Business Commons^™

Active Independent Directors And Earnings Quality, Yuanto Kusnadi, Bin Srinidhi

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

We examine the relationship between active independent directors and earnings quality for U.S. firms. We construct measures that proxy for activeness of independent directors and find that the proportion of active independent directors is under half on average. Our finding shows that earnings quality increases with the percentage of active independent directors on the board. Once the active independent directors are separated out, the other independent directors do not have any effect on earnings quality. This finding supports the hypothesis that the activeness of independent directors is incrementally significant over just the proportion of independent directors for the quality of …

Cds Channels Of Influence On Discretionary Accruals, Hao Cheng, Kian Guan Lim

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Existing studies indicated that firm debt holders can use the credit default swap (CDS) market to hedge their credit risk, and thus they would reduce their monitoring of the firms, leading to largely distressed firms shirking and increasing positive abnormal earnings accruals. Besides providing insurance, however, the CDS spreads also perform price discovery of credit risk information sought by trade creditors and potential lenders who are not protected. High absolute abnormal discretionary accruals or bad earnings quality, especially negative abnormal accruals, would lead adverse CDS price signals that are very costly to the firm. This compels the firm under nondistressed …

The Impact Of Corporate Governance On Earnings Management In Islamic And Conventional Banks, Christina A. Al Hajjar, Ekramy S. Mokhtar, Mohamed M. Mandour

BAU Journal - Society, Culture and Human Behavior

Purpose – This paper aims to examine the association between internal corporate governance and earnings management and to compare earnings management practices in Islamic banks versus conventional banks in the MENA region.

Design/methodology/approach – This paper uses an unbalanced panel data of 20 Islamic banks and 100 conventional banks, from eleven countries in the MENA region over the period 2012-2017. Discretionary accruals are used to measure earnings management by estimating loan loss provision. Regression analysis is used to test the hypotheses.

Findings – The results indicate that Islamic banks provide fewer earnings management practices compared to conventional banks. Besides, the …

Impact Of Leverage On Financial Information Quality: International Evidence From The Hospitality Industry, Cédric Poretti, Alain Schatt, Tiphaine Jérôme

Journal of Hospitality Financial Management

Earnings are a key firm-performance yardstick for investors. The quality of earnings has fascinated researchers and investors alike, as it may be manipulated by a firm's management. This paper studies the relationship between earnings quality and debt levels of firms in the hospitality sector, using a sample of 642 firms from 26 countries for the 2002-2016 period. Results of this study suggests a generally positive relationship between a firm's leverage and its earnings quality in the hospitality sector, particularly for firms incorporated in countries with stronger investor protection. As such, some interesting implications of the leverage-earnings quality relationship are revealed …

Customer's Inventory Accruals And Supplier's Earnings Quality, Cheuk Kwong Fok

Lingnan Theses and Dissertations (MPhil & PhD)

We examine the influence of customer’s inventory accruals on supplier’s accounting quality and earnings management practices. We consider two views of the role of customer’s inventory accruals play on their supplier and how they relate to their financial reporting. The first is the customer’s inventory accruals reflect supplier’s earnings management (i.e., intentional bias) as well as lead to difficulty in supplier’s earnings estimation (i.e., unintentional errors). The second view is based on supplier’s information advantage theory, which suggests suppliers are capable to interpret the information content of customer’s inventory accruals. In contrast to the information advantage view, we find that …

Ceo Network Centrality And Earnings Management, Huan Qiu

Doctoral Dissertations

This study investigates the relationship between CEO network centrality, choice of earnings management, and the consequences for the period from 1998 to 2016. From our empirical analysis, we find that CEOs with higher network centrality are more likely to use accruals-based earnings management, but less likely to use real earnings management to manage earnings upward in the current year. Although the use of accruals-based earnings management normally results in bad economic consequences for firms, CEO network centrality is associated with better (at least not worse) earnings quality, after controlling the use of accruals-based earnings management. As for longterm economic performance, …

Are Disclosed Auditor Materiality Thresholds Informative Of Firms’ Earnings Quality? – Evidence From The Revised Isa 700 Audit Report, Beng Wee Goh, Kiat Bee Jimmy Lee, Na Li, Dan Li

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

Under the Financial ReportingCouncil’s presumption that mandating new disclosure requirement in the auditreport would provide information useful to investors, we examine whether theauditor disclosed materiality threshold is associated with the firm’s earningsquality. We document that a lower threshold of materiality level is associatedwith a higher earnings quality, as measured by lower discretionary accruals,higher accruals quality, and less earnings smoothing. We also find someevidence that the negative association between auditor disclosed materialitythreshold and earnings quality is more pronounced when the auditor is moreindependent, when management’s incentive to manage earnings is higher, and whenthere is lower information uncertainty. Overall, our results are …

The Effect Of Firm Characteristics On Earnings Quality: The Moderating Role Of Firm Size, Wafaa Salah

Business Administration

This study sought to examine the effect of firm characteristics on earnings quality. Specifically, the objectives of the study were two-fold: first, to investigate the relationship between firm characteristics and earnings quality using a sample of 45 industrial firms listed on the Egyptian stock exchange for the period 2014 to 2017; and secondly, empirically investigate the moderating role of firm size in the relationship between firm characteristics and earnings quality. The discretionary accrual is used as a proxy for earnings quality. The study employs Ordinary least squares regression analysis. The results indicate that profitability and financial leverage have a significant …

All Eyes On You: The Impact Of Stakeholder Attention On Earnings Quality, Scott Tolton, Michael Drake

Journal of Undergraduate Research

We behave differently when we are being watched. A large body of research finds that when observed, individuals are more likely to act in accordance with the perceived expectations or desires of the observer as a means to achieve a specific goal (e.g., positive appraisal, promotion, penalty avoidance, etc.).¹ In the corporate space, prior studies provide considerable evidence on how attention or monitoring from various parties such as auditors, analysts, business press reporters, institutional investors, and debt holders affects the financial reporting choices of managers. The current literature finds almost unilateral evidence that increased attention from these outsiders is …

Do Non-Staggered Board Elections Matter To Earnings Quality And The Value Relevance Of Earnings And Book Value?, Shuling Chiang, Gary Kleinman, Picheng Lee

Department of Accounting and Finance Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of non-staggered voting for members of the board of directors on earnings quality and the value relevance of earnings and book value. Design/methodology/approach: The authors used a sample of Taiwanese firms whose board was elected as a whole every three years from 2003 to 2013. The authors used multiple regression analysis to test whether board of directors elections and corporate governance affected earnings quality and the value relevance of earnings and book value. Findings: The authors found that elections led to lower earnings quality, but better corporate governance led …

The Effect Of The Sarbanes-Oxley Act Of 2002 On Earnings Quality, Emily B. Blair

Senior Honors Projects, 2010-2019

The purpose of this paper is to determine the impact of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 on the earnings quality of public firms. I begin by discussing the history of the act and examining its provisions. I then explain the significance of earnings quality and how earnings quality can be measured. After gathering financial statement and earnings quality data, I used SAS to compare quality of earnings before and after 2002. From the results, I concluded that the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 did in fact significantly improve earnings quality.

Use Of Benchmarks In Predicting Earnings Management?, Richard Kent, James Routledge

James Routledge

This study conducts multiple approaches to identify whether earnings benchmarks are an indicator for earnings management within the Australian market. We investigate firms reporting small positive earnings and small positive earnings changes, referred to as benchmark beaters. Accrual quality models, earnings distributions and earnings persistence measures are applied to identify whether benchmark beating firms are manipulating earnings. Our findings suggest that the small positive earnings benchmark attracts earnings managers. However, we do not identify any evidence to indicate that the positive earnings change benchmark is a signal for earnings management.

Cash Holdings, Political Connections, And Earnings Quality Some Evidence From Malaysia, Redhwan Al-Dhamari, Ku Nor Izah Ismail

redhwan al-dhamari

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the influence of cash holding, political connection and their interaction effect on earnings quality in the Malaysian environment, where political influence plays a vital role in many aspects of business dealings and resources allocation is seriously affected by politics.

Environmental Initiatives And Earnings Management, B. Litt, D. S. Sharma, V. D. Sharma

Faculty and Research Publications

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to provide initial evidence on the association between environmental initiatives and earnings management. Prior literature documents firms participating in environmental initiatives to report relatively stronger financial performance. Moreover, firms with superior performance have been shown to engage in greater levels of earnings management. A natural question that arises is to what extent do firms with environmental initiatives engage in earnings management to report better financial performance? Design/methodology/approach – The study draws on two theoretical frameworks, external monitoring and internal corporate culture, to predict an inverse association between environmental initiatives and earnings management. …

The Impact Of Related Party Sales By Listed Chinese Firms On Earnings Informativeness And Analysts Forecasts, Jiwei Wang, Hongqi Yuan

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

Using a random sample of 140 of China's listed firms, we show an adverse impact of related party (RP) sales of goods and services on the usefulness of accounting earnings to investors and on the quality of earnings forecasts by financial analysts. Consistent with the contention that RP sales may violate the arm's-length assumption of regular transactions and consequently impair the representational faithfulness and verifiability of accounting data, we find that earnings of firms engaged in RP sales are at least 33% less informative after controlling for factors known to affect earnings informativeness. We also find that financial analysts are …

Does Earnings Quality Affect Information Asymmetry? Evidence From Trading Costs, Nilabhra Bhattacharya, Hemang Desai, Kumar Venkataraman

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

Information asymmetry in financial markets relates to the idea that one party to a transaction has better information than the other. Since financial reporting involves the transmission of value-relevant enterprise information, we investigate whether the quality of reported earnings can contribute to differentially informed financial market participants. Higher information asymmetry is costly as it increases the adverse selection risk for market participants and lowers liquidity. For a large sample of NYSE and NASDAQ firms, we show that (i) poor earnings quality is significantly and incrementally associated with higher information asymmetry, (ii) earnings quality disproportionately affects information asymmetry for firms with …

Direct And Mediated Associations Among Earnings Quality, Information Asymmetry And The Cost Of Equity, Nilabhra Bhattacharya, Frank Ecker, Per Olsson, Katherine Schipper

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

Using path analysis, we investigate the direct and indirect links between three measures of earnings quality and the cost of equity. Our investigation is motivated by analytical models that specify both a direct link and an indirect link that is mediated by information asymmetry, but do not suggest which link would be more important empirically. We measure information asymmetry as both the adverse selection component of the bid-ask spread and the probability of informed trading (PIN). For a large sample of Value Line firms during 1993–2005, we find statistically reliable evidence of both a direct path from earnings quality to …

The Effect Of Information Quality On Liquidity Risk, Jeffrey Ng

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

I investigate whether information quality affects the cost of equity capital through liquidity risk. Liquidity risk is the sensitivity of stock returns to unexpected changes in market liquidity; recent asset pricing literature has emphasized the importance of this systematic risk. I find that higher information quality is associated with lower liquidity risk and that the reduction in cost of capital due to this association is economically significant. I also find that the negative association between information quality and liquidity risk is stronger in times of large shocks to market liquidity.

Effects Of National Culture On Earnings Quality Of Banks, Chee Yeow Lim, Kanagaretnam Kiridaran, Gerald J. Lobo

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

We examine the relation between four dimensions of national culture and earnings quality of banks using a sample of banks from 39 countries. Our main analysis, which focuses on the pre-financial crisis period 1993–2006, indicates that banks in high individualism, high masculinity, and low uncertainty avoidance societies manage earnings to just-meet-or-beat the prior year's earnings. In tests of income smoothing through loan loss provisions, we find that banks in high individualism, high power distance, and low uncertainty avoidance societies report smoother earnings. Our exploratory analysis of the effects of national culture on accounting outcomes during the financial crisis period 2007–2008 …

Why "Democracy" And "Drifter" Firms Can Have Abnormal Returns: The Joint Importance Of Corporate Governance And Abnormal Accruals In Separating Winners From Losers, Koon Boon Kee

Dissertations and Theses Collection (Open Access)

Do managers exercise accounting discretion in an opportunistic or efficient manner? Good governance structures, which mitigate agency costs, are necessary to ensure that the accounting information supplied by management is not opportunistically manipulated. The output of quality accounting information, in turn, serves as an input to better governance structures. Thus, governance and earnings quality (EQ) are inexorably linked through a complementarity relationship. This suggests two previously unexamined relationships. Firstly, the governance effects on performance in the influential paper by Gompers, Ishii and Metrick (2003) is overrated without good EQ, measured by the magnitude of abnormal accruals (AA), as an input. …

Earnings Quality And Corporate Governance In Ipo Firms, Mary F. Calegari, M. A. Harjoto

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Earnings Quality And Corporate Governance In Ipo Firms, Mary F. Calegari, M. A. Harjoto

Mary F. Calegari

No abstract provided.

Legal Systems And Earnings Quality: The Role Of Auditor Industry Specialization, Chee Yeow Lim, Soo Young Kwon, Patricia Mui Siang Tan

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

This paper extends prior studies in auditor industry specialization to an international setting and examines if the impact of industry specialist auditors on earnings quality is dependent on the legal environments. Using data for 28 countries over 20 industries from 1993 to 2003, we find that clients of industry specialist auditors have lower discretionary current accruals and higher earnings response coefficients than clients of nonspecialist auditors. In addition, we find that the impact of auditor industry specialization on earnings quality increases as the legal environment weakens. Collectively, the results suggest that the benefits from engaging the services of industry specialist …

Using The Fasb's Qualitative Characteristics In Earnings Quality Measures, Abhijit Barua

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

In this study, I develop a measure of earnings quality by using qualitative characteristics of financial statement information specified in the Statement of Financial Accounting Concepts (SFAC) No. 2 (FASB 1980). I derive a summary measure of earnings quality by applying factor analysis on fifteen variables representing different components of two primary dimensions of earnings quality: relevance and reliability. I then test the validity of the earnings quality construct by examining whether the construct reflects decision usefulness that is operationalized in two ways: value relevance and cost of capital analyses. I provide empirical evidence suggesting that the earnings quality construct …