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The purpose of this paper is to investigate the change in management accounting and control systems (MACSs) within two large public manufacturing companies in Libya so-called Trucks and Buses Company (TBC) and National Trailers Company (NTC).

The paper is based on semi-structured interviews, an analysis of documents and observations. It draws on New Institutional Sociology (NIS) perspective (DiMaggio and Powell’s 1983) as theoretical framework to provide explanations regarding how the MACS in the two companies were shaped by various factors.

The main factors identified in shaping the operations of the MACS were the need to comply with the political pressures, the Libyan Government’s laws and regulations, the instructions imposed by the management committee in both companies, leading organizations’ pressures (ISO), customer satisfaction (coercive isomorphism), the influence of professional associations (normative isomorphism) and the need to imitate efficient organizations in order to be more legitimate and successful (mimetic isomorphism).

The findings of the study have implications for understanding the operations of MACS in developing countries. Future research could focus on alternative theoretical perspectives for the investigation of the process of change in MACS such as structuration theory, agency theory and actor-network theory.

The proposed theoretical framework provides insights into the process of change by focusing on the interplay between the institutional forces, market forces and intra – organizational power relationships to overcome the criticism of NIS that it downplays the role of market forces and intra – organizational power relations.

For investors to wholeheartedly entrust their finances to the supposed executives, there is the need to set up policies to checkmate the excesses of such executives, hence clawback policy. This study aims to explore the perceptions of professionals regarding the impact of clawback provisions on earnings management (EM) and financial reporting quality in the context of the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

The application of a qualitative approach in an EM is of great significance in this study. For convenience, perceptions of the professionals were collected through semi-structured face-to-face interviews, internet forums and telephone conversations from which the data were initially transcribed and analyzed using thematic analysis.

The findings of the study indicate that clawbacks will have a significant impact on EM and financial reporting quality, and apart from this, other firm-level factors have also been supporting clawbacks.

EM has been a widespread practice; this research may potentially assist directors and regulatory bodies to comprehend factors that should be considered to reduce it. It may also provide practical insights from professionals regarding clawbacks and their bearing on EM and the quality of financial information from an emerging economy perspective.

A significant gap in the contemporary literature regarding the impact of clawback provisions on EM and financial reporting quality has been filed by this work, in the context of the UAE economy. Consequently, it provides a great insight into the effect of clawback in a business setting and how it can help checkmate the excesses of company executives.