body of earnings management literature in the Jordanian context by examining the effect of the moderating role of an independent audit committee (IAC) in the association between surplus free cash flow (SFCF) and income-increasing discretionary accruals (DAC). Further, this is the initial empirical attempt to investigate the moderation effect of IAC between stock market segmentations (SMS) and positive DAC. The results of this current study offer original and beneficial information for the Jordanian government and other countries with a similar institutional environment because the study promotes the application of applying IAC as an efficient tool to constrain management behaviour towards manipulation of the accruals. On top of that, this research offers information concerning the prevailing situation of earnings management practices and corporate governance in Jordan, in which shareholders, local and international investors, policymakers, regulators and academic researchers are interested. Finally, panel data analyses and various statistical techniques are employed to derive conclusions.


2018 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
pp. 299-310 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zaki Fakhroni ◽  
Imam Ghozali ◽  
Puji Harto ◽  
Etna Nur Afri Yuyetta

The study aims to test investment inefficiency of fixed assets in mediating the relationship between free cash flow and earnings management and to test the controlling shareholders in moderating the relationship between free cash flow and fixed assets investment inefficiency. The research problem proposed in this study is whether the use of free cash flow for the investment inefficiency of fixed assets is able to ultimately improve the managerial performance. This research investigates new empirical evidence related to management earnings practices caused by free cash flow fixed assets investment inefficiency. The study was conducted on all the manufacturing firms listed on the Indonesia stock exchange from 2010 to 2015. The data used are secondary data in the form of the firms’ financial statements. Using purposive sampling, 314 units were analyzed from 69 manufacturing firms. The estimation of the path model was completed using Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) by WarpPLS program version 5.0. The results showed that free cash flow is positively related to earnings management. Fixed assets investment inefficiency is able to mediate the relationship between free cash flow and earnings management.


2019 ◽  
Vol 69 (6) ◽  
pp. 638-654
Author(s):  
Deaa Al-Deen Al-Sraheen ◽  
Khaldoon Ahmad Al Daoud

While often criticized, the independence of directors remains a crucial criterion for evaluating the effectiveness of the monitoring role of boards. This study examines the relationship between board independence and earnings management, paying attention to moderation role of family ownership concentration on this relationship using a sample of services companies listed on Amman Stock Exchange ASE. This study documented a significant and negative association between board independence and earnings management. In addition, the moderating role of family ownership concentration on this relationship was also negative. Thus, the board’s monitoring function was inefficient due to the concentration of ownership. These results were obtained through using multiple and sequential regression analysis for the research data from 2013 to 2016. This study provides new ideas for future research such as examining the impacts of the migration of capitals and investors from neighbouring countries such as Syria and Iraq.


2017 ◽  
Vol 33 (4) ◽  
pp. 667 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sungbin Chun ◽  
Eunho Cho

We empirically investigate whether a differentiation strategy constrains real activities earnings management (RAEM). Further, considering corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities are a popular tool of differentiation strategy, we examine whether interactive synergy between CSR activities and the differentiation strategy strengthens the negative relationship between differentiation strategy and RAEM. Using a sample of 659 firm-year observations of Korean manufacturing listed firms during 2005-2010, we find that differentiation strategy is negatively associated with RAEM, suggesting that firms pursuing a differentiation strategy are likely to refrain from managing earnings using RAEM that goes against their strategy. We also observe that interactive synergy between differentiation and CSR strengthens the negative relationship between differentiation strategy and RAEM, implying that synergy effect between CSR and differentiation strategy even more constrains RAEM that is in conflict with both CSR and differentiation strategy. These findings are robust after we perform sensitivity tests. This study contributes to the literature by providing the first evidence on the relationship between differentiation strategy and RAEM and the moderating role of CSR activities on the relationship.


Author(s):  
DHIA NOMAN ◽  
ROHAIDA BASIRUDDIN

The interpretation of managers of environmental changes helps in identifying the gaps between the environment and a firm’s capabilities. This in turn can support a firm’s ability to use dynamic capabilities in an effective way to reconfigure the firm’s resources into new operational capabilities that better match the environment and to exploit environmental opportunities. However, extant studies have ignored the moderating role of managers’ interpretation of environmental changes in the capabilities building paradigm. This study empirically examines the moderating role of environmental interpretation in the relationship between dynamic capabilities and improvement capabilities. To operationalise environmental interpretation to enable the development of a measurable model for this construct, which has yet to be developed, 209 large manufacturing firms were selected as a sample to study the relationship between environmental interpretation and firm’s capabilities. By applying the PLS-SEM technique, this study finds that environmental interpretation moderates the relationship between learning capability, integrating capability and coordinating capability and improvement capability.


2021 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 20-29
Author(s):  
Adra Rida Mahila ◽  
Rosaly Franksiska

During the Covid-19 pandemic, many governments require companies to promote a work from home policy. However, many occupations cannot be done at home, putting the employees at increased health risk and increasing job stress. The purpose of this study is to examine whether job stress negatively affects job performance. Furthermore, we also examine the moderating effect of Covid-19 information on the relationship between job stress and job performance. Our respondents are employees who work in manufacturing firms in Salatiga and still have to work from the office during the pandemic. The data were collected using an online questionnaire, and the total number of respondents is 105. Our analysis using moderated regression analysis founds that job stress negatively influences job performance. We also found that Covid-19 information moderates the relationship between job stress and job performance.


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Asgar Ali ◽  
Manish Bansal

PurposeThe current study aims at examining the impact of upward and downward earnings management on the cross-sections of stock return. The study also examines the moderating role of cross-sectional effects on the association between earnings management and stock returns.Design/methodology/approachThe study employed univariate and bivariate-sorted portfolio-level analysis to investigate the issue. Fama–Macbeth cross-sectional regression is used to analyze the moderating role of different cross-sectional effects. The study used a sample of 3085 Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) listed stocks spanning over 20 years from January 2000 to December 2019.FindingsThe findings suggest that investors have different perceptions toward different forms of earnings management. In other words, results exhibit that investors perceive downward earnings management as an element of risk; hence, they discount the returns at a higher rate. On the contrary, results show that upward earnings management is positively perceived by the investors; hence, they hold the stocks even at a lower rate of return. This relation is found to be consistent even after controlling the impact of marker effect, size effect, value effect and momentum effect.Originality/valueThis study is among pioneering studies that consider the direction of earnings management while examining its impact on the stock return. This study is also among the earlier attempts to examine the moderating role of four different cross-sectional effects by taking a uniform sample of stocks over the same period.


2020 ◽  
Vol 27 (2) ◽  
pp. 369-386
Author(s):  
Shathees Baskaran ◽  
Nalini Nedunselian ◽  
Chun Howe Ng ◽  
Nomahaza Mahadi ◽  
Siti Zaleha Abdul Rasid

Purpose This study aims to clarify the relationship between ethical orientation and earnings management perception phenomenon in the organization. It discusses to what extent earnings management is considered as a strategic adaptation or deliberate manipulation in an organization. The study also aims to expand the domain of ethical perspective of earnings management by considering mediating and moderating role of investor sentiment and corporate social responsibility (CSR) as inward pressure and outward commitment surrounding the organization, adopting a combined perspective of strategic management and also accounting discipline than is normally found in the ethics and earnings management literature. Design/methodology/approach The study opted for literature synthesis to define key concepts surrounding ethics and earnings management perception in the organization. Besides, it attempted to identify influential mediators and moderators in explaining the earnings management phenomenon in the organization. Consequently, the study identified the gaps in current research to draw upon a more holistic conceptual framework. The rationale for the research was justified within the body of research. Findings The study suggested research propositions based on the literature synthesis in view of ethics and earnings management perception in the organization. More specifically, it has proposed a conceptual framework, explaining the relationship between ethical orientation and a multi-dimensional view of earnings management perception. It is envisaged that the mediating and moderating role of investor sentiment and CSR incorporated in this conceptual study will improve the predictive value of the proposed framework and offer additional insights about factors that inhibit or advance ethical orientation and earnings management practices in the organization. Research limitations/implications This paper suffers from the obvious limitation of lacking empirical investigation. However, it does provide a theoretical rationale for the argument that alteration of earnings can be controlled if ethical orientation is emphasized in the organization apart from insulating internal and external pressures to manage such phenomenon from happening in the organization. Perhaps, the most important direction for future research is further extension and validation of this framework by performing an empirical investigation to produce newer insights into this phenomenon. Originality/value This conceptual study is different from previous studies on the grounds it has considered unexplored issues linking inward pressures and outward commitments in explaining this phenomenon further. To bridge the critical knowledge gap of earnings management phenomenon, a mediating effect of investor sentiment as an inward pressure and a moderating role of CSR as an outward commitment are also integrated within the model. The proposed model neither formulated nor tested empirically in previous studies locally or, perhaps, globally, therefore, stands out as an original contribution in the study of ethical orientation and earnings management perception.


Author(s):  
Umair Saeed Bhutta ◽  
Zhang Youtang ◽  
Ali Raza

This study empirically investigates the impact of earnings management on investments of the firm. In this study, we also check the moderating role of audit quality between the above said relationship. We hypothesize that audit quality will not only weakens the relationship between earnings management and inefficient investments but also help the firm to invest reduction in over and under investments by the firm. Textile sector of Pakistan is selected for the study as it is one of the most important sectors of the country. The role of audit quality cannot be ignored to improve the information quality which ultimately helps the firm to make optimal decisions for the firm shareholders. The earning management activities are performed by firm managers due to moral hazard and adverse selection problem which leads to sub-optimal investments.


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