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The study aims to examine whether board gender diversity and corporate social responsibility (CSR) affect real earnings management (REM) practices of public companies in Nigeria.

The study analyzes data of public companies for the period of 2011 through 2020. Data on board gender diversity, CSR and REM were collected from audited financial statements.

The empirical findings show that companies with greater diverse board are effective in restraining REM, thus supporting the theoretical framework of the study. Also, the result provides strong evidence of association between CSR performance and REM for policy management decision.

The study is constrained by not considering all public companies in the country. Furthermore, it considered only gender among numerous important board attributes and environmental, social and governance (ESG) among numerous CSR attributes. Hence, future studies should consider other important attributes on REM and important attributes of board diversity and CSR on real earnings management.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first to investigate the relationship between heterogeneous board gender diversity, CSR via ESG and REM in emerging markets such as Nigeria. Therefore, it provides appropriate treatment of CSR with science and technology via EGS viewpoint of organizational operations and behavior of managing earnings. Therefore, developing better policy management for sustainable development

This paper aims to recognize the direct influence of audit quality (AQ) on earnings management practices (EMP) and company value (CV), as well as the mediating role of EMP in the link between AQ and CV. It presents new factual proof from the Jordanian market, which is still in its early stages.

A pattern of 43 service firms listed on the Amman Stock Exchange (ASE) was collected for the timeframe (2012–2019), giving an amount of 344 firm-year observances. The data was collected from the annual reports extracted from the ASE’s database and tested with panel data analysis.

The results show that audit firm industry specialization positively affects EMP while its size and tenure do not, which implies that its industry specialization does not restrict earnings management but rather leads to an increase in opportunistic behaviors. Audit firm size and audit firm industry specialization positively affect CV, whilst audit firm tenure does not. Additionally, the findings indicate that EMP negatively affect CV, and EMP act as a mediator for the AQ–CV nexus.

Stakeholders can use the findings to enhance the capacity and effectiveness of Jordan’s fiscal market. For example, our results will boost policymakers’ eagerness to institute suitable statutes improving Jordan’s fiscal market performance. Besides, the results can assist existing and potential investors make sound adjudication by using AQ proxies and earnings management as signals to predict future company’s value.

The paper differentiates itself from previous papers through initiating a new proposed model by exploring the role of earnings management as a mediator in the nexus between AQ and CV by presenting new factual proof from the Jordanian market.

The direct nexus between board characteristics, earnings management (EM) practices and dividend payout is examined in this study, followed by an examination of the indirect mediation impact of EM practices in the nexus between board characteristics and dividend payout. It aims to provide new empirical evidence from the Jordanian market, which is an emerging market.

The study population consists of all service firms that were listed on the Amman Stock Exchange (ASE) between 2012 and 2019. Due to the lack of availability of their complete data during the period, four service firms were omitted from the population; hence, a sample of 43 service firms was acquired over the time frame (2012–2019), yielding a total of 344 firm-year observations. Moreover, panel data analysis was employed in this study, and data for the study were acquired from yearly reports as well as the ASE's database.

Based on the GMM estimator findings, board size and independence have a negative and significant influence on the EM, but CEO/chairman duality has a positive and significant impact. Simultaneously, the impacts of female representation on the board of directors and the number of board meetings were both positive but insignificant. The findings also found that four board characteristics, including board size, female representation on the board of directors, CEO/chairman duality and the number of board meetings, had a significant negative or positive effect on dividend payout, while board independence did not. Additional findings show that EM practices have a direct negative insignificant effect on dividend payout, whereas EM practices partially mediate the relationship between board characteristics and dividend payout.

The current study's limitation is that it only searched in Jordanian service firms listed on ASE from 2012 to 2019 to fulfill the study's objectives; thus, we urge that future work explores the study models for other sectors, whether in Jordan or other growing markets such as the Middle East and North Africa.

The findings of this study may be utilized by analysts, investors and other strategic decision-makers to enhance Jordan's financial market's efficiency and efficacy. These findings will improve policymakers' willingness to impose appropriate constraints, perhaps boosting Jordan's financial market performance and efficacy. These findings may also help investors make more enlightened judgments by utilizing board characteristics and EM factors that predict firm dividend policy.

Contradictions in the results of earlier investigations inspired the current study, with the findings filling a gap in the existing literature. This study differs from previous studies by constructing a novel research model and analyzing the mediating influence of EM in the nexus between board characteristics and dividend payout.

This study aims to examine how the prestige of audit committee (AC) chairpersons influences earnings management.

The sample contains 1,973 firm-year observations of French listed firms for the period 2007–2018. The authors examine the status of AC chairs and CEOs by focusing on the French business elite system. This study tests the association between AC chairs’ (relative) status and the level of earnings management using measures of accrual earnings management and real earnings management (REM).

The results of this study do not show that high-status AC chairs constrain accruals manipulation. However, the results provide evidence that they play a key role in constraining REM. High-status AC chairs are more likely to enhance the monitoring of this type of manipulation, given their thorough knowledge and understanding of the firm’s business environment and practices. This study also finds evidence that AC chairs with a status higher than CEOs are associated with lower levels of REM. The results suggest that prestigious AC chairs influence lower status CEOs’ strategic decisions.

This study demonstrates that high-status AC chairs play an important role in detecting and constraining deviations from normal business practices. The results have substantial implications for boards, which will benefit from an understanding of how the appointment of high-status chairs affects financial reporting quality.

The sound leadership style can be indicative of organizational success and explanatory of quality performance. Besides this, there are various factors that can impact organizational performance. To this end, this study aims to investigate the effect of ethical leadership on organizational performance, with the mediating role of corporate social responsibility (CSR) and organizational culture.

The service sector in Jordan was targeted by this research, and data were collected from 371 middle-level and top-level managers working in service companies. These responses were analyzed by using analysis of a moment structure.

The result conveyed that ethical leadership does not only influence organizational performance, but it also, and positively so, affects the organizational culture and CSR. In addition, CSR and organizational culture significantly mediate the relationship between ethical leadership and organizational performance.

The findings of this study are a guide for managers and owners of service companies who are aiming to enhance organizational performance. If they follow the ethical leadership approach and emphasize CSR initiatives and organizational culture, they can attain, and naturally so, the maximum level of organizational performance.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this research paper is the first to analyze ethical leadership in the context of the service sector in Jordan and highlight its influence on organizational culture, CSR and ultimately organizational performance. Moreover, it examined the mediating effects of organizational culture and CSR between ethical leadership and organizational performance.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the effect on earnings quality in private firms caused by a negative shock to fundamental performance, while simultaneously addressing methodological challenges measuring fundamental performance present in prior accrual-based earnings management literature.

Fundamental performance is unobservable and, therefore, difficult to measure. Existing research has used proxies that are subject to estimation errors and endogeneity concerns (e.g. DeFond and Park, 1997, Balsam et al., 1995). This study attempts to overcome these issues by taking advantage of the exogenous shock in oil price which occurred in 2014 and by using a difference-in-differences approach to investigate the effect on earnings management caused by a negative shift in fundamental performance.

The results suggest that a negative shock in fundamental performance, indicated by the oil price shock in 2014, reduces earnings quality. This result holds for various robustness tests such as the use of propensity score matching, and the inclusion of firm fixed effects. Additional analysis suggests that the reduction in earnings quality is driven by an increase in positive discretionary accruals, suggesting that managers of private firms experiencing poor performance manage earnings upwards to conceal true performance.

This study contributes to the literature by examining the effect of a negative shock to performance in a setting of private firms and by addressing methodological challenges in prior literature. Private firms are fundamentally different from public firms, with the consequence that results from public firms may not be generalizable to private firms (e.g. Hope et al., 2012, Burghstahler et al., 2006, Ball and Shivakumar, 2005).

The purpose of this study is to look at the direct relationship between audit quality, earnings management (EM) practices and company performance, as well as the indirect influence (mediation) of EM practices in the relationship between audit quality and company performance. It offers empirical evidence from the Jordanian market, which is considered an emerging market.

The population of this study is represented in Jordanian service companies listed on the Amman Stock Exchange (ASE), with a total of 344 company-year observations. Furthermore, panel data analysis was used in this study, and data for the study were acquired from yearly reports as well as the ASE’s database.

Based on generalized method of moments model, the present findings demonstrate that the size of the audit firm and the tenure of the audit firm have a positive and negative influence on EM practices, respectively, but that industry-specialist audit firm has a negative and insignificant effect. EM practices have a negative impact on two company performance proxies (ROA and ROE), but have no effect on earnings per share (EPS). Furthermore, the size of the audit firm has a positive and significant influence on the performance proxies of the company [i.e. return on assets (ROA) and return on equity (ROE)]. The presence of an industry-specialist audit firm has a positive and significant influence on two proxies of company performance (ROE and EPS), but a negative and significant impact on ROA. An audit firm’s tenure has a negative and significant impact on two performance proxies (ROA and EPS), but a positive and significant impact on ROE. Then, EM practices either fully or partially mediate the relationship between audit quality proxies and company performance as assessed by ROA, ROE and EPS.

The current study’s limitation is that it only searched in Jordanian service companies listed on ASE from 2012 to 2019 to meet the study’s objectives; thus, the authors recommend that future work investigate the study model for other sectors, whether in Jordan or other emerging markets such as the Middle East and North Africa. Another limitation of this study is that the study models lack important variables, which may affect EM and company performance, such as corporate governance and ownership structure characteristics; as a result, the authors recommend that future work includes such variables in future research models to have more explanations in this context.

Analysts, investors and other strategic decision makers may use the findings of this study to improve the efficiency and efficacy of Jordan’s financial market. These findings will enhance policymakers’ willingness to establish appropriate regulations, which might improve Jordan’s financial market performance and efficacy. These findings may help investors make better judgments by using audit quality proxies and EM indicators, which can forecast business success.

First, this study distinguishes itself from prior studies through establishing a new research model, by investigating the mediating effect of EM in the relationship between audit quality and company performance. It provides empirical evidence from the Jordanian market; hence, it increases the body of the knowledge in this context. Second, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study to look into the link between audit quality, EM and company performance together; hence, the model of this study is developed using agency theory and information asymmetry theory. Third, the current study adds new evidence to the role of audit quality and EM in companies, as well as how audit quality and EM practices affect company performance in emerging markets such as Jordan.

The present study aims to examine the relationship between corporate governance factors and financial reporting transparency pre and post of ISIS.

A multivariate regression model was used to test the hypotheses for this purpose. The research hypotheses were tested on a sample of 35 companies listed on the Iraqi Stock Exchange from 2012 to 2018 using a multivariate regression model based on panel data technique.

The results indicate a negative and significant correlation between the board independence, audit committee independence, management team stability and remuneration of the board of directors and financial reporting transparency. In contrast, there is a positive and significant correlation between the board expertise, audit committee expertise and managerial ownership, with financial reporting transparency. Moreover, ISIS has had a direct and significant impact on the correlation between the board of directors’ independence and remuneration with financial reporting transparency. The present study also tested research models using additional methods (such as feasible generalised least squares, ordinary least squares, random effects and T + 1) to obtain better results. The results of these different methods were entirely in line with the main results of the research.

The political and economic instability resulting from the entry of ISIS into Iraq has created severe problems for society’s economic, political, security and performance dimensions. Macroeconomic uncertainty driven by terrorist activities can negatively affect managers’ perceptions of firms’ future performance and result in poor judgments and estimations, significantly impacting business units' financial reporting transparency. Because no study has examined the relationship between corporate governance and financial reporting transparency on the Iraq stock exchange before and after the presence of ISIS, this study examines such a relationship. Although the economic and political situation in Iraq may not be identical to that in other nations, much of the experience in Iraq is anticipated to apply to other countries in the region.

This study aims to investigate the role of negative media coverage of environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues in deterring tax avoidance. Inspired by media agenda-setting theory and legitimacy theory, this study hypothesises that an increase in ESG negative media coverage should cause a reputational drawback, leading companies to reduce tax avoidance to regain their legitimacy. Hence, this study examines a novel channel that links ESG and taxation.

This study uses panel regression analysis to examine the relationship between negative media coverage of ESG issues and tax avoidance among the largest European entities. This study considers different measures of tax avoidance and negative media coverage.

The results show that negative media coverage of ESG issues is negatively associated with tax avoidance, suggesting that media can act as an external monitor for corporate taxation.

The findings have implications for policymakers and regulators, which should consider tax transparency when dealing with ESG disclosure requirements. Tax disclosure should be integrated into ESG reporting.

The study has social implications related to the media, which act as watchdogs for firms’ irresponsible practices. According to this study’s findings, increased media pressure has the power to induce a better alignment between declared ESG policies and tax strategies.

This study contributes to the literature on the mechanisms that discourage tax avoidance and the literature on the relationship between ESG and taxation by shedding light on the role of media coverage.

This study examines factors that influence organizations’ choices of an internal human capital development strategy and an external human capital acquisition strategy. The human resource architecture indicates that organizations will use different human capital acquisition strategies. Following the resource-based view, human capital theory and the human resource architecture, we examine factors that impact the choices of different human capital acquisition strategies.

We examine these important human capital decisions in the context of Major League Soccer. Data to test the hypotheses were collected from a variety of publicly available sources. We tested the hypotheses with regression analyses.

We find that while organizations employ both internal and external human capital strategies, organizations may have one dominant human capital strategy and the other strategy may be used to supplement the human capital needs of organizations. Additionally, our results indicate that organizations with an older workforce tend to use an internal human capital development strategy, while higher performing organizations are less likely to use an internal human capital development strategy.

This study makes contributions by examining the choices between internal and external human capital strategies and factors that influence the choice of an internal or external human capital strategy.