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This paper aims at studying earnings management phenomenon in its wider social and economic context to get better understanding for the following points: whether there is “one-size-fits-all” earning management approach which can be widespread applied among nations and whether the Egyptian context affects managers’ trade-off between three different earnings management approaches: accounting, operational and investment.

The paper adopts interpretive approach and analyses data from official documents and 34 interviews with company executives; financial analysts; external auditors; and Stock Exchange regulators to inform our understanding of the influence of the Egyptian context on the trade-off between earnings management approaches.

The results show that there is no application for “one-size-fits-all” earning management approach; unlike the developed cultures, where R&D expenses and overproduction are extensively used for boosting profits, in Egyptian context they are not valid tools. The findings indicate that the Egyptian political and economic context remarkably affect managers trade-off earnings management approaches, leading executives to prefer operational manipulation compared with others.

This paper extends but adds to the literature by shedding light on the different implications of earning management theories based on the variation in the political, economic and operational contexts of firms; identifying that operational cash flows matter more to managers than accounting profits; focusing on the fact that managers differentiate and compare between three various earning management approaches: accounting techniques, investment activities and operational activities; and showing that changes in political and economic Egyptian context makes operational manipulation favorable to be adopted compared with others. It also overcomes the criticism of New Institutional Sociology Theory.

This paper provides evidence on the impact of regulatory environment on financial reporting quality of transitional economies. This study compares the financial reporting quality of Hong Kong firms which are cross-listed in mainland China with those of Hong Kong firms cross-listed in China using specific earnings management metrics (earnings smoothing, timely loss recognition, value relevance and managing towards earnings targets) under pre- and post-IFRS regimes.

The financial reporting quality of Chinese A-share companies and Hong Kong listed companies are examined using earnings management measures. Using 2007 as base year, the study used a cumulative of −5 and +5 years of convergence experience which provide a total of 3,000 firm-year observations. In addition to regression analyses, we used the difference-in-difference analysis to check for the impact of regulatory environments on earnings management.

Through the lens of contingency theory, our results indicate that the adoption of the new substantially IFRS-convergent accounting standards in China results in better financial reporting quality evidenced by less earning management. The empirical results further shows that accounting data are more value relevant for Hong Kong listed firms, and that firms listed in China are more likely to engage in accrual-based earnings management than in real earnings management activities. We established that different earnings management practices that are seemingly tolerable in one country may not be tolerable in another due to level of differences in the regulatory environments.

The findings show that Hong Kong listed companies’ exhibit higher level of financial reporting quality than Chinese listed companies, which implies that the financial reporting quality under IFRS can be significantly different in regions with different institutional, economic and regulatory environments. The results imply that contingent factors such as country’s institutional structures, its extent of regulation and the strength of its investor protection environments impact on financial reporting quality particularly in transitional and emerging economies. As such, these factors need to be given appropriate considerations by financial reporting regulators and policy-makers interested in controlling earnings management practices among their corporations.

This study is a high impact study considering that China plays a significant role in today’s globalised economy. This study is unique as it the first, that we are aware of, to compare real earnings activities against accrual-based earnings management in pre- and post-IFRS adoption periods within the Chinese and Hong Kong financial reporting environments, distinguishing between cross-listed and non-cross-listed firms.

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the effect of managers’ incentive bonuses on both accrual and real earnings management.

First, the authors investigate the relationship between managers’ bonuses and both accrual earnings management (measured by a modified Jones model) and real earnings management (measured by Roychowdhury proxies). Next, the authors examine whether management has any preferences for earnings management methods to enhance its bonuses. Finally, the authors investigate the possible effects of earnings management on future operating performance. The sample consists of compositional data in the period from 2006 to 2012.

The authors find a negative relationship between real earnings management and managers’ bonuses and detect that managers prefer to use accrual earnings management to earn more bonuses. The results also show that real earnings management will reduce a firm’s performance in future periods, and on the other hand that increasing managers’ bonuses links to improvement of the firm’s future performance. The results suggest that managers are typically aware of the negative effects of real earnings management on the firm’s future performance and thus prefer to improve the firm’s performance in securing their bonuses when their ability to manage accruals is constrained.

The implications of this paper provide further evidence on how managers’ bonuses affect their discretion in using accrual and real earnings management. This finding is important to investors and regulators.

The purpose of this paper is to check the impact of female directors on the board and foreign institutional investors on earnings manipulation.

The data sample includes Chinese listed companies on the Shenzhen and Shanghai stock exchanges. The data are collected from China Stock Market and Accounting Research database covering the period from 2010 to 2017. The authors use a dynamic generalized method of moments in the study.

The findings show that the presence of female director on the board has a significant negative impact on both discretionary accruals and real earning management. However, the authors obtain different results for foreign institutional investor investors. This may be the result of myopia as the foreign institutional stockholders in Chinese companies are looking for quick profit encouraging management to manipulate earnings. the findings survive several robustness tests.

The authors expect the research results provide ample evidence about how female directors affects earnings manipulation, and also hope the research helps to understand how, in China, institutional ownership affects earnings manipulation.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate whether real estate companies manipulate their earnings through the brokerage fee across ownership expropriation or not.

This study considers Kuala Lumpur Stock Exchange listed real estate firms to investigate how the brokerage fee in the real estate industry might affect the earnings management of firms across its ownership expropriation. Using annual report data, the authors investigate the associations over a panel for the period 2008−2012. Robust panel regression is used to divulge the probability values with reference by probit regression.

Overall, the results show that high brokerage fees would drive more events of earnings management and that, generally, the ownership concentration among Malaysian real estate firms significantly affects the earnings management of the firms.

This study shows that firm profitability and brokerage fees enhance the probability of firm’s earnings management. A low brokerage fee would reflect low revenue to the company. Therefore, management would opt to manipulate earnings in order to overstate earnings, which garners more interest from investors.

Real estate values in Malaysia have climbed steadily over the years due to a combination of reasons giving companies a higher brokerage fee. Earnings management has become a big issue for property investors. The study demonstrates the relationship between earnings management and brokerage fee across ownership expropriation which can be considered by shareholders in their own strategic planning and investors in their own investing.

This paper examines the link between culture, institutional quality and real earnings management and accrual earnings management by combing the study by Hofstede (2001) and Enomoto et al. (2015). The paper tries to test the effect of culture on institutional quality and both real earnings management (REM) and accrual earnings management (AEM).

The sample of the research paper includes 38 countries. Hofstede cultural dimensions are used to measure cultural values. Public governance indicators published by the World Bank are used as a proxy for measuring the institutional quality. Earning management scores constructed by Enomoto et al. (2015, p. 191) are used for measuring real earnings management (REM) and accrual earnings management (AEM). Partial Least Square (PLS) based Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) is used to test the relationship between culture, institutional quality and earnings management.

The results support the relationship between culture and institutional quality. Also, the results reveal a significant relationship between culture and accrual earnings management, but an insignificant relationship between culture and real earnings management. In addition to that, another important finding is that institutional quality has a significant impact on real earnings management, but has no significant effect on accrual earnings management.

The results suggest that standard setters need to consider the quality of institutions to improve the quality of financial reports. Also, it highlights the role of both formal and informal cultures in shaping financial reports.

For the best of our knowledge, this the first time to test the link between culture and institutional quality and comparing the impact on both real earnings management and accrual earnings management.

This study aims to explore the moderating role of institutional ownership in the impact of auditor industry specialization and the cost of equity on earnings management in Tehran Stock Exchange.

A total number of 198 firms were assessed in this study from 2014 to 2021. In this study, both accrual earning management (AEM) and real earnings management (REM) have been included. The industry-adjusted earnings price ratio and Gordon Growth Model were used for the cost of equity capital. In addition, auditor’s within-industry market share was used as a proxy for auditor industry specialization.

The results showed that institutional ownership positively moderates the impact of auditor industry specialization on AEM/REM. Furthermore, institutional ownership positively moderates the impact of cost of equity on AEM/REM. Hypothesis testing based on a robust regression and t + 1 test were also used for the results.

Previous studies have reported mixed results of this empirical question whether institutional ownership actually monitors managers and control earning management, considering the auditor industry specialization and the cost of equity. To the best of authors’ knowledge, this is a pioneering study to fill the existing gap. This study would not only benefit companies to manage financial and strategic decisions more efficiently but also help national and international society apply effective mechanisms to assist companies in decreasing earning management and increasing the firm performance, and try to push the market into a favorable direction.

This study aims to examine the non-linear relationship between corporate diversification and real and accrual earnings management, using a sample of 5,659 US firm-year observations for 1,221 firms covering the period from 2001 to 2012.

The authors use various techniques and regressions to test the hypotheses. Following prior research, several proxies have been used to measure diversification, accrual earnings management and real earnings management.

The study produces several important findings. First, the study provides evidence that diversified firms engage in real and accrual earnings management to manage their reported earnings upward. These results are consistent with recent research (Farooqi et al., 2014; Jirapon et al., 2008) that finds that diversified firms engage in earnings manipulation. Second, and most importantly, the study contributes to the literature by providing the first evidence on a non-linear relationship between corporate diversification and earnings management. Specifically, the study provides evidence that diversified firms engage in accrual (real) earnings management, but this engagement is associated with level of diversification in a non-linear U-shaped (inverted U-shaped) relationship.

Like all other studies, the current study has some limitations. The study was conducted only on the largest firms in the USA that have market capitalization of more than US$10m; hence, the findings may not be generalizable to small publicly traded firms. Further, the findings may not be generalizable to other markets, given the unique characteristics of US markets such as the presence of very sophisticated investors.

This study provides some important implications for US regulators to revise their regulations to prevent diversified firms from using earnings management to manipulate reported earnings.

This study is the first in the USA to examine the non-linear relationship between corporate diversification and earnings management. The study focuses on one of the most active, most attractive and largest capital markets throughout the world, that of the USA. Also, this study is one of the few studies that examine whether diversified firms use real activities manipulation to manage their reported earnings.

Purpose: This paper aims to study the impact of adoption eXtensible Business Reporting Language (XBRL) on earnings management.

Design/methodology/approach: This study uses a sample of all firms listed on the Indonesian stock exchange, except for finance and real-estate sectors from 2012 to 2019, with a total of 2,560 firms–years with panel data analysis.

Findings: Four findings in this study are listed as follow. First, the surprising result is that accrual earnings management increase after the adoption of XBRL. Second, after the adoption of XBRL, there was an increase in real earnings management. Third, the results of the study prove that the use of Big 4 auditors will weaken the increase in real earnings management after the adoption of XBRL. Finally, this study shows that after the adoption of XBRL, it turns out that both accrual and real earnings management experienced an increase.

Originality/value: This study contributes to providing an evaluation note to IDX regulators that the goals they want to achieve have not been achieved. This study provides empirical evidence for the debate over whether the adoption of XBRL is beneficial.

This study aims to explore the possibility of a two-way relationship between corporate social responsibility (CSR) and earnings management (accruals and real EM) with the moderating role of female and independent directors.

The authors use STATA to test the generalized method of moments on a sample of Chinese listed firms data over the period 2009-2015. The unbalanced sample obtained 3,481 observations from China stock market and accounting research database and CSR rating provided by Rankins.

The results indicate a significant negative relationship between two-way CSR and accrual-based EM. Moreover, female and independent directors moderate the two-way relationship between CSR and EM.

The present study does not include all financial, insurance and investment firms to impact on CSR and EM. Further research might consist of family ownership to enhance the evidence for an emerging market.

This study primarily contributes to the literature on CSR, female and independent directors, and EM by providing evidence for the moderating role of female and independent directors on the two-way association between CSR and EM.