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This study examines the role of the observable and unobservable characteristics of top management on earning management and firm risk in China.

The authors used manager-firm matched panel for 104 non-financial firms listed on the Shanghai Stock Exchange between 2010 and 2018. The authors also trace the persistence of managerial financial styles and their active role across two different firms between which managers switched during the sample period.

The results show that managers' financial styles indeed influence earning management and firm risk and that this influence differs across different managers. These findings are robust when tested for the persistence and active role of managers. Furthermore, individual characteristics such as age, gender, qualification and experience influence managers' financial styles.

Given their findings, the authors propose that financial analysts and potential investors should not only depend on quantitative data but also consider the individual characteristics of managers when evaluating firms.

The findings of this study carry serious implications for managers, policymakers and potential investors. The findings assist the external auditors in measuring the risk of material misstatement, the various regulatory bodies to assess the quality of financial reporting and the users of financial statements to evaluate the earnings and make further investment decisions considering not only the quantitative data but also the individual characteristics of top managers.

The current study examines the observable and unobservable characteristics of top management on firm risk and earnings management in Chinese context.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the moderating role of honesty-humility of financial managers on aggressive financial reporting behavior.

To test the research hypotheses, a scenario-based questionnaire taken from Brink et al. (2018) was used. Using a cross-sectional survey design, the authors collected primary data of 160 financial managers of firms in Iran using structured questionnaires. The research sample selected was based on Cohen et al.’s (2000) table. To test the research hypotheses, analysis of variance was used.

The results showed that increasing honesty-humility of financial managers decreases the impact of social pressure and risk appetite interaction on aggressive financial reporting. In addition, the results of further analysis showed that reducing the honesty-humility of financial managers increases the impact of risk appetite on aggressive financial reporting. Moreover, the results indicate that reducing the honesty-humility of financial managers increases the impact of social pressure on aggressive financial reporting.

This finding provides significant evidence for auditor, managers and policymakers in Iran. Policymakers, auditor and company managers can emphasize compliance with the code of ethics, internal control and corporate governance to increase ethics and reduce negative economic consequences.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first case in an emerging economy to survey the moderating role of honesty-humility of financial managers on aggressive financial reporting behavior. Also, this study contributes to understanding how factors at the individual, social and organizational level combine to influence financial managers’ aggressive financial reporting behavior.

Responding to suspected financial abuse in residential aged care provides particular challenges to care managers. This paper aims to explore responses to financial abuse by care managers and the knowledge, policies and principles that guide practice in this context.

The research is part of a larger project exploring financial asset management and financial abuse in residential aged care in Australia. The thematic analysis reports on responses of care managers in 62 aged care facilities to survey interview questions and case scenarios presenting issues of alleged financial abuse.

Although most care managers accepted an obligation to act in response to suspected financial abuse, inconsistency and a lack of familiarity with policy are clearly demonstrated. Practice responses vary according to whether the primary focus is on residents, family or managing risk. Despite most reporting policies in place in the event of alleged theft, reports on the use of policies and protocols to guide responses to suspected misuse of an enduring power of attorney or undue influence are limited. The care manager's knowledge and approach to practice are crucial to framing the response.

The research provides insight into inconsistencies in responses to financial abuse in residential aged care, identifies good practice and outlines the limitations in knowledge of some care managers. It argues for the need to enhance understanding, support and training to further develop practice in this setting, particularly in relation to adult protection principles.

Sees the objective of teaching financial management to be to help managers and potential managers to make sensible investment and financing decisions. Acknowledges that financial theory teaches that investment and financing decisions should be based on cash flow and risk. Provides information on payback period; return on capital employed, earnings per share effect, working capital, profit planning, standard costing, financial statement planning and ratio analysis. Seeks to combine the practical rules of thumb of the traditionalists with the ideas of the financial theorists to form a balanced approach to practical financial management for MBA students, financial managers and undergraduates.

Financial managers in public entities have been portrayed as acting as “guardians” of the resources of the organization. However, while the private not‐for‐profit literature makes reference to perceptions of such behaviour, it has presented little detailed evidence of these roles. This study utilises a field‐based case study to examine the nature of this behaviour typology within the context of a significant Australian religious organization.

We investigate whether municipal financial manager turnover is associated with accounting restatements. This analysis is motivated by the notion that suspect financial reporting could limit the ability of stakeholders to assess the use of public resources (GASB, 2006). The evidence suggests that municipalities disclosing accounting restatements are more likely to see changes in the top financial manager position than a control sample of non-restatement municipalities. Overall, our findings are consistent with associations between financial reporting quality and the labor market for municipal financial managers, and imply that governments should consider adding the prevalence of accounting failures as an input in the evaluation of top financial managers.

Previous literature on earnings management (EM) indicates that managers are motivated to adjust reported income to serve their own self-interests, and to try and influence capital markets. However, previous research has failed to provide an appropriate theoretical underpinning for EM and has ignored the effect of cultural and environmental factors on shaping managers’ motivations. Therefore the purpose of this paper is to draw on interpretive methodology and new institutional sociology (NIS) theory to identify the external factors that motivate managers of Egyptian companies to use EM to modify financial statements.

The research adopted an interpretative methodology and interview methods. Interviewees were conducted with 34 participants, who were divided into four different categories; executives, financial analysts, auditors and stock exchanges’ authorities.

This paper provides empirical evidence on the range of external factors that motivate Egyptian corporate executives to adjust the earnings number in financial statements. These external factors include the expectations of investors, lenders and employees, the impact of stock exchange listing rules, beating an earnings target, and the privatisation of key state-owned companies.

The authors recognise that the paper has a number of limitations. The research is concerned solely with EM in Egypt and, therefore, it would not be safe to generalise the results to other contexts, even in the Middle East. Further research on the behaviour of managers towards EM in other countries would be useful to test validity of the results reported in this paper.

The principal contribution of this paper is to build on the previous EM literature to include external factors within the Egyptian context which motivate Egyptian managers to manage the earnings of companies in an upward direction. It adds additional EM motives to available literature including: employees, stock exchange’s rules, privatisation and meeting industrial norms. Also, the paper provides evidence of the effect of concentrated share ownership on managers’ likelihood to engage in EM behaviour. The paper also extends NIS theory to recognise the importance of the interplay between institutional and economic environment by including economic reform, and non-financial providers as factors that can explain the EM behaviour.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the perception of marketing managers in a transition country Montenegro with regards to marketing metrics. The paper examines the degree in which managers are familiar with the way marketing metrics are applied and how important they are in the process of making business decisions in a company operating in a Montenegro.

Data was collected during 2020 through a survey of 171 randomly selected companies and was analyzed using structural equation model and the statistical method of analysis of variance tests.

The obtained results show that managers are quite familiar with financial and non-financial metrics. Both groups are applied to a significant degree, as managers believe that these indicators provide valuable information needed during the decision-making process. Still, more emphasis is placed on the knowledge, implementation and importance of non-financial metrics compared to financial metrics. This is probably due to the specificities of the economic activities of the companies operating in Montenegro, as most of them are service companies, which is why non-financial metrics (such as consumer metrics) are the most important indicators when it comes to ascertaining the market position of the company. Additionally, in recent years the primary focus in Montenegro, as country that is still in the process of transformation from planned economy to a free-market form, has been placed on strengthening of competitiveness and advancing the market orientation of companies. This led to an increase in the importance that managers in transition countries attach to non-financial metrics.

The fact that the survey only covers companies from one country is its limitation.

The obtained results will have a significant empirical contribution, which is reflected in providing guidelines for managers on how to improve the system of measuring and controlling marketing performance, all that to strengthen the competitiveness of the company, and can serve managers of hierarchy levels in a company as guidelines for making decisions on the implementation of marketing strategy and marketing metrics, to improve business performance, multi-context customer interaction, cost-saving and strengthen competitiveness.

Obtaining necessary knowledge management and implementing marketing metrics are important conditions for consideration when it comes to the continuous monitoring and improvement of business results, increasing competitiveness and advancing the market position of the company.

The originality stems from the analysis of the interconnection that exists between marketing metrics and strategic decision-making, which is expected to be positively reflected in the development of society, i.e. strengthening the competitiveness of companies based on knowledge management achieved through the assessment of the degree of knowledge, the implementation and the significance of each of the metrics covered within this research in business decision-making processes. The paper provides insights into the extent to which managers understand the meaning of these indicators and are able to combine different marketing metrics to obtain more complex indicators, serving as necessary inputs when making strategic business decisions.

The purposes of this paper are to provide first a detailed description of the use of interfirm cooperation by a large sample of Dutch firms of different sizes and from different industries, and second, to examine the governance role of financial managers in the management of cooperative arrangements.

Research questions are developed based on a review of previous literature and data were collected using a questionnaire administered to a large sample of Dutch firms.

The paper finds that the sample firms are generally well engaged in various types of interfirm cooperation, in particular in outsourcing arrangements and joint ventures. In addition, larger firms are on average involved in more types of cooperation than smaller firms are, and different cooperative activities and forms are frequently used in combination. On average, financial managers report to be actively involved in the management of interfirm cooperation, which ranges from monitoring yearly results, providing advice, supervising performance, to managing daily operations of the cooperation. In this management role, they mostly use frequent detailed financial and non‐financial performance information, which often not only relates to their own firm, but also to the partner firm.

This research provides evidence of the extensive use of interfirm cooperation in practice and identifies an important governance role of financial managers in the management of interfirm cooperation. An analysis of differences in this role across different types of cooperation and functional levels of financial managers is provided.

The findings provide new insights into firms' use of a broad range of interfirm cooperative activities and into the governance role financial managers in these activities. Consistent with prior studies that document an increasing propensity of firms to engage in cooperative arrangements, the results support that interfirm cooperation constitutes an important area for research in accounting. This paper provides several suggestions for future research aimed at improving researchers' and practitioners' understanding of the management of interfirm cooperation.

The adoption and use of financial services by small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are pivotal in the development of inclusive financial markets. The purpose of this paper is to examine the influence of attitude on financial decision making of SMEs owner-manager. The attitude of SMEs owner-manager comprises of several factors; however, current study identifies few critical factors such as motivation, awareness and risk in the context of Pakistan. The study also includes the personal and firm characteristics as moderating variables to examine their effect on the relationship between attitude and financial decision making of owner-managers.

With the help of a structured questionnaire, total 285 valid responses are analyzed to accomplish the research objectives. The study uses SPSS and partial least square-structural equation modeling techniques in order to conduct analysis. The results of study highlight the importance of attitudinal factors such as awareness and risk. Moreover, the moderating effect of personal characteristics on the relationship between attitude and financial decision making has been found strong instead of firm characteristics.

The results show that the low awareness level of owner-managers regarding financial products and procedures significantly affects their attitude. Moreover, the less knowledge of financing terms as well as dominant role of owner-managers in taking firm decisions also increase the negative effect of risk factor on SMEs owner-manager attitude.

The study suggested that policy makers should focus on the financial awareness of SMEs owner-manager to reduce the negativity of risk factor.

The study contributes toward the literature of inclusive finance and sustainability studies through better understanding of financial decision making of SMEs in emerging economies.