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Audit committee, internal audit function and earnings management: evidence from Jordan

Ebraheem Saleem Salem Alzoubi (Department of Accounting, La Trobe Business School La Trobe University, Melbourne, Australia)

Meditari Accountancy Research

ISSN: 2049-372X

Article publication date: 8 January 2019

Issue publication date: 18 February 2019

1724

Abstract

Purpose

This study aims to examine the influence of audit committee existence and internal audit function on the earnings management of companies.

Design/methodology/approach

This paper uses generalised least squares regression to investigate the influence of audit committee existence, internal audit function and the interaction of these two mechanisms on earnings management for a sample of 86 industrial companies listed on the Amman Stock Exchange over a four-year period from 2007 to 2010. The paper uses the extent of discretionary accruals as the proxy for earnings management.

Findings

This paper finds that audit committee existence and the internal audit function reduce the level of earnings management. The number of meetings between the audit committee and internal audit function also reduces discretionary accruals. Overall, this study finds that audit committee existence and internal audit function decrease earnings management and improve the financial reporting quality.

Originality/value

The main contribution of this study is that it investigates the combined effects of audit committee existence and internal auditors on earnings management. Furthermore, this study is the initial paper to examine the impact of audit committee and internal audit on earnings management in Jordan.

Keywords

Acknowledgements

The author gratefully acknowledges the helpful comments and suggestions received from the two anonymous reviewers. Editor-in-Chief Charl de Villiers and Associate-Editor Phillip de Jager provided excellent editorial support.

Citation

Alzoubi, E.S.S. (2019), "Audit committee, internal audit function and earnings management: evidence from Jordan", Meditari Accountancy Research, Vol. 27 No. 1, pp. 72-90. https://doi.org/10.1108/MEDAR-06-2017-0160

Publisher

:

Emerald Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2019, Emerald Publishing Limited

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