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The purpose of this study is to examine whether firms from countries presenting higher levels of corruption are more likely to have higher levels of earnings management than their counterparts from countries with lower levels of corruption. It also explicitly examines how this relationship compares between emerging and developed economies.

Using multiple regression analysis, this study tests the hypothesis of positive association between the countries’ level of corruption and the level of earnings management using a sample of foreign firms with American Depositary Receipts in the US market.

Findings indicate that higher corruption perception is related to higher incentives for firms to manipulate earnings in the case of emerging countries. Such results are not identified in developed countries where the level of minority investors’ protection is higher. Findings also indicate that in developed countries earnings management is negatively related to investor protection, which is not the case for emerging countries.

As far as the authors are aware, this study is the first to examine the effects of corruption on earnings management on the basis of accounting firm-level data.

The study investigates whether the level of sustainability concerns of Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) in Malaysia and the Philippines is positively associated with accounting students' intentions to engage in sustainability accounting through its effect on students' attitude, subjective norm and perceived behavioural control regarding environmental sustainability practices.

This empirical study relies on a structural equation model computed using data collected through a questionnaire and data collected from the HEIs websites.

The findings show that the willingness to engage in sustainability accounting is determined by students' subjective norm and perceived behavioural control, but it is not determined by attitude regarding environmental sustainability practices. The authors also found that the greater the concern with sustainability of the HEI in which a student is enrolled, the greater his/her attitude, subjective norm and perceived behavioural control towards environmental sustainability, and, indirectly, the greater his/her intention to engage in sustainability accounting.

These findings add to the literature on higher education and sustainability accounting by high-lighting the importance of the HEIs sector in promoting sustainability policies and practices, in acting as role models regarding sustainability issues, and in preparing students for building a sustainable society.

This study analyzes the effect of the mandatory adoption of the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) on the level of both accruals-based (AEM) and real earnings management (REM) in a comprehensive sample of firms from emerging markets. It also analyzes whether this effect differs depending on the nature/extent of IFRS adoption (full versus modified).

Some previous studies predominantly made up of samples from developed countries suggest a substitution of AEM for REM in the post-IFRS period. The authors test whether this trade-off among the two earnings management strategies is also evident in emerging markets, based on a sample of 27,789 firm-year observations from 18 countries between 2000 and 2018.

The results suggest that IFRS adoption in emerging markets is associated with the replacement of REM by AEM, unlike previous overall evidence in developed countries where firms appear to do the opposite. The results also show that this replacement is lower in the emerging markets fully applying IFRS, when compared to those applying a modified version of these international standards.

Possibly due to the poor institutional environment of emerging markets, coupled with greater flexibility inherited of IFRS principles-based approach, the authors reiterate an imminent concern about IFRS encouraging substitution of REM for AEM in emerging countries, namely in those applying a modified version of IFRS.

While the predominant IFRS literature in emerging markets remains focused on analyzing only single-country studies, promoting clearly mixed results, the authors enhance such discussion and foster this debate on a more international level by analyzing the joint effect of IFRS in 18 emerging markets and by comparing the effect of full and modified IFRS adoption.

This study investigates how the association between national culture and earnings management compares between developed and emerging countries.

The empirical analysis relies on a sample of 6,313 firm-year observations from 11 emerging markets and 27,605 firm-year observations from 22 developed countries. The authors use ordinary least squares regression methods to test the hypotheses of the study.

Based on Hofstede's (2011) cultural dimensions, the authors find that firms from countries with a higher level of uncertainty avoidance and individualism are less likely to engage in earnings management, but the effect of uncertainty avoidance (individualism) is more (less) pronounced in the emerging countries. Moreover, the authors demonstrate that firms from emerging (developed) countries with higher levels of power distance and masculinity are less (more) likely to engage in earnings management. Finally, the authors find evidence of a trade-off between accruals-based and real earnings management in firms from countries with greater long-term orientation and an indulgence cultural dimension.

This paper adds to the literature by theoretically discussing and empirically analysing the role that developed and emerging countries' development plays on the effect of national culture on earnings management.

This study aims to analyse the impacts of an institutional change process on a specific higher education institution in Europe and the trade-offs between the faculty perceptions of success and the organization image during this process, in light of the identity institutional theory.

The impacts of this institutional change are analysed and discussed based on in-depth interviews conducted with faculty members of the accounting department in which they reflected upon academic success vis-a-vis the career assessment system adopted, followed up by those faculty members’ answering an electronic questionnaire about organizational identity and image perception (Gioia et al., 2000).

Considering the individual perspectives, faculty are concerned about their vocations and aspirations, with feelings of apprehension and insecurity, perceiving the institutional goals as too high and potentially unattainable. By shifting the priority towards research, costs in terms of losing the institutional excellence in teaching might arise, which has been traditionally keen to the institute’s organizational identity and consistent with faculty’s perceptions of academic success.

As in any research endeavour, some limitations might emerge. First, the authors addressed the context of a specific business school, in a European country. It is certainly true that culture plays a role in terms of both organizational and national levels. The authors acknowledge this as a limitation. Nevertheless, this research takes a “local” stance, the logic of academic evaluation and its impacts on institutional and individual identity formation processes is a worldwide phenomenon. Second, in defining the authors’ selection criteria, the authors excluded the possibility of other voices to be heard, both in the department itself and in the business school. Regarding the department, the authors argue that those are the ones who could influence future decisions, considering that they are the only ones eligible for the governing bodies under the institute’s regulations. Regarding the business school, adding other department(s) means adding other discipline(s) to the authors’ analysis with specific and different dynamics of researching, publishing and teaching, which also impacts the expectations regarding career and academic success.

First, before beginning an institutional change process, it is necessary to assess the vocations and aspirations of its members. The solution requires to reanalyse academic career premises and to reconsider the weights given to each academic activity, or furthermore, to offer more than one career path, so as to make it flexible for each faculty to follow their vocations and aspirations or to adapt to life demands. Second, in terms of organizational identity and image, the challenge is to minimize the gap between the construed external image and the internal identity, striving to achieve a balance between teaching, research, outreach and service.

Because of the nature of the academic work, the authors propose that the application of the theory should be preceded by a careful consideration of what is academic success. The misalignments studied and reported here reveal a multilevel phenomenon, wherein individual academic identities are often in conflict with the institutional image. The authors’ study entails a contribution to the application of the identity institutional theory to academic institutions.

The purpose of this paper is to examine some factors influencing the timeliness of corporate financial reporting in Portugal, highlighting the differences between publicly listed family firms and nonfamily firms.

Regression analysis is used to analyse some factors which influence the timeliness of corporate financial reporting.

Findings indicate that Portuguese listed family firms are more likely to promptly report their annual financial statements, when compared to non-family firms.

Exploring a hitherto unexplored aspect of accounting quality in family firms, the timeliness of financial reporting.

This study aims to identify the legitimacy strategies employed by one of the largest Portuguese cement companies to defend and downplay its sustainability performance and activities related to two major controversies involving the company: co‐incineration and the location of the Outão plant.

A single case study methodology is employed for the empirical research. Sustainability reports were analysed in order to identify TimorL's sustainability disclosure practices, and semi‐structured interviews were conducted to complement the case analysis. This paper emphasises legitimacy theory and legitimacy repair strategies that were identified by Suchman.

Legitimacy strategies, including “don’t panic”; “create monitors”; “justify”; “disassociate” and “explain”, were identified in the actions TimorL took after the above‐mentioned controversies. The company initiated a series of actions to respond to the company's “crisis”. The conclusions of the study support the argument that sustainability strategies remain a powerful legitimacy tool.

The paper adds to the scarce research available on the sustainability disclosure and practices of companies by providing new empirical data. It contributes to a better understanding of how companies behave when they are faced with legitimacy gaps and how they act to restore their legitimacy.

The last years have witnessed a growth in interest in social and environmental questions. Many companies have developed environmental management and auditing systems and altered their social and environmental disclosure practices. These developments resulted in the growth of research focusing on the analysis of information disclosed by companies. The purpose of this study is to contribute a reflection on the papers that have been published on social and environmental accounting from 2000 to 2006.

A literature review of the papers examining social and environmental matters published in selected accounting journals allows the identification of the key content issues, methodologies and research questions which have been predominant in the social environmental accounting research (SEAR) area. It also enables one to pin‐point areas for future research.

The content was examined and classified in four groups: social and environmental accounting systems; social and environmental disclosures; regulation impact; and relations among environmental disclosure and environmental performance. For each group, the research method; data origins and type of data; industry and country were identified. Almost all the studies are based on content analysis and interviews. Data are collected not only from the financial statements but also from other types of information disclosed by companies. In many cases, industry activities are selected carefully and most of the studies used data from the UK, Australia, and the USA.

The paper provides a contribution to the development of the SEAR area, exploring different views. It also helps schools to identify areas for future research.

This paper aims to synthesize the extant research on earnings management in family firms.

The paper reviews the current state of knowledge about earnings management in family firms, identifying the main theoretical frameworks used in the empirical research on the topic, as well as the main types of said research and its findings.

Agency theory is identified as the main theoretical framework used. Two major types of research identified in the literature are discussed, namely, earnings management in family firms versus non-family firms and earnings management in different types of family firms.

Important research gaps are identified, and future research priorities are suggested. These pertain to the lack of research on earnings management in different types of family firms, the utility of using qualitative and experimental research, as well as the importance of using theoretical frameworks better able to capture the peculiarities of family firms.