• The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business
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• v.7 no.8
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• pp.233-246
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• 2020

This paper investigates the effect of the involvement of the board chairman in the audit committee (AC) on earnings management (EM). It examines Bursa Malaysia-listed companies with the lowest positive earnings for the years 2013 to 2015. The Modified Jones Model by Kasznik (1999) was used to determine discretionary accruals. An AC that includes its board chairman as an ordinary member is associated with greater discretionary accruals. However, a board chairman who is also the chairman of the AC does not seem to influence discretionary accruals. This paper supports the agency theory and policy-makers' efforts to prevent board chairmen from sitting on ACs. It is the first study that uses the agency theory to describe the association between the board chairman's involvement in the both AC and EM. This study alerts policy-makers, stakeholders and researchers to the influence of a board chairman serving on the AC in curbing EM. Furthermore, it provides empirical evidence that the majority of Malaysian companies whose board chairmen are involved in the AC appoint the chairman as an ordinary member of the AC. This indicates that executive directors may affect such actions. Hence, more policies are needed to improve AC independence.

• The Journal of Economics, Marketing and Management
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• v.12 no.3
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• pp.13-22
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• 2024

Purpose: While there has been extensive research on discretionary accruals (hereafter, 'DA') and accounting conservatism, interpretations have varied among researchers depending on how discretionary accruals are determined as proxies. This study investigates the relationship between discretionary accruals (DA) and accounting conservatism, focusing on the distinctions between signed DA and absolute DA. Research design, data and methodology: Using financial data from companies listed on the KOSPI and KOSDAQ markets from 2010 to 2020, we employ regression analysis to explore how signed and absolute DA impact accounting conservatism. This approach allows us to parse out the effects of positive versus negative discretionary accruals systematically. Results: Our findings indicate a divergent impact of DA on accounting conservatism. Specifically, in cases of negative DA, an increase in DA corresponds with heightened accounting conservatism. Conversely, when DA is positive, increases in DA do not exhibit a significant relationship with changes in accounting conservatism. These effects suggest that the nature of DA-whether it represents upward or downward earnings adjustments-critically influences its relationship with conservatism. Conclusions: The results elucidate the nuanced role of discretionary accruals in influencing accounting conservatism. The decrease in accounting conservatism associated with absolute increases in DA appears primarily driven by groups with downward earnings adjustments. This suggests that as negative DA diminishes toward zero, accounting conservatism intensifies, whereas positive DA does not have a parallel effect.

• Asia-Pacific Journal of Business
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• v.11 no.4
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• pp.271-289
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• 2020

Purpose - This paper examined the relation between Correction of Annual Reports and Earnings management. The annual reports are used as key reports for critical decision making by providing useful information to various stakeholders across the firm. Design/methodology/approach - The sequence of this study is analysed that each of the following two cases affects the earning management: 1. that corrections have been made; 2. Where financial information have been modified or non-financial information have been modified during the correction of the annual report. We draw an initial sample of firms listed on the Korea Stock Exchange from 2014 to 2017. Among these, we excluded firms that were not able to obtain the variables needed to measure the correction of Annual Reports and the earnings management. Finally, we use the 7,035 firm-year observations. Findings - Our empirical results of this study are as follows; First, it turned out that the earnings management of companies that report business reports on corrections is larger than those that do not. Second, among the types of annual report corrections, the correction of non-financial information is significantly larger on earnings management than the correction of financial information. Research implications or Originality - The correction disclosure of business reports is a very important issue in terms of accounting information accuracy and reliability. The results of this study will provide policy implications for correction disclosures and regulations due to an important issue as accounting information. An entity that initially prepares accounting information should advanced in such a way that it provides high quality accounting information and then complements and accepts it by various stakeholders.

• The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business
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• v.8 no.8
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• pp.57-66
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• 2021

The outbreak of the financial crisis, the lack of corporate governance practices in Iraqi companies, the high level of earnings management (EM), and weak firm performance (FP) have all encouraged the purpose of this study. This study proposes to achieve the following objectives: (I) to investigate the influence of governance mechanisms on the earnings management practices, (II) to investigate the consequence of EM on FP. The study sample includes 65 Iraqi firms listed on the Iraqi stock exchange for six years from 2012 to 2018, with 390 firm-year observations. The hypotheses were tested using panel data regression. According to the findings, Iraqi companies prefer to use real EM rather than accruals EM to avoid reporting losses. Discretionary cash flow, production costs, and cash flow from operation are examples of actual operations employed to undertake EM. Furthermore, according to the findings of this study, board meeting frequency and female onboard have a significant and negative influence on EM. Besides, the internal audit function was found not to affect EM. On the other hand, results revealed a significant and negative relationship between EM and FP. According to the study, management prefers to minimize cash and accrual expenditure during the economic downturn.

• Journal of East Asia Management
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• v.4 no.1
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• pp.23-51
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• 2023

We investigate whether the association between management overconfident tone and the level of audit effort measured by audit fees and hours differs depending on the level of earnings management. Prior studies suggest that firms led by overconfident managers are likely to initiate risky investments, report low quality financial statements, and have material weaknesses in internal control system. These characteristics, combined together, result in higher audit risk. At the same time, auditors assess audit risk based on the quality of financial reporting, measured by level of earnings management. As a result, the assess audit risk is likely to reflect the combined effect of management overconfidence and the level of earnings management. In this paper, we investigate whether auditors differentiate the effects of real earnings management (REM) and accrual-based earnings management (AEM) when they assess the audit risk related management overconfident. Using the CEO's letter published in 2018, we measure the CEO's tone representing the degree of overconfidence (i.e., activity). Based on this measure, we find that the positive association between managerial overconfident tone and audit effort is more pronounced as the level of REM is higher. However, we find that the baseline association does not vary depending on the level of AEM. These results suggest that auditors consider the managerial overconfident severer when such characteristic accompany the higher level of REM, which can be outcome of aggressive business decisions possibly leading to the higher audit risks. We further find that these results are stronger for Big 4 auditors and continuing auditors. This paper contributes to the literature and practice as follows. First, we provide contextual evidence on how auditors reflect managerial characteristics in the audit process by documenting that auditors actively increase their audit efforts only when overconfident managerial characteristics are highly likely to lead to audit risk. This result suggests that auditors conduct external auditing considering both the efficiency and effectiveness of the audit process. Second, we suggest that auditors use information obtained from a wide range of sources to identify audit risks. Our results provide evidence of how the auditing standards, which do not provide detailed guidelines for audit risk assessment, are being applied in practice. Finally, our results also enhance the understanding of how audit fees are determined. Combined with the studies related to audit pricing, we provide the important reference for discussion between the auditor and the auditee about the audit fee that has created acute tension after the enforcement of the new External Audit Act.

• Journal of Digital Convergence
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• v.15 no.12
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• pp.213-219
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• 2017

In recent years, the definition of corporate governance is a stakeholder-oriented corporate governance that can meet the needs of sustainability management and corporate social responsibility. The purpose of this study is to empirically analyze the effect of corporate governance on employees and creditors corporate governance on earnings management by using regression analysis. The results show that the corporate governance of employees and creditors plays a role in reducing the simultaneous profit management of discretionary accruals, which is the accrual of asset impairment loss, which is the accrual of negative I could confirm. The results of the empirical analysis show that stakeholder-centered corporate governance can play a role in controlling managers' behavior and market. In addition, the results of this study suggest that the responsibility of stakeholders as corporate governance is important for sustainable management of modern corporations where corporate social responsibility is important.

• Asia-Pacific Journal of Business Venturing and Entrepreneurship
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• v.18 no.1
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• pp.173-188
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• 2023

This paper analyzed the Earnings management of firms selected as preliminary Unicorn. If a manager is selected as a preliminary unicorn firm, he can receive financial support of up to 20 billion won, creating a factor in managing the manager's earnings. The motive for management's earnings management is related to the capital market. Accounting information is used by investors and financial analysts, and corporate profits affect corporate value. Therefore, if the accounting earning is adjusted upward, the corporate value will be raised and investment conditions will be favorable. In this paper, earnings quality was measured by the modified Jones model of Dechow et al.(1995) by the ROA control model of Kothari et al.(2005) among the discretionary accruals estimated using an alternative accrual prediction model. Competing similar companies in the same market as the selected companies were formed, and the discretionary accruals were mutually compared to verify the research hypotheses, and only the selected companies were analyzed for the audit year and after the audit year. As a result of the analysis, it was found that the companies selected as preliminary unicorns had higher earnings management compared to the corresponding companies in question, which had a negative impact on the quality of accounting profits. It was found that the companies selected as preliminary unicorns continued to receive incentives for management's earnings management even after being selected. These results indicate that the companies selected as prospective unicorns are recognized for their value in the market through external growth rather than internal growth, and thus, incentives for management's earnings management to attract investment from external investors under favorable conditions are continuing. In the future preliminary unicorn selection evaluation, it was possible to present what needs to be reviewed on the quality of accounting earning. The implication of this paper is that the factors of management's earnings management eventually hinder investors and creditors from judging the reliability of accounting information. It was suggested that a policy alternative for the K-Unicorn Project, which enhances reliability were presented by reflecting the evaluation of earnings quality through discretionary accruals.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.10 no.4
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• pp.877-886
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• 2009

Since 1982, the auditee have selected the auditor under market mechanism. Under the system on which the auditor have been chosen by client, there have been chances for opinion shopping, etc. To prevent those, some audit regulations have been introduced. Prior studies have documented the positive effect of these audit regulations. Those studies, however, had some limitations which they dealt with just short event period for empirical tests. This study examines the effect of Auditor Turnover Ratio on the Quality of Earnings using a sample of firms that were listed on Korea Exchange(KRX) from 1995 to 2004. The firms that change auditor frequently are expected to have low disclosure quality. The CEO with the incentives to manage or manipulate earnings could accomplish this purpose by replacing existing auditor with more friendly auditor, which could result in eventually lowering earning's quality of the firm. The result of empirical test shows that the accrual quality of firms which have high auditor turnover ratio are significantly lower than those of firms which have low ratio. This result is consistent with our hypothesis that the more frequently a firm changes auditor, the lower the quality of earning is. This evidence might give the implication to policy-making supervisor.

• Management & Information Systems Review
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• v.30 no.3
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• pp.169-190
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• 2011

Recent academic studies have investigated book-tax differences as an indicator of earnings management. Tax accounting texts claim that the differences between pre-tax financial reporting earnings and taxable income can provide information about current earnings, and the large differences between book and taxable incomes are an indicator of low-quality financial reporting earnings. This study investigates the effect of internal control system over book and tax difference using the KOSPI and KOSDAQ firms from 2006 to 2008. The empirical findings are consistent with a weakness of internal control system being associated with higher book-tax difference. That means a firm which has material weakness in the internal control system allows for more malpractice. In addition to this, If the managers tries to the efficient tax decrease strategy, book-tax difference can be large. Which in turn leads us to observe a positive relation between the weakness of internal control system and intensity of book-tax difference. Overall, we interpret this evidence as indicating that the failure of the internal control system can effect not only investors and creditors but also tax authorities. And It emphasizes that a more effective internal control system linked with sound corporate governance.

• Management & Information Systems Review
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• v.33 no.5
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• pp.71-84
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• 2014

We examine evidence on the relationship between firms that targeted by the Financial Supervisory Service for allegedly manipulating annual earnings and accounting quality measured by the discretionary accruals, an issue with important public policy implications. The main purpose of this paper is to empirically investigate the extent to which Korean WDS(Window Dressing Settlement) firms identified by the financial supervisory service in their audit review exhibit higher level of accounting quality in order to avoid any potential negative effects and to regain public confidence after audit review. In this study, we analyzed 51 WDS firms and 102 control firms which traded in the Korean Stock Exchange market during the period from 2000 to the 2010. The number of observations subject to various tests are 251 and 502 firm-years for WDS and control samples respectively across the 5 year sample period. The results of the study show that the accounting quality after auditor review be significantly improved. This result suggests that the FSS's audit review system would control the accounting quality and then improve the transparency of the accounting information. Thus it may be suggested that the current audit review system is efficient ways to lead listed firms to provide transparent financial statements.