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This study aims to examine the relationship between audit partner tenure and earnings management of companies listed on Vietnamese stock exchanges.

This study uses a sample of 1,363 observations from 2016 to 2019. This study manually collects data on audit partner tenure. Using Datastream financial data, this study calculates abnormal accruals using the modified-Jones models (Jones, 1991; Dechow et al., 1995; Kothari et al., 2005), which are used as the proxy for earnings management. This study runs Ordinary Least Squares regressions to test this study’s hypothesis.

The results show that audit partner tenure is positively related to abnormal accruals. Cross-sectional analyses indicate that the relationship between audit partner tenure and abnormal accruals is more pronounced for firms that are audited by non-Big Four auditors and for firms that have chief executive officer-chairperson duality, suggesting that weak corporate governance is a channel for the established relationship. The evidence also shows that audit partner tenure is negatively associated with the magnitude of income-decreasing accruals but has no relationship with income-increasing accruals. This study’s findings are robust for several tests, including using the propensity score matching approach.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first to provide evidence of the relationship between audit partner tenure and earnings management in Vietnam.

This study investigates the impact of pre-IPO earnings management on investor demand in the Indian IPO market. It also examines whether earnings management by issuer firms affects IPO valuation, a topic that is underexplored in accounting research.

The study uses the data of 310 IPOs from India during the period 2000–2021. The association between pre-IPO earnings management with investor demand and valuation is tested using cross-sectional ordinary least squares regression models with heteroscedasticity-robust standard errors.

The study finds that the degree of pre-IPO earnings management impacts retail investor demand, measured as their over-subscription multiple. Pre-IPO earnings management is unrelated to institutional investor bidding. Further, this paper suggests no relation between pre-IPO earnings management and IPO valuation.

Future studies could explore various other forms of earnings management and their impact on investor demand and valuation.

The findings of this study will help the investors and regulators to understand the practice of earnings management among IPO firms and how it is related to IPO demand and valuation.

This study contributes to the existing literature on IPO-earnings management and investor demand by documenting that issuer firms engage in earnings management to influence investor demand, particularly retail investor demand. Analysis of IPO valuation reveals that earnings management is mostly unrelated to IPO valuation, contrary to the general perception in the literature.

This study investigates the relationship between management's psychological characteristics (managers' narcissism, overconfidence and managers' myopia) and earnings management in the pre-Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) and post-ISIS eras.

A multivariate regression model was used to test the hypotheses. The research hypotheses were tested using a sample of all companies listed on the Iraqi Stock Exchange from 2014 to 2020.

Findings indicate a positive and significant relationship between managers' narcissism, overconfidence and myopia with accrual and real earnings management. According to the results, the ISIS weakens the relationship between managers' narcissism, managers' overconfidence and managers' myopia with accrual and real earnings management.

Because no study has addressed this issue in Iraq so far, the results of this research can provide helpful information for its users and improve the knowledge and science in this area.

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.

The purpose of this study is to examine the association between the combined roles of chief executive officer (CEO)-chairman titles (CEO duality) and investment efficiency, defined as a lower deviation from expected investment for targeted S-curve firms used to propel an innovation-driven economy. This study also aims to investigate the moderating effect of financial reporting quality on this association.

This paper focuses on the ten targeted S-curve industries – under the definition of the Thailand 4.0 model – listed on the Stock Exchange of Thailand (SET) from 2000 to 2019. Data related to CEO/chairman titles and investment supports were manually collected from the annual reports, the SET market analysis and reporting tool database and the company websites. Financial data used to estimate investment behaviors and discretionary accruals were extracted from 1999. The study analyzes unbalanced panel data using fixed-effects regressions. Additional tests embrace replacing the sample with nontargeted firms, partitioning into granted and nongranted firms, adding CEOs’ demographic moderators, using alternative variable measures and analyzing for lagged independent variables.

The main findings show that CEO duality reduces overinvestment but worsens underinvestment in targeted firms. Financial reporting quality (FRQ) appears to strengthen CEO duality in mitigating extreme spending but has no impact on the association between CEO duality and underinvestment. Additional results, for example, conclude that CEO duality has no association with both over- and underinvesting at nontargeted firms, but its effect becomes positively significant on overinvestment when financial reporting quality is high. The negative association between CEO duality and overinvestment is found only in government-granted and targeted firms. FRQ encourages CEO duality in lowering overinvestment among targeted firms without grants. CEOs’ female and serviced early years appear to elevate those main findings.

These findings assist innovative corporations in choosing a proper leadership structure to cope with investment inefficiency. The research gives the government and regulatory bodies an insight into the qualifications of the leadership structure and financial information that helps them put forward effective policies.

To the best of the author’s knowledge, this study is among the first to establish the association between CEO duality and investment efficiency for innovation-driven firms in a transforming economy. The study fills the gap in the literature on management, accounting and finance by unveiling the interplay between dual leadership and financial reporting in affecting the efficiency of investments.

This study investigates the effect of auditing industry specialization (AIS) on the relative derivatives use for earnings management.

The sample chosen in this study comprises 30,599 firm-year observations of Chinese public companies from 2005 to 2018. The sample is divided into two time periods (2005–2013 and 2014–2018) according to the year when IFRS 9 was implemented (IFRS 9, first discussed by the International Accounting Standards Board in March 2008, is based on an expected credit loss model for determining new and existing expected credit losses on financial assets. The definition was completed in July 2014 and implemented in 2018). AIS was gauged with respect to audit firms and individual auditors, and measured by market share in number and scale of clients. Linear regression is adopted to test hypotheses. Moreover, two-stage least square model (2SLS) is used to eliminate the concern of possible endogeneity.

When gauged with respect to client scale, the scale-based AIS constrained the level of derivatives use for earnings management in the first period (2005–2013) while increased the level in the second period (2014–2018). The findings sustain for the analysis of audit firms and that of individual auditors, and for different definitions of AIS.

The positive AIS-IN relation after the adoption of IFRS 9 implies the sacrifice audit independence. This could be indebted to the government policy that favors local audit firms to be comparable to international Big 4 audit firms, and therefore results in competition among local auditors/audit firms in securing number rather than quality of clients.

The data of AIS in China are collected using a Python web crawler.

This study investigates the impact of government and economic policy uncertainty (EPU) on companies' business operations, especially risk-taking tendencies and corporate financial reporting quality (FRQ).

The study employs the generalised least squares regression model. The final sample comprised 27,376 company-year observations from eight countries in the Asia-Pacific region.

EPU has a negative and significant effect on investment activity and FRQ. Higher EPU leads to a decline in investment and FRQ.

There are several limitations in this study. First, the authors used abnormal investments to measure investments, without considering the degree of irreversibility investment objectives. Second, although control variables are included at the company and country levels, they may only partially control for companies' mitigation effects. Third, the sample is limited to developing countries with unique characteristics in Asia-Pacific; therefore, the findings cannot be generalised.

The findings can help investors, analysts and regulators evaluate EPU's impact on companies' business activities by offering an overview regarding the decline in investment efficiency and FRQ. The results can also be used as input for regulators in formulating policies that encourage companies to regulate investment levels without harming other stakeholders and maintain FRQ during periods of uncertainty.

This research provides intriguing insights into EPU's effects on companies' investment activity and FRQ in developing countries, which are sensitive to changes in macroeconomic conditions.

This paper aims to examine whether firms meeting or just beating an earnings benchmark engage in tone management in earnings conference calls to complement earnings management in the UK context. It also investigates whether the audience tone in beating or just meeting earnings fails to predict future performance.

This study was performed using a sample of non-financial UK firms listed in the FTSE 350 index over the period 2010–2015.

The findings show that firms that exercise more earnings management to meet or just beat earnings are positively associated with the abnormal tone during earnings conference calls. The outcomes also reveal that the audience’s tone of firms meeting or just beating an earnings benchmark fails to predict future performance. This confirms the effectiveness of the tone management in managing the perception of audience.

This study highlights the need for increased accountability by firms on earnings conference call. It also supports academics and practitioners in understanding the management discretion used in reporting and communication during the earnings conference call. Overall, the results of this study are beneficial for regulators, policymakers and professionals, regarding confirming the need for the earnings conference calls to be regulated.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study that examines the association between earnings management and tone management in the UK earnings conference calls. It adds to the existing literature by examining the self-serving behaviour of managerial tone during earnings conference calls within a sitting in which meeting or just beating a benchmark is used. Unlike several studies that explain the behaviour of tone as a signalling strategy, this study reveals that the tendency of impression management behaviour can explain the tone management.

This study aims to analyze the relationship between economic complexity (EC) and the green economy (GE) with the real and accrual earnings management (REM and AEM) of the listed companies on the Iranian stock exchange. The authors study whether EC and the GE can affect REM and AEM.

The authors used a multiple regression model based on the panel data and a fixed effect model to test hypotheses. The sample includes 1,351 companies listed on the Tehran Stock Exchange from 2014 to 2021.

The results show a positive and significant relationship between EC and the GE with REM and AEM.

Considering the importance of a GE and since this research is the first to address the mentioned topic in emerging markets, it provides helpful insights for financial statement users, analysts and legal entities. Our study fills the literature gap and promotes knowledge regarding its relevant literature. Examining this relationship portrays the latest research perspectives in this field. The information from this study can assist in environmental management decision-making and relevant policymaking, promoting the movement toward sustainable development.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between accounting conservatism and pledging of shares by controlling shareholders of a firm to obtain a loan. The pledging of shares by the controlling shareholders of a firm results in alterations to the payoff and risk structure for these shareholders. Since accounting numbers have valuation implications, pledging of shares by a controlling shareholder has an impact on accounting policy choices made by the firm. The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of controlling shareholder share pledging to obtain a loan on a specific accounting policy choice, namely, conservatism.

The paper uses a large data set from India comprising 14,786 firm years consisting of 1,570 firms belonging to 58 industries for a period of 11 years (2009–2019). The authors use ordinary least square regression with robust standard errors. The authors conduct robustness checks and the results are consistent across alternative statistical methodologies and alternative measures of the primary dependent and independent variables.

The primary results show that pledging of shares by the controlling shareholders results in higher conditional conservatism and lower unconditional conservatism. Further analysis reveals that the relationship is stronger when the controlling shareholder holds a majority ownership in the firm. Additionally, the results show that for business group affiliated firms, which are unique to developing countries, both the conditional and the unconditional conservatism are incrementally lower when the controlling shareholder pledges the shares. For family firms with a family member as CEO, the conditional conservatism is incrementally higher and the unconditional conservatism is incrementally lower. Finally, the authors show that the results hold when the pledge intensity variable is measured with a one-year lag and finally, the authors show that conditional conservatism is incrementally higher in the year of the increase in the pledge and the year after, but there is no such incremental impact on unconditional conservatism.

The research is limited to the listed firms in India. Since majority of the listed firms are controlled by families and the family firms around the world are heterogeneous the findings of the research may not be applicable to other countries.

The study has implications for policy-making and monitoring of the pledging by the controlling shareholders. It also helps the investors in making investment decisions with respect to family firms in India.

The study is unique as it focuses on the relationship between pledging of shares by the controlling shareholders and its impact on accounting conservatism. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first research integrating these two aspects.