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This study aims to examine the association between anti-corruption corporate disclosure and earnings management practices by bringing evidence from a developed market.

The study uses data from non-financial FTSE 100 Shares in 2016 and 2017. This study develops a disclosure index to capture the anti-corruption disclosures and run pooled, fixed effects and generalized methods of moments regression models to explore the anti-corruption disclosure–earnings management association. This study also disentangles discretionary accruals into positive and negative, use adjusted discretionary accrual computation and take a more conservative view on discretionary accruals computation as an additional analysis.

The results show a negative and significant association between anti-corruption disclosure and earnings management practices. When disentangling discretionary accruals (overvalued/positive and undervalued/negative), the authors found that higher anti-corruption disclosures were negatively associated with positive discretionary accruals, but not associated with negative discretionary accruals. The additional analysis confirmed the previous results, showing that anti-corruption disclosures are perceived as a substantive practice, rather than a mere disclosure practice for legitimacy reasons.

This study contributes to debate on the symbolic versus the substantive uses of anti-corruption disclosures in the UK context.

This study aims to address a notable gap in the existing literature by exploring the relationship between gender diversity and dividend policy within the context of US Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs).

The authors use a substantial data set comprising 1,398 firm-year observations across 209 US REIT companies from 2011 to 2021 to address the research aims. Fixed effects models and generalized least squares regression methods are used in the analysis.

The results demonstrate a significant positive association between board gender diversity and higher dividend payouts among US REITs. This relationship holds after controlling for corporate governance and other firm-level factors. The findings have strong implications that the presence of women on REIT boards contributes to a greater propensity for discretionary dividend increases in the USA.

This research contributes to the literature by empirically examining female directors’ role in influencing US REITs’ dividend policies, an area lacking adequate prior scholarship. The paper also considers the unique regulatory environment of REITs, highlighting the importance of the study for externally financed firms.

Motivated by rapidly increasing CEO age in the USA, the purpose of this study is to analyze the effect of CEO age on financial reporting quality and consider the moderating role of clawback provisions.

This study uses a data set of 18,492 US firm-year observations from 2003 to 2019. Financial reporting quality is proxied with accruals-based and real activities earnings management measures, and with financial statement irregularities, measured by applying Benford’s law to financial statement line items. A number of sensitivity tests are conducted including the use of an instrumental variable.

The results provide evidence that financial statement irregularities are more prevalent when CEOs are older, and they suggest a complex relation between CEO age and real activities earnings management. The results also suggest that the effect of CEO age on financial reporting quality is moderated by the presence of clawback provisions which became mandatory for US-listed firms in October 2022.

This study is the first, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, to consider the effect of CEO age on financial statement irregularities and earnings management. This study has important implications for stakeholders evaluating the determinants of financial reporting quality, for boards of directors considering CEO age limitations and for policymakers considering mandating clawback provisions, which recently occurred in the USA.

This paper studies the association between earnings opacity and corporate social responsibility disclosures of firms listed on the Vietnamese Stock Exchange.

We utilize a dataset comprising a sample of all listed Vietnamese firms for the period of 2014–2022. Data regarding corporate social responsibility information are gathered manually. Following Dechow et al. (1995), Kothari et al. (2005) and Bhattacharya et al. (2003), earnings opacity is measured by using three proxies, including abnormal accruals, earnings smoothing and loss avoidance. Our hypothesis was tested via ordinary least squares (OLS) regressions. To address endogeneity problems, we use the two-stage instrumental variable method (IV-2SLS) as well as the generalized method of moments (GMM) to ensure the robustness of our results.

We find that earnings opacity is positively related to corporate social responsibility disclosures. Cross-sectional analyses indicate that managers of firms disguise their opportunistic behaviour by disclosing more information about corporate social responsibility. The evidence also shows that firms experience long-run underperformance when having higher earnings opacity and greater sustainability disclosures. Our results remain robust even after correcting for endogeneity using the IV approach and the GMM method.

Evidence from this study can serve as a warning signal to the investment community, highlighting that some methods aimed at enhancing a firm’s corporate social responsibility disclosures might be used to obstruct other unethical activities. Moreover, the results of this study can help regulators gain a better comprehension of firms' reporting patterns concerning corporate social responsibility initiatives. It should not only reform the corporate social responsibility regulation but also impose stronger litigation for firms to enhance the quality of corporate social responsibility disclosures.

We are the first to present evidence regarding the relationship between earnings opacity and corporate social responsibility disclosure in Vietnam.

This paper aims to investigate the impact of audit mechanisms on earnings management (EM) practices in listed Saudi Arabian companies. Specifically, it examines the association between audit committee (AC) characteristics, external audit quality and EM before and after the revision of Saudi Regulations on Corporate Governance (SRCGs) in 2017.

The study analyzes a data set comprising 135 Saudi-listed companies observed from 2013 to 2020. EM practices are measured using the absolute value of discretionary accruals, and external audit quality is assessed by the involvement of BIG 4 auditors. The authors also consider four variables to gauge AC characteristics: independence, size, meeting frequency and expertise. To test the hypotheses, the authors use multivariate regression on panel data.

The findings provide robust evidence regarding the impact of audit mechanisms on EM practices. The presence of accounting and finance experts within the AC is shown to have a substantial and statistically significant effect in reducing EM practices. Similarly, AC independence demonstrates a negative association with EM after the implementation of the SRCGs 2017. However, the study does not uncover any statistically significant impact of AC size and meeting frequency on EM practices. Moreover, the research highlights a noteworthy positive relationship between EM practices and engagement with BIG 4 audit firms before the SRCGs 2017. However, this relationship ceases to exist following the regulatory amendment.

The practical implications of this research are significant for policymakers and companies operating in Saudi Arabia, as well as for practitioners and auditors working in the region. The findings underscore the importance of high-quality auditing work to prevent EM practices and promote transparent financial reporting. The study recommends increasing the number of independent members and financial experts on the AC, as well as rigorous monitoring of AC size and meetings. It also emphasizes the need for compliance with governance regulations to focus on effective monitoring of the AC rather than mere fulfillment of requirements.

The study enhances the existing literature on the effectiveness of ACs and external audit quality in mitigating EM by providing evidence from a unique and Islamic context that has not been extensively studied before. This can help in validating or challenging the findings of previous studies and provide a more comprehensive understanding of the factors that impact EM in different contexts.

The purpose of this study was to examine the moderating role of institutional ownership on the relationship between board gender diversity and earnings management (EM) among listed firms in East African Community (EAC) partner states.

The study used a sample of 71 firms listed in the EAC partner states over 2011–2020. Data were handpicked from the individual firm's audited annual financial reports. Based on the results of the Hausman test, the study used the results of the fixed-effect regression model to test the hypotheses. To test the robustness of the results, the study employed an alternative measure of EM and two additional econometric techniques, including the pooled ordinary least squares (OLS) and the system generalized method of moments (GMM).

The empirical findings revealed that female directors improve the board's effectiveness in monitoring managerial roles. Specifically, the results showed a significantly negative relationship between the proportion of women in the corporate board and EM (as measured by discretionary accruals (DAs)). The findings further revealed an inverse relationship between the proportion of institutional ownership and EM. Finally, the results further demonstrated that institutional ownership enhances the role of board gender diversity in mitigating EM among listed firms in the EAC.

The findings of this study may be useful to managers, investors and regulators in assessing the role of institutional ownership and women's participation on corporate boards as a strategy for alleviating unethical manipulation of earnings.

The findings of this study contribute to the growing concern on gender inequality, especially the marginalization of women from the paid labor force and decision-making. The findings highlight the importance of having more women in the corporate board since this may help in mitigating corporate fraud. Similarly, the findings highlight the importance of institutional ownership as a corporate governance (CG) tool.

Previous studies have reported mixed empirical results on whether board gender diversity mitigates EM. To the best of the author's knowledge, this is the first paper to fill the existing gap by exploring whether institutional ownership moderates the relationship between board gender diversity and EM among listed firms in the EAC.

This study aims to comprehensively examine the relationship between financial reporting quality (FRQ) and investment efficiency (IE). The central thrust of this research endeavor is to empirically analyze the impact of FRQ on diverse facets of investment, including overinvestment, underinvestment and overall IE.

Using a sample of 13,902 firm-year observations from publicly listed US companies, this study uses the generalized method of moment (GMM) in conjunction with three distinct measures for FRQ under three different investment settings, considering firm liquidity and industry performance.

This study offers interesting insights into the intricate relationship between FRQ and IE. The results indicate a strong positive relation between the two constructs. In particular, the research reveals a negative link between FRQ and underinvestment, and an inverse relationship between FRQ and overinvestment. These findings suggest that FRQ is one of the key drivers of IE and that by enhancing FRQ, businesses can better optimize their investments.

This study highlights the significant implication of the effect of FRQ on IE, as it enables businesses to optimize their investments by improving their decision-making processes and better risk assessment of associated projects, resulting in more efficient capital allocation. A higher degree of FRQ increases investors’ confidence in a company’s financial statements, resulting in higher liquidity. It can benefit regulators to set higher standards and promote transparency.

The study examines the relationship between FRQ and IE. The study finds a strong positive relation between FRQ and IE, with FRQ being a key driver of IE. The paper’s original contribution lies in its comprehensive examination of the complex relationship between FRQ and IE, using robust analytical techniques by applying GMM and taking into consideration firms liquidity and industry performance.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the effect of chief executive officer (CEO) overconfidence on earnings quality and the moderating role of ownership structure as a crucial corporate governance device.

The paper uses the generalized method of moments (GMM) estimation method to test our models on a sample of 335 French companies between 2009 and 2020, i.e. 4,020 observations.

The results show that CEO overconfidence negatively affects earnings quality. This result supports the predictions of behavioral finance theory and suggests that CEO overconfidence is a behavioral bias that affects the quality of earnings. The authors also examined the effect of different types of ownership structures on this relationship. The results show the significant role of controlling shareholders, owner-managers, families and institutional investors in mitigating the negative effect of CEO overconfidence on earnings quality.

This paper has some limitations. First, other types of ownership structures could have been analyzed such as state ownership. Second, we ignored the role of the board of directors as an important governance mechanism in controlling overconfident CEOs’ actions.

Companies should be aware of the potential risks associated with CEO overconfidence, which can compromise the faithful representation of earnings. This highlights the importance of effective monitoring and internal controls to detect and prevent such practices, which involve the role of ownership structure.

This paper addresses the effect of CEO overconfidence on earnings quality and provides new evidence on the role of different ownership structure types in shaping this relationship. Additionally, this paper sheds new light on how overconfident CEOs may behave in challenging times.

This paper aims to examine whether the audit committee moderates the relationship between audit quality and market reactions.

Using fixed effects and the GMM model for robustness, the study used 472 publicly listed firms on South Africa’s Johannesburg stock exchange spanning a period of six years from 2014 to 2019.

Results obtained show that audit quality impacts market reactions through share price and adjusted market returns. And, that the audit committee moderates the relationship between audit quality and market reactions in South Africa’s publicly listed firms. An effective audit committee is expected to play a crucial role in overseeing the audit process, ensuring the independence of auditors and promoting transparency and accountability which in turn impacts asset prices.

The study implies that governments and regulatory bodies in other developing economies could strengthen regulations about companies’ Acts, how firms regulate themselves and more so audit committees. Firms can also strive to make sure that audit committees are staffed with experts to promote higher audit quality and investor attention to get access to the much-alluded capital.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, the study adds value by being the first to explore the subject matter of the importance of audit committees in defining audit quality and market reactions in publicly listed firms. The research adds to the body of knowledge on corporate governance and audit quality. It provides a case study specific to the South African context, contributing to the global literature on these topics.

This paper aims to investigate the effect of corporate environmental disclosure on earnings management and to further examine whether this relationship is moderated by female board.

Our sample includes 264 European companies listed on the STOXX eUROPE 600 for the period 2010 to 2022. We excluded financial companies (banks and insurance companies) due to their specific capital structure and regulatory requirements, and companies with missing data. Feasible Generalized Least Square (FGLS) regression method is used to estimate the econometric models. For robustness analyses, the authors included the alternative measure of the dependent variable, and they applied the simultaneous equation model for the endogeneity test.

Using discretionary accruals as a proxy for earnings management, the results obtained indicated a negative effect of corporate environmental disclosure on earnings management. The results suggest also that women on boards are effective in their monitoring role. Indeed, findings show that the effect of corporate environmental disclosure on earnings management is particularly stronger with the presence of women directors on the companies’ boards.

This study has two limitations. Firstly, the sample size is relatively small, which may limit the generalizability of our findings. Secondly, our earnings management indicator, based on estimates of accruals, may not perfectly reflect all streams of earnings management. Therefore, to reduce potential bias in these estimates, it would be useful to use other indicators, such as real earnings management.

The findings have several implications for regulatory, investors and academic researchers. For regulators, it is appropriate to promote several standards related to corporate environmental disclosure and earnings management. The results advise also the worldwide policy maker to give the importance of female roles to improve engagement firms in corporate environmental disclosure, so to be more transparent in their accounting practices to ensure that they are not engaging in unethical or fraudulent behavior. For investors, the results show that the existence of female directors on the board reduces earnings management. For academic researchers, it is interesting to explore the relationship between corporate environmental disclosure, women on the board, and earnings management.

This paper extends the existing literature by examining the moderating effect of women directors on the relationship between corporate environmental disclosure and earnings management in the European context.