scholarly journals Do Female Directors Manipulate Earnings?

2020 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
pp. 141
Author(s):  
Maria Kontesa ◽  
Lee Sia Chai ◽  
Rayenda Khresna Brahmana ◽  
Sisca Contesa

This study aims to examine the effect of female directors in firm’s earnings management for a sample of 263 Malaysian listed firms over 2013-2017 period. After running a robust panel regression, the result of this study shows that firm that have higher participation rate of women in the boardroom will have a higher tendency of manipulating earnings. The reason why there is a significant relationship between female directors and earnings management might be caused by the corporate culture pressure on women. The findings provide insight for industry and policymakers on the impact of gender diversity on earnings management. It may serve as a guideline in their selection of the organization's top management and decision-making process. Keywords: Female directors, earnings quality, women on board, earnings management.

2020 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 6-18
Author(s):  
Abubakar Yayangida ◽  
◽  
Agbi Samuel ◽  
Joshua Okpanachi ◽  
Victor Atabo ◽  
...  

This paper is an empirical analysis of the impact of Executive compensation on earnings quality of listed firms in Nigeria for the period of 2015-2019. The study adopts the multiple regression technique. Data were collected from the annual reports and accounts of sampled firms. The findings reveal that Executive compensation positively and significantly affect the earnings quality of listed Conglomerates in Nigeria, the result implies that firms that pay higher emoluments to its executive are likely to improve the quality of earnings. It is recommended that the listed Conglomerates firms should increase the amount paid as emoluments to their executives as the higher emolument paid and received by executives improve the level of earnings quality and reduces earnings management which may be detrimental to the goal and objectives of the firm. Key words: Compensation, Conglomerates, Executive, Incentives, Performance, Shareholders


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ali Amin ◽  
Ramiz Ur Rehman ◽  
Rizwan Ali ◽  
Collins G. Ntim

Purpose This study aims to examine the effects of board gender diversity on agency costs in non-financial firms listed on the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX). Design/methodology/approach Multiple regression analysis is used to determine the impact of board gender diversity on agency cost. The research used panel data consisting of 2,062 firm-year observations of 226 non-financial firms listed on the PSX from 2008 to 2019 to test the proposed hypothesis. In addition, the Blau and the Shannon indices were used to checking for robustness. Findings The results indicate that female presence on the board significantly reduces the agency cost and, hence, mitigates the principal-agent conflict. Moreover, consistent with the critical mass theory, it was found that boards with three or more female directors have a stronger impact on reducing the agency cost, as compared to two or fewer female directors on the board. Research limitations/implications The sample was restricted to non-financial firms listed on the PSX only; therefore, the results reflect the attributes of Pakistan’s business environment. A similar analysis in the context of other countries may generate different results. Practical implications The findings imply that female directors play an important role in reducing agency conflicts between shareholders and managers by enhancing monitoring through effective governance mechanisms. The policymakers, therefore, should focus on female career development and encourage professional training programmes to generate a fair, competitive environment for senior female management. Originality/value This study attempts to fill the literature gap in that no similar study covers the non-financial firms’ listed firms in Pakistan. The paper supports the reforms made by the code of corporate governance by making the placement of female directors mandatory on Pakistani corporate boards. Overall, support is provided for the view that regulators should favour gender quotas regarding the composition of the board management team of listed firms to reduce agency conflicts and gain shareholder confidence.


Author(s):  
Alaa Mansour Zalata ◽  
Collins G. Ntim ◽  
Mostafa Hussien Alsohagy ◽  
John Malagila

AbstractPast evidence generally suggests that the presence of female directors on corporate boards tends to improve earnings quality due to these directors’ superior monitoring abilities. However, it is not clear which characteristics and skills of female directors drive such abilities. In this paper, we focus on the financial background of female directors, an area which remains largely unexplored in existing literature. The results show that the participation of female directors with relevant financial background improves earnings quality more than the participation of female directors without such background. In addition, our findings suggest that only female directors possessing relevant financial background and having fewer outside directorships are able to mitigate earnings management and therefore overcommitting expert female directors with more outside directorships would diminish their monitoring ability. We did not find any evidence suggesting that female directors without relevant financial background are able to mitigate earnings management, irrespective of their outside directorships or tenure. We interpret our findings within a theoretical framework that draws on a number of economic and social theories. The results are generally robust after controlling for potential endogeneity problems.


2020 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Bikki Jaggi ◽  
Alessandra Allini ◽  
Gianluca Ginesti ◽  
Riccardo Macchioni

Purpose This study aims to examine the impact of corporate board characteristics and country-level legal system on corruption disclosures mandated by the recent European Union (EU) Directive No. 95/2014. Design/methodology/approach Based on a sample of 234 European listed companies and covering the 2017–2018 period, this study uses regression analyses to empirically test the association of independent directors, board gender diversity and country’s legal system with disclosure of corruption information. Findings The presence of independent directors and female directors is positively associated with corporate corruption disclosures. The association between independent directors and corruption disclosures is especially strong when firms are operating in the common law environments. Research limitations/implications This study is exclusively focused on larger European listed firms and therefore the findings may not be valid for small and medium firms. Practical implications This study provides important information to policymakers to have a better understanding of the factors that influence firms’ disclosure policy on corruption-related activities. It also offers useful information to investors because it shows firms’ propensity to disclose corruption information that would enable them to evaluate their risk and return better. Originality/value To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study that evaluates firms’ response to the EU Directive No. 95/2014 in disclosing corruption information after its implementation in 2017. It documents the effective role played by female directors in influencing firms’ information disclosure policies. It also confirms that common law environment is more conducive to disclosures.


2019 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
pp. 85-102 ◽  
Author(s):  
Barbara Sveva Magnanelli ◽  
Luigi Nasta ◽  
Elisa Raoli

ABSTRACT This paper investigates how the presence of female directors on corporate boards impacts the performance of family firms. This study enriches the literature on gender diversity on corporate boards and its effects on firm performance by focusing on a country in which family businesses are dominant. The empirical analysis is conducted on a sample of 165 Italian-listed firms from 2011 to 2016, representing the period during which the mandatory gender quota law was introduced and implemented in Italy. The results show a positive relationship between the presence of women on corporate boards and firm performance, specifically in family owned businesses. These findings lead to the conclusion that female directors do not have a negative impact on firm performance. And, given the domination of family businesses and a mandatory gender quota law in Italy, this study makes a regulatory and performance assessment not previously examined in the literature. JEL Classifications: M1; M12; M48; M21.


2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 9-33
Author(s):  
Waqas Bin Khidmat ◽  
Muhammad Ayub Khan ◽  
Hashmat Ullah

Drawing on the upper echelon’s theory and the resource-based theory, the purpose of the study is to examine the impact of board diversity on the Chinese A-listed firm’s performance. The data were collected from A-listed companies registered in Shanghai SSE 180 and the Shenzhen 100 from the period 2007 to 2016. Since some of the companies got listed after 2007, our data is unbalanced. Both fixed effects model and a more robust dynamic panel generalised method of moment estimation are applied to cater the endogeneity problem. After controlling for several firms and board characteristics, we found gender diversity, education diversity and foreign national diversity measured through Blau index have a positive and significant effect on the Chinese A-listed firm performance for both the accounting and market measures. The age diversity and independence diversity seem not to be an essential determinant of firm performance in Chinese A-listed firms. The results supported the efficient monitoring hypothesis and managerial networking theory, which suggests that the director’s diversity reduces the managerial entrenchment on the one hand, while, through networking, increases the resources of the firms on the other side.


2017 ◽  
Vol 7 (4) ◽  
pp. 428-444 ◽  
Author(s):  
Erick Rading Outa ◽  
Paul Eisenberg ◽  
Peterson K. Ozili

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine whether voluntary corporate governance (CG) code issued in 2002 constrain earnings management (EM) among listed non-finance companies in Kenya. Design/methodology/approach Using a panel data of 338-firm year’s observations between 2005 and 2014, the authors test the hypothesis that CG constrains EM in non-finance firms listed in Kenya. The authors regress discretionary accruals (DA) against a developed Corporate Governance Index (CGI). Findings The overall results show that DA is not significantly related to CG suggesting the voluntary CG code does not deter EM in non-finance companies in Kenya. Practical implications Evidence of income decreasing\increasing accruals implies EM still exists among the listed firms. This suggests that policymakers may need to consider radical actions including alternative or new CG approaches and new institutions to improve the effectiveness of CG. Originality/value This study extends existing studies by including composite CG as possible explanatory variable for constraining EM. The authors contribute to the debate by demonstrating that the voluntary CG code in Kenya is not effective in constraining DA and therefore the current initiatives by the regulator to change the current CG code are appropriately directed.


2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (5) ◽  
pp. 161
Author(s):  
Festus Oladipupo Olaoye ◽  
Ademola Adeniran Adewumi

The focus of the study is to examine the impact of corporate governance on earnings quality in listed firms in Nigeria. The specific objective is to investigate the effect of board size, board independence and board gender diversity on earnings quality. This study was carried out with secondary data retrieved from corporate annual reports of the sampled companies and the data was analysed using panel regression on a sample of 37 quoted manufacturing companies for the period 2011-2017. On the overall, the result reveals that Board size, board independence and board gender diversity used for measuring corporate governance show significant impact on earnings quality. In addition, corporate governance variables appear to be quite sensitive to the measure of earnings quality used. Based on the findings, the study recommends the need for comprehensive evaluation of corporate governance systems of companies. The study recommends the need for more level of board independence. The diversity issue though is gaining momentum in corporate governance literature can still be regarded as not as dominant as compared to others especially as it relates to protecting shareholder rights and framing dividend policy. The significance of the variable nevertheless suggests that companies should thrive to achieve an appropriate diversity mix.


2018 ◽  
Vol 50 (3) ◽  
pp. 255-274 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ammar Ali Gull ◽  
Mehdi Nekhili ◽  
Haithem Nagati ◽  
Tawhid Chtioui

Author(s):  
Xu_Dong Ji ◽  
Kamran Ahmed ◽  
Wei Lu

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effect of corporate governance and ownership structures on earnings quality in China both prior and subsequent to two important corporate reforms: the code of corporate governance (CCG) in 2002 and the split share structure reform (SSR) in 2005. Design/methodology/approach – This study utilises informativeness of earnings (earnings response coefficient), conditional accounting conservatism and managerial discretionary accruals to assess earnings quality using 12,267 firm-year observations over 11 years from 2000 to 2010. Further, two dummy variables for measuring the changes of CCG and SSR are employed to estimate the effects of CCG and SSR reforms on earnings quality via OLS regression. Findings – This study finds that the promulgation of the CCG in 2002 has had a positive impact, but the SSR reform in 2005 has had little effect on listed firms’ earnings quality in China. These results hold good after controlling for a number of ownership, governance and other variables and estimating models with multiple measures of earnings’ quality. Research limitations/implications – Future research could focus on how western style corporate governance mechanisms have been constrained by the old management systems and governmental dominated ownership structures in Chinese listed firms. The conclusion is that simply coping Western corporate governance model is not suitable for every country. Practical implications – The results will assist Chinese regulators in improving reporting quality, ownership structure and governance mechanisms in China. The results will help international investors better understand quality of financial information in China. Originality/value – This is the first to our knowledge that addresses the effects of major governance and ownership reforms together on accounting earnings quality and, thus, makes a significant contribution on understanding the effect of regulatory reforms on improving earnings quality. In doing so, it also indirectly assesses the effectiveness of western-style corporate governance mechanisms introduced in China.


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