scholarly journals Audit Committee Effectiveness and Earnings Management Among Publicly Listed Firms in Kenya

2020 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 31-44
Author(s):  
Collins Kapkiyai ◽  
Josephat Cheboi ◽  
Joyce Komen
Keyword(s):  
Earnings Management ◽  
Audit Committee ◽  
Management Practices ◽  
Audit Committees ◽  
Financial Reports ◽  
Listed Firms ◽  
Financial Expertise ◽  
Financial Scandals ◽  
Practical Implications

Objective: The paper sought to investigate the role of an effective audit committee in controlling earnings management practices. Design / Methodology: A panel data sourced from the audited financial reports of firms listed at the Kenyan Nairobi Securities Exchange for the periods between 2004 and 2017 were analyzed using a panel regression model. Findings: Audit committee effectiveness proved an important monitoring mechanism for earnings management. The independence, Meeting frequency, and financial expertise of the audit committee evidenced a negative and significant effect on earnings management. Practical Implications: Firms need to ensure that their audit committees operate effectively. This is achieved through enhancing their independence, ensuring optimal meeting frequency, and a higher number of members with financial expertise for fewer earnings management. Originality: The paper suggests the ways through which audit committee effectiveness can be enhanced to reduce earnings management amid rampant global financial scandals.

scholarly journals Does the Monitoring Mechanisms Considered as Dilemma against the Practices of Earnings Management

2017 ◽  
Vol 10 (10) ◽  
pp. 39
Author(s):  
Dea'a Al-Deen Omar Alsraheen ◽  
Isam Hamad Saleh
Keyword(s):  
Earnings Management ◽  
Audit Committee ◽  
Management Practices ◽  
Annual Reports ◽  
Service Firms ◽  
Financial Reports ◽  
Agency Conflict ◽  
Regulatory Bodies

This paper mainly aims to explore the role of monitoring mechanisms in limiting the earnings management practices among service firms in Jordan. The data used in this study were from the financial annual reports of 59 ASE listed service firms in 2015. The results of multiple regression analysis demonstrate the fairly varied influence of board of directors’ variables. This paper presented three hypotheses covering board independency, CEO duality and audit committee. According to the results, internal monitoring mechanisms significantly impact the level of the practices of earnings management and the reduction of the agency conflict. Additionally, the regulatory bodies in Jordan should focus more on the role of internal monitoring mechanisms in Jordanian companies in terms of effectiveness in order to improve the quality of financial reports can be improved via the assurance of high quality of earnings. Finally, this study becomes a catalyst for more research on quality of financial reports and earnings quality in Jordan and other countries where there is still lack of studies in this domain.

scholarly journals The Role of Audit Committees in Limiting Earnings Management: An Empirical Study of Saudi Corporations

2021 ◽  
Vol 22 (2) ◽  
pp. 1-9
Author(s):  
Fahad Al Naim ◽  
Thamir Al Barrak
Keyword(s):  
Empirical Study ◽  
Earnings Management ◽  
Audit Committee ◽  
Stock Exchange ◽  
Audit Committees ◽  
Size Number ◽  
Financial Expertise ◽  
Jones Model ◽  
The Impact

This study aims to measure the impact that audit committees have on earnings management for companies listed on Tadawul Stock Exchange. The sample includes firms in the basic materials sector for the years 2017 and 2018. The modified Jones model is used to investigate the impact of audit committee characteristics (independence, financial expertise, size, number of meetings, and percentage of shares owned) on earnings management. The results show that the greater the audit committee’s independence, percentage of shares owned, and number of meetings held contribute to limited earnings management. However, no evidence is found to support that financial experience or audit committee size have an impact on earnings management.

Determinants of voluntary formation of risk management committees

2014 ◽  
Vol 29 (7) ◽  
pp. 649-671 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nkoko Blessy Sekome ◽  
Tesfaye Taddesse Lemma
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Risk Management ◽  
Corporate Governance ◽  
Management Practices ◽  
Emerging Economy ◽  
Board Structure ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Listed Firms ◽  
Practical Implications

Purpose – The aim of this paper is to examine the nexus between firm-specific attributes and a company’s decision to setup a separate risk management committee (RMC) as a sub-committee of the board within the context of an emerging economy, South Africa. Design/methodology/approach – The authors analyse data extracted from audited annual financial reports of 181 non-financial firms listed on the Johannesburg Securities Exchange (JSE) by using logistic regression technique. Findings – The results show a strong positive relationship between the existence of a separate RMC and board independence, board size, firm size and industry type. However, the authors fail to find support for the hypotheses that independent board chairman, auditor reputation, reporting risk and financial leverage have an influence on a firm’s decision to establish RMC as a separately standing committee in the board structure. The findings signify the role of costs associated with information asymmetry, agency, upkeep of a standalone RMC, damage to the reputation of directors and industry-specific idiosyncrasies on a firm’s decision to form a separate RMC. Research limitations/implications – As in most empirical studies, this study focuses on listed firms. Nonetheless, future studies that focus on non-listed firms could add additional insights to the literature. Investigating the role of firm-specific governance attributes other than those considered in the present study (e.g. gender of directors, ownership structure, etc.) could further enhance the understanding of antecedents of risk-management practices. Practical implications – The findings have practical implications for the investment community in assessing the quality of risk management practices of companies listed on the JSE. Furthermore, the results provide insights that are potentially useful to the King Committee and other corporate governance regulators in South Africa in their effort to improve corporate governance practices. Originality/value – The present study focuses on firms drawn from an emerging economy which has profound economic, institutional, political and cultural differences compared to advanced economies, which have received a disproportionately higher share of attention in prior studies. Thus, the study contributes additional insights to the literature on corporate risk management from the perspective of an emerging economy.

scholarly journals Surplus Free Cash Flow, Stock Market Segmentations and Earnings Management: The Moderating Role of Independent Audit Committee

2020 ◽  
pp. 097215092093406
Author(s):  
Ahmad A. Toumeh ◽  
Sofri Yahya ◽  
Azlan Amran
Keyword(s):  
Stock Market ◽  
Earnings Management ◽  
Cash Flow ◽  
Audit Committee ◽  
Management Practices ◽  
Free Cash Flow ◽  
The Body ◽  
Moderating Role ◽  
Independent Audit

Management engages in earnings manipulation for different reasons. This article argues that low-growth firms with high free cash flow will opt for income-increasing earnings management in order to obscure the low profits derived from their investments in negative net present value (NPV) projects. On the other hand, we argue that the listed companies might be interested in being listed in the first market due to its privileges and to preserve the competitiveness, through managing their earnings upwardly, so that they can satisfy the condition of achieving a particular earnings limit. This article should advance the body of earnings management literature in the Jordanian context by examining the effect of the moderating role of an independent audit committee (IAC) in the association between surplus free cash flow (SFCF) and income-increasing discretionary accruals (DAC). Further, this is the initial empirical attempt to investigate the moderation effect of IAC between stock market segmentations (SMS) and positive DAC. The results of this current study offer original and beneficial information for the Jordanian government and other countries with a similar institutional environment because the study promotes the application of applying IAC as an efficient tool to constrain management behaviour towards manipulation of the accruals. On top of that, this research offers information concerning the prevailing situation of earnings management practices and corporate governance in Jordan, in which shareholders, local and international investors, policymakers, regulators and academic researchers are interested. Finally, panel data analyses and various statistical techniques are employed to derive conclusions.

scholarly journals An Investigation on the Audit Committees Effectiveness: The Case for GLCs in Malaysia

2011 ◽  
Vol 13 (3) ◽  
pp. 287 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nurul Nazlia Jamil ◽  
Sherliza Puat Nelson
Keyword(s):  
Earnings Management ◽  
Financial Reporting ◽  
Audit Committee ◽  
Reporting Quality ◽  
Audit Committees ◽  
Financial Reporting Quality ◽  
Financial Expertise ◽  
Monitoring Mechanism ◽  
The Impact

Financial reporting quality has been under scrutiny especially after the collapse of major companies. The main objective of this study is to investigate the audit committee’s effectiveness on the financial reporting quality among the Malaysian GLCs following the transformation program. In particular, the study examined the impact of audit committee characteristics (independence, size, frequency of meeting and financial expertise) on earnings management in periods prior to and following the transformation program (2003-2009). As of 31 December 2010, there were 33 public-listed companies categorized as Government-Linked Companies (GLC Transformation Policy, 2010) and there were 20 firms that have complete data that resulted in the total number of firm-year observations to 120 for six years (years 2003-2009).  Results show that the magnitude of earnings management as proxy of financial reporting quality is influenced by the audit committee independence. Agency theory was applied to explain audit committee, as a monitoring mechanism as well as reducing agency costs via gaining competitive advantage in knowledge, skills, and expertise towards financial reporting quality. The study is important as it provides additional knowledge about the impact of audit committees effectiveness on reducing the earnings management, and assist practitioners, policymakers and regulators such as Malaysian Institute of Accountants, Securities Commission and government to determine ways to enhance audit committees effectiveness and improve the financial reporting of GLCs, as well as improving the quality of the accounting profession.     

The role of audit committees in mitigating earnings management: evidence from Jordan

2022 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Taha Almarayeh ◽  
Modar Abdullatif ◽  
Beatriz Aibar-Guzmán
Keyword(s):  
Developing Countries ◽  
Earnings Management ◽  
Audit Committee ◽  
Discretionary Accruals ◽  
Least Square ◽  
Audit Committees ◽  
Institutional Setting ◽  
Content Type ◽  
The Impact

PurposeThis study examines the relationship between audit committees (ACs) and earnings management (EM) in the developing country context of Jordan. In particular, it investigates whether audit committee attributes, including their size, independence, expertise and meetings, are able to restrict discretionary accruals as a proxy for EM.Design/methodology/approachThe generalized least square (GLS) regression was used to study the association between audit committee attributes and discretionary accruals, as a proxy of EM, for a sample of industrial firms listed on the Amman Stock Exchange (ASE) during the period 2012–2020. Data were obtained from the firms' annual reports.FindingsThe regression results indicate that audit committee independence is the only audit committee attribute that seems to improve the effectiveness of ACs, in that it is significantly associated with less EM, while other audit committee attributes that were tested do not show statistically significant associations.Research limitations/implicationsIn emerging markets, like Jordan, ACs may not be an efficient monitoring mechanism; therefore, it can be argued that the prediction made by the agency theory about the role of ACs in mitigating opportunistic EM activities does not necessarily apply to all contexts.Practical implicationsA better understanding of audit committee effectiveness in developing countries could help regulators in these countries assess the impact of planned corporate governance (CG) reforms and to better monitor and enhance the performance of ACs.Social implicationsIn a setting characterized by closely held companies, high power distance and low demand for high-quality CG mechanisms, this study contributes to understanding how this business system operates, and how improving CG mechanisms could be successful in such cultures.Originality/valueThis study investigates the under-researched relationship between audit committee characteristics and EM in developing countries. In so doing, it aims to provide new insights into this relationship within the developing context case of Jordan, including if and how the institutional setting influences this relationship.

scholarly journals The Impact of Audit Committee Characteristics on Earnings Management: A Canadian Case Study

2015 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 68
Author(s):  
Lynda Ioualalen ◽  
Hanen Khemakhem ◽  
Richard Fontaine
Keyword(s):  
Earnings Management ◽  
Audit Committee ◽  
Management Practices ◽  
Stock Exchange ◽  
Empirical Test ◽  
Control Group ◽  
Toronto Stock Exchange ◽  
Financial Expertise ◽  
The Impact

The objective of this study was to analyze the impact of three Audit Committee (AC) characteristics, financial expertise, diversity and activism on aggressive earnings management. We hypothesized that these AC characteristics are negatively related to aggressive earnings management. To test or hypothesis, we conducted an empirical test with a sample of 10 Canadian corporations listed on the Toronto stock exchange: 5 companies that were accused of aggressive earnings management and 5 other corporations used as a control group. We analyzed the 5-year period prior to the accusation (1999-2003). We measured earnings management by the level of discretionary accruals (using the modified Jones model (1995). Our results show that activism and the financial expertise of AC members are negatively related to aggressive earnings management; however, we did not find a significant relationship between diversity and aggressive earnings management. These results contribute to help governance oversight organizations identify AC characteristics that have the most influence on the detection of aggressive earnings management, which could help agencies develop and enforce methods to detect and reduce aggressive earnings management practices.

scholarly journals Earnings management, audit committee effectiveness and the role of blockholders ownership: Evidence from UK large firms

2012 ◽  
Vol 1 (4) ◽  
pp. 100-116 ◽  
Author(s):  
Murya Habbash
Keyword(s):  
Earnings Management ◽  
Financial Reporting ◽  
Audit Committee ◽  
Family Firms ◽  
Agency Problems ◽  
Audit Committees ◽  
Effective Control ◽  
Agency Conflicts ◽  
Controlling Shareholders

The existing literature documents that the quality of financial reporting is higher when firms have effective audit committees. However, recent studies find that audit committees are not effective in family firms where agency conflicts arise between controlling and non-controlling shareholders. This study extends the previous findings by investigating the effectiveness of audit committees in firms with similar agency conflicts when one owner obtains effective control of the firm. Compared to firms with a low level of block ownership, high-blockholder firms face less agency problems due to the separation of ownership and management, but more severe agency problems between controlling (blockholders) and non-controlling shareholders (minority shareholders). Using a unique hand-collected sample, this study tests the largest 350 UK firms for three years from 2005 to 2007, and shows that firms with effective audit committees have less earnings management. This study also documents that the monitoring effectiveness of audit committees is moderated in firms with high blockholder ownership. The results are not sensitive to the endogeneity test and hold for alternative specifications of both dependent and independent variables. Overall, these findings suggest that audit committees are ineffective in mitigating the majority-minority conflict compared to their effectiveness in reducing owners-managers conflicts. These conclusions, along with some recent similar evidence (e.g., Rose, 2009 and Guthrie and Sokolowsky, 2010), may raise doubts about the monitoring role of blockholders asserted by agency theorists and widely accepted in corporate governance literature.

scholarly journals The Moderating Role of CSR On the Antecedents And Out Come of Earnings Management in The Iraqi Firm

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mohammed Ghanim Ahmed ◽  
Yuvaraj Ganesan ◽  
Fathyah Hashim
Keyword(s):  
Earnings Management ◽  
Stakeholder Theory ◽  
Audit Committee ◽  
Secondary Data ◽  
Annual Reports ◽  
Financial Reports ◽  
Csr Disclosure ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Moderating Role

The increase in the number of firms manipulating financial reports has misled shareholders' investment decisions and resulted in an indelible blot on foreign investors’ trust. Due to earnings management (EM) practice, managers' inefficiency, and lack of transparency in Iraq companies. This study tested the influence of the corporate governance mechanisms (CG), (board independence, audit committee, meeting frequency) on EM based on agency theory, as well, to link between EM and firm's performance (FP) in Iraqi listed companies and the impact of moderating role of corporate social responsibility (CSR) based on the Stakeholder Theory. The study's sample consists of 65 companies for the 2013-2018 financial years. Data were collected mainly from the annual reports (secondary data) of the Iraqi listed firms. This study uses the M-score model to detect EM practices as practical techniques in detecting earnings manipulation practices. The panel static model estimators. Hence, this paper adds to the CG literature from the perspective of stakeholder theory using Iraq's unique industrial environment. Based on the research results, policy-makers might use the study‘s findings to recognize the essential roles of several CG mechanisms in alleviating the opportunistic practices in Iraq. Further, companies should also be encouraged to enhance the CSR disclosure quality.

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