The moderating role of audit quality on the relationship between auditor reporting and earnings management: empirical evidence from Tunisia

2020 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Fakhfakh Imen ◽  
Jarboui Anis

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to examine the interrelationship between modified audit opinions and earnings management as measured by discretionary accruals and develop a thorough understanding regarding the moderating effect of audit quality on this relation.Design/methodology/approachThis study uses a sample of Tunisian listed firms on the Tunis Stock Exchange during 2006–2013. Four models are developed and tested by using panel logistic and Feasible Generalized Least Squares (FGLS) regressions.FindingsThe results show that earnings management increases the likelihood of receiving a modified audit opinions. Then firms receiving modified audit opinions manage earnings more than those receiving clean opinions. It is also discovered that audit quality moderates the relationship between audit opinion and earnings management.Practical implicationsThis paper contributes to the literature of both audit and management studies and represents the first effort to examine the relation between audit opinion and earnings management, with audit quality as a moderating variable.Originality/valueThis study extends existing research on earnings management and audit opinion. Thus, this study has the potential to help stakeholders, board of directors, regulators and auditors, who are related with enhancing the supervision of firms and reducing the opportunities given to managers, to engage in earnings management. It constitutes an addition to previous knowledge about audit opinion in the Tunisian context before and after revolution.

2018 ◽  
Vol 36 (4) ◽  
pp. 461-482 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lik Jing Ung ◽  
Rayenda Khresna Brahmana ◽  
Chin-Hong Puah

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate whether real estate companies manipulate their earnings through the brokerage fee across ownership expropriation or not. Design/methodology/approach This study considers Kuala Lumpur Stock Exchange listed real estate firms to investigate how the brokerage fee in the real estate industry might affect the earnings management of firms across its ownership expropriation. Using annual report data, the authors investigate the associations over a panel for the period 2008−2012. Robust panel regression is used to divulge the probability values with reference by probit regression. Findings Overall, the results show that high brokerage fees would drive more events of earnings management and that, generally, the ownership concentration among Malaysian real estate firms significantly affects the earnings management of the firms. Practical implications This study shows that firm profitability and brokerage fees enhance the probability of firm’s earnings management. A low brokerage fee would reflect low revenue to the company. Therefore, management would opt to manipulate earnings in order to overstate earnings, which garners more interest from investors. Originality/value Real estate values in Malaysia have climbed steadily over the years due to a combination of reasons giving companies a higher brokerage fee. Earnings management has become a big issue for property investors. The study demonstrates the relationship between earnings management and brokerage fee across ownership expropriation which can be considered by shareholders in their own strategic planning and investors in their own investing.


2020 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas Averio

PurposeIt is argued that the going concern opinion is issued if auditors have a doubt about financial condition of a company. Provision of the going concern audit opinion may worsen the company in terms of gaining public trust and may even indicate bankruptcy. This study aims to determine the factors that affect the auditor's going concern opinion.Design/methodology/approachThis research used secondary data obtained from annual reports and independent audit reports published by the Indonesia Stock Exchange. The population of this research included manufacturing firms registered in the Indonesia Stock Exchange from 2015 to 2019. The sample after the purposive sampling technique being applied consisted of 33 companies. The data were analyzed using logistic regression performed in the statistical analysis software, SPSS 24.0.FindingsThe results indicated that leverage positively affected the going concern audit opinion, then the audit quality, profitability and liquidity negatively affected the going concern audit opinion, whereas firm size and audit lag did not affect the going concern audit opinion.Originality/valueThis study is in contrast to several existing studies on the determinants of the auditor's going concern opinion and provides knowledge on developing more factors affecting the auditor's going concern opinion.


2019 ◽  
Vol 23 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-22
Author(s):  
Mahdi Moardi ◽  
Mahdi Salehi ◽  
Simin Poursasan ◽  
Homa Molavi

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationship between earnings management and chief executive officers’ (CEOs) compensation. Owing to the fact that earnings management does not have only opportunistic effects, but signaling effects, this study focuses on accruals quality to examine earnings management incentives. Thus, accruals quality is described against future cash flow. The empirical evidences suggest that a positive relationship between discretionary accruals and future cash flow provides predictive elements for earnings management, whereas a negative relationship between discretionary accruals and future cash implies to opportunistic elements for earnings management. Should there is no significant relationship between discretionary accruals and future cash flow, there will be no earnings management, and such a result suggests that incentives and managers’ performance in these firms differ. Design/methodology/approach The statistical population of this research consists of all listed companies on the Tehran Stock Exchange during 2009–2016. Panel data method is applied in order to estimate the research model. Findings Findings of the study show that there is no significant relationship between discretionary accruals and future cash flow in pharmaceutical and food industries, thus they have neither predictive nor opportunist earnings management, while the results evidence a negative significant relationship between discretionary accruals and future cash flow in machineries, automobile, mineral and chemical industries. Furthermore, it can be alleged that there is no significant difference between CEOs’ compensation in firms with opportunistic earnings management (OEM) and other types of earnings management. It shows that firms do not have appropriate plans for CEOs’ compensation. Moreover, the relationship between earnings management and stock return has been investigated in this study. We document that stock return is influenced by accruals quality and its components. In other words, stock return significantly differs in firms with OEM and firms without any kind of earnings management. Research limitations/implications The authors’ findings provide contributions; for managers, it is noticeable that stock markets have sufficient comprehension about financial statements and the undertaken procedures on them, resulting in a higher return base on fair information. For investors and regulators, using the findings, may have deeper understanding to distinguish between industries that are recognized as opportunistic and non-opportunistic, which, in turn, results in better decision and regulation. Originality/value Previous studies have been mostly investigated OEM, while the current study examines both signaling and opportunistic aspects of earnings management.


Author(s):  
Mahdi Salehi ◽  
Mahmoud Mousavi Shiri ◽  
Seyedeh Zahra Hossini

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to emphasize the relationship between managerial ability, earnings management, internal control quality and audit fees to establish whether or not there is a significant relationship between the variables of managerial ability, earnings management, internal control quality and the audit fees. Design/methodology/approach The study sample includes 190 listed companies on the Tehran Stock Exchange during 2009–2016. Research hypotheses were tested using the statistical methods of multivariable linear regression and data envelopment analysis pattern. Findings The obtained results indicate that there is a significant and direct relationship between managerial ability and internal control quality as well as real earnings management and internal control quality. Based on the results obtained from the second hypothesis, the authors could claim that there is an inverse and significant relationship managerial ability and audit fees. The third hypothesis also revealed that in companies with lower audit fees, there is a stronger relationship between managerial ability and internal control quality. The results of related tests show no significant relationship between accrual-based earnings management and internal control quality. Originality/value This paper is the first study in Iran whose main focus is on the relationship between managerial ability, earnings management, internal control quality and audit fees.


2017 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 266-291 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hany Kamel ◽  
Emad Awadallah

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate the current level of voluntary corporate disclosure in the Egyptian Stock Exchange. In addition, it explores the factors influencing the extensiveness of voluntary disclosure and examines the potential consequences of such disclosure in regards to the phenomenon of earnings management. Design/methodology/approach A relevant disclosure index to the Egyptian context was adopted to assess the level of voluntary disclosure in the 2010 annual reports of the most actively traded companies listed on the Egyptian Stock Exchange. The relationship between the extent of voluntary disclosure and each specific-related factor was examined using unranked and ranked OLS regression models. Meanwhile, a system of simultaneous equations was performed using a two-stage least squares regression model in order to investigate whether companies with higher levels of voluntary disclosure exhibit lower levels of earnings management practices. Findings The results indicate that the level of voluntary disclosure is positively responsive to specific corporate attributes, namely, the type of auditing firm and the two industries of Healthcare and Pharmaceuticals, and Chemicals. However, no significant indications were found that firm size, leverage, profitability and liquidity are important determinants of corporate disclosure. Also, the results show no evidence to support the prior anticipation that a higher level of voluntary disclosure reduces the ability of managers to make use of earnings management. On the contrary, it was found that leverage and the tendency of firms to avoid reporting declines in earnings are the main drivers of the phenomenon of earnings management in Egypt. Practical implications This paper has important implications for both domestic and overseas investors in Egypt as well as the regulatory authorities in the developing economies. Originality/value The main contribution of this paper is its focus on the extent of voluntary disclosure in a developing country such as Egypt, which has a high potential for economic growth in the near future. Besides, this paper is the first to examine the relationship between the level of voluntary disclosure and the phenomenon of earnings management in the Egyptian context.


2021 ◽  
Vol 5 (2, special issue) ◽  
pp. 165-166
Author(s):  
Engy ElHawary ◽  
Dina Hassouna

This research aims to look at how firm characteristics and audit quality can affect the earning management practices in the Egyptian context, within the period of 2011–2019. This period was after the Egyptian revolution and has not been well investigated in Egypt, especially after the new release of corporate governance rules for listing firms. A sample of 157 non-financial listed companies in the Egyptian stock exchange is selected for achieving the research objective through analysing their financial reports. The panel least squares, using the fixed-effect model, is used to test the hypotheses and investigate the relationship between discretional accruals and firm characteristics, where the dependent variable is the earnings management, measured by the discretionary accruals and the independent variables are the firm characteristics (size, financial leverage, age, survival and audit quality). The results illustrate that the relationship between a firm’s financial leverage and earnings management is positive. This study may help the firms to control their financial leverage for avoiding any earnings management practice. The stakeholders should notice such significant firm characteristics in making their own decisions, especially after the COVID-19 pandemic crisis, which may expectedly increase the firm financial leverage, and in turn, some earning management practices can be used intentionally to hide the bad firm performance


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sana Mardessi

Purpose The purpose of this study is to address the impact of audit quality on financial reporting quality proxied by real earnings management. To further clarify the mentioned links, this study empirically assesses the moderating effect of audit quality. Design/methodology/approach The study is based on a sample consisting of 90 non-financial companies that are listed in the Amsterdam stock exchange in AEX all share index over the 2010–2017 period. This study applies a quantitative approach and secondary data as the main source of information for analysis. This paper performs an ordinary least squares regression to examine the moderating effect of audit quality on the relationship between financial reporting quality. Findings Empirical findings demonstrate that corporate governance mechanism, mainly independence members, financial expert and audit committee size has a statistically significant relationship with real earnings management. However, the effect of audit committee meetings on real earnings management is not significant. There is also evidence that audit quality moderates the audit committee – real earnings management links. Originality/value This study extends the existing literature by examining the moderating effect of audit quality on the relationship between financial reporting quality proxied by real earnings management in the Dutch context.


2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (4) ◽  
pp. 403-416
Author(s):  
Mohammad Ahmad Alqam ◽  
Yaser Mohd Hamshari ◽  
Haitham Yousef Ali

The relationship between audit quality and earnings management has not been tested with consideration of key audit matters as a mediating variable. This study examined whether audit quality (AQ) decreases earnings management (EM) in shareholding corporations through improving key audit matters (KAMs) in Jordan’s emerging environment. A regression analysis was carried out on a sample that included financial reports and auditor reports of 105 industrial and service shareholdings companies listed on the Amman Stock Exchange (ASE) from 2017 to 2019. The study found a negative relationship between audit quality and earnings management. The results showed that audit quality increases key audit matters, which, in turn, decreases earnings management. Also, the study confirmed the mediating effect of KAMs between audit quality and earnings management. The study confirms the importance of key audit matters to provide more relevant and useful information for the users of financial reports and provides important indications to the regulatory authorities and standards bodies that key audit matters should be given more attention regarding the way that they are presented and disclosed.


2020 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
pp. 95-104
Author(s):  
FELITA ICASIA HADI ◽  
SHERLY TIFANI

The purpose of this study is to examine the effect of audit quality and auditor switching on earnings management with fee audit as the intervening variable. Data in this study is secondary data derived from the annual report of listed companies in Indonesia Stock Exchange in 2016-2018. There are 117 sample and the method used for sampling is purposive sampling. The hypothesis ini this study was tested using multiple regression. The result of this study showed that audit quality positively influence fee audit but not significant, auditor switching negatively influence  fee audit, audit quality influence earnings management with negative direction, auditor switching positively influence earnings management but not signifitcant, fee audit negatively influence earnings management but not significant, and there is no influence of variable intervening in the relationship between audit quality and auditor switching on earnings management.


2019 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Yunita Yunita ◽  
Deasy Ariyanti Rahayuningsih

The purpose of this study is to investigate empirically the relationship between audit quality, company’s financial condition, prior audit opinion, company’s growth, company’s size, and debt default that influence the company’s acceptance of unqualified opinion with modified paragraph going concern. Data to be used is secondary data and were taken from Indonesia Stock Exchange official website. The research used 42 non-financial companies as sample by using purposive sampling method. This study used logistic regression to test the hypothesis. Data for this study comprises from the financial statement of non-financial companies in Indonesia over four year period of 2008-2011. The research finding can be summarized as follows. The result showed that the prior audit opinion has significant influence over unqualified opinion with modified paragraph going concern. On the other hand, audit quality, company’s financial condition, company’s growth, company’s size, and debt default don’t have influence on unqualified opinion with modified paragraph going concern.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document