We examine the effects of family firms on real earnings management (REM) and accrual-based earnings management (ABEM). Using socioemotional wealth (SEW) as a theoretical framework and considering the different implications of REM and ABEM on family firms' transgenerational sustainability, we hypothesize and find for a sample of 402 German listed family firms during 1998-2008, that family firms engage less in REM and exhibit more earnings-decreasing ABEM policies as compared to a sample of 436 non-family firms. We further provide evidence that family firms as compared to non-family firms treat REM and ABEM as substitute rather than complementary tools for earnings management. Overall, our findings suggest that family firms use earnings management activities strategically, avoiding those that inhibit the firm's long-term value (i.e. REM) and engaging in those that help families retain transgenerational control (i.e. ABEM).
This book provides a critical analysis of the current state of knowledge on the relationship between family firms and a wide range of accounting choices, including earnings management, accounting conservatism, and financial and non-financial disclosure. In examining the choices made in family firms, the authors explore and elucidate the relevance of agency, socioemotional wealth, stewardship, and resource-based theories. Readers will also find close consideration of the impacts of a country’s culture and societal values on accounting choices. In particular, further evidence is provided on the impact of different cultures on accounting conservatism in family businesses. Finally, avenues for future accounting research on family firms are discussed, highlighting theoretical and empirical challenges. In addition to offering a revealing analysis of the influence of ownership types and cultures on accounting choices within family firms, the book identifies significant practical implications for the management of family firms and policy implications for regulators and standard setters.
In this paper we analyze the preference for earnings management techniques by the family firms and the impact of the same on the performance of the firm. Family firms contrary to non-family firms are driven by different objectives. Using socio emotional wealth theory, we hypothesize that family firms prefer an earnings management technique, which is less risky in the long term. Using the publicly available data on all the family firms listed on Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), our analysis indicates prevalence both accrual based and real activity earnings management among Indian family firms. However, revenue based real activity earnings management was preferred by those family firms that have exhausted the possibility of accrual based earnings management. Our analysis of the impact of earnings management choice on market value indicates a short-term positive impact of the accrual based earnings management. Revenue based real activity earnings management was found to have long term positive impact but the cost based real activity earnings management had a long term negative impact on the value of the market value of the firm.
La 4e de couverture indique : "Despite a vast accumulation of private capital, China is not embracing capitalism. Deceptively familiar capitalist features disguise the profoundly unfamiliar foundations of "market socialism with Chinese characteristics." The Chinese Communist Party (CCP), by controlling the career advancement of all senior personnel in all regulatory agencies, all state-owned enterprises (SOEs), and virtually all major financial institutions state-owned enterprises (SOEs), and senior Party positions in all but the smallest non-SOE enterprises, retains sole possession of Lenin's Commanding Heights. The chapters in this volume examine China's high savings rate, banking system, financial markets, financial regulations, corporate governance, and public finances; and consider policy alternatives the CCP might consider if its goal is China's elevation into the ranks of high income countries."
This book provides researchers and scholars with a comprehensive and up-to-date analysis of earnings management theory and literature. While it raises new questions for future research, the book can be also helpful to other parties who rely on financial reporting in making decisions like regulators, policy makers, shareholders, investors, and gatekeepers e.g., auditors and analysts. The book summarizes the existing literature and provides insight into new areas of research such as the differences between earnings management, fraud, earnings quality, impression management, and expectation management; the trade-off between earnings management activities; the special measures of earnings management; and the classification of earnings management motives based on a comprehensive theoretical framework.
Corporate Payout Policy synthesizes the academic research on payout policy and explains "how much, when, and how". That is (i) the overall value of payouts over the life of the enterprise, (ii) the time profile of a firm's payouts across periods, and (iii) the form of those payouts. The authors conclude that today's theory does a good job of explaining the general features of corporate payout policies, but some important gaps remain. So while our emphasis is to clarify "what we know" about payout policy, the authors also identify a number of interesting unresolved questions for future research. Corporate Payout Policy discusses potential influences on corporate payout policy including managerial use of payouts to signal future earnings to outside investors, individuals' behavioral biases that lead to sentiment-based demands for distributions, the desire of large block stockholders to maintain corporate control, and personal tax incentives to defer payouts. The authors highlight four important "carry-away" points: the literature's focus on whether repurchases will (or should) drive out dividends is misplaced because it implicitly assumes that a single payout vehicle is optimal; extant empirical evidence is strongly incompatible with the notion that the primary purpose of dividends is to signal managers' views of future earnings to outside investors; over-confidence on the part of managers is potentially a first-order determinant of payout policy because it induces them to over-retain resources to invest in dubious projects and so behavioral biases may, in fact, turn out to be more important than agency costs in explaining why investors pressure firms to accelerate payouts; the influence of controlling stockholders on payout policy --- particularly in non-U.S. firms, where controlling stockholders are common --- is a promising area for future research. Corporate Payout Policy is required reading for both researchers and practitioners interested in understanding this central topic in corporate finance and governance.
This study examines whether the trade-off between real and accrual-based management strategies differs between firms with and without political connections. We argue that politically-connected firms are more likely to substitute real earnings management for accrual-based earnings management than non-connected firms. Although real earnings management is more costly, we expect that politically connected firms prefer this strategy because of its higher secrecy and potential to mask political favors. Using a unique panel data set of 5,493 publicly traded firms in 30 countries, our results show that politically-connected firms are more likely to substitute real earnings management strategies for accrual-based earnings management strategies than non-connected firms. We also find that when public monitoring and therefore the risk of detection increases, politically connected firms are more likely to resort to less detectable real earnings management strategies. Our finding that political connections play a significant role in the choice between accrual-based and real earnings management strategies suggests that a focus only on accrual-based measurements underestimates the total earnings management activities of politically-connected firms.
Master's Thesis from the year 2019 in the subject Business economics - Accounting and Taxes, University of Duisburg-Essen, course: Master Thesis, language: English, abstract: This paper delves into various theories and approaches, aiming to define and differentiate earnings management from related concepts such as fraud, expectation management, and impression management. It explores the goals and incentives driving earnings management, including maximizing or minimizing earnings, beating targets, and smoothing. At the onset of the new millennium, corporate scandals rocked the business world, eroding trust in management, boards of directors, and the accounting profession. In response, regulations and policies aimed at enhancing corporate governance and financial reporting were swiftly implemented. The credibility, clarity, and consistency of financial reporting practices play a pivotal role in enabling investors to make informed decisions. Accurate and fair financial performance representations, as opposed to inflated and misleading figures, are essential for market players, including shareholders and creditors. Investors rely on audited financial reports to guide their investment decisions, underscoring the critical importance of accuracy and reliability in publicly available financial disclosures. Auditors, by reducing the risk of material misstatement, ensure the integrity of the information disclosed in a company's financial statements. Management, with the goal of achieving promised targets and ensuring the company's existence, may engage in earnings management as a strategic contribution to corporate policy. Financial reporting serves as a means to distinguish well-performing companies from their counterparts, facilitating efficient resource allocation and empowering stakeholders to make effective decisions. The disclosed earnings results significantly impact a firm's overall business activities and management decisions, particularly in satisfying analysts' expectations, which can influence equity value. While accounting standards play a role, the quality of financial statements is more influenced by company-specific and institutional factors shaping managers' incentives. These factors lead to financial reporting practices being viewed as the outcome of a cost-benefit assessment.
We examine earnings management behavior around SEOs, focusing on both real activities and accrual-based manipulation. Although research has addressed the issues of earnings management around SEOs and earnings management via real activities manipulation, ours is the first paper to put these two issues together. We make three contributions to the literature. First, we document that firms use real, as well as accrual-based, earnings management tools around SEOs. Second, we show how the tendency for firms to tradeoff real versus accrual-based earnings management activities around SEO s varies cross-sectionally. We find that firms choices vary predictably as a function of the firm s ability to use accrual management and the costs of doing so. Our model is a first step in examining how firms tradeoff between real versus accrual methods of earnings management. Third, we compare the economic costs of accrual versus real earnings management around SEO s, by examining the effect of each type of earnings management on the firm s future performance. We provide the first evidence on this important issue by showing that the costs of real earnings management are likely greater than the costs of accrual earnings management, at least in the SEO context.
This book covers many aspects of innovation theory, evolutionary economics, economic geography, and simulation models. It is one of the first books to comprehensively and systematically focus on the evolution of regional innovation based on provincial experience in emerging economics, including stylized facts, theoretical explanation, and simulation. The book is devoted to a pioneering process-based regional innovation matrix used for classifying a regional innovation model, which is illustrated by real-world cases and data analyses. The topics addressed here include path dependency, lock-in, routines, variations, selectivity, regional gap, innovation progress, agglomeration, and innovation efficiency. The simulation methods describing the dynamics of regional innovation evaluation on economics are developed as well. The primary objective of this work is to provide a tractable and useful regional governance tool for researchers and policy makers in regional science, human geography, and related disciplines. The book is highly recommended to readers who seek more insight into the continuous development of China or regional development gaps.
