Accounting-based earnings management: motivations, players, implementation, and detection from the perspective of certified accountants

In the scope of Behavioral Decision Theory, Accounting-based Earnings Management (AEM) may compromise the success of decision making of a firm’s stakeholders. Given that AEM constitutes a barrier to the decision-making process, we aim to identify the main motivations of the players of AEM. Besides, in this study we also intend to analyze the implementing and detecting of AEM practices in financial statements and to evaluate whether individual characteristics influence the ability to implement and detect creative accounting practices. To achieve the proposed objectives, a quantitative methodology approach was used. A survey was applied to Portuguese’s certified accountants. In the data analyses, we applied the univariate and multiple analysis. Based on 159 observations, we find that most certified accountants indicate the main motivations are related to the reduction of the cost of capital and tax burden, the strength of the “code law system”, and that the managers are the main players. Our evidence also shows that the AEM practices are easily implemented and detected in the financial statements. In addition, we find that age, professional experience, and academic qualifications of the certified accountant tend to have an impact on the ability to implement AEM in the financial statements, contrary to gender and training area. Furthermore, gender and academic financial statements. This research is important for the development of the literature, entities that operate in accounting standardization and for the users of accounting and financial information. This study contributes to a better understanding of AEM practice, and it originally combines individual characteristics of accounting professionals with AEM practice.

COMPARISON OF THE TERMS CREATIVE ACCOUNTING, EARNINGS MANAGEMENT AND FRAUDULENT ACCOUNTING THROUGH BIBLIOGRAPHIC ANALYSIS

Research background: The article focuses on the issues of creative accounting, earnings management, and fraudulent accounting, which are global phenomena. These concepts are well known globally, as they are dealt with by many world-renowned authors. In this study, we applied bibliometric analysis to these concepts to reveal their interconnectedness. The research was conducted on a sample of more than 19,000 articles. Purpose of the article: The main goal of the study is to use the VosViewer design and visualisation program to capture and record the most common terms associated with the terms, ‘creative accounting’, ‘revenue management’, and ‘fraudulent accounting’, and to show a biometric network of the most commonly used terms. Methods: To capture and illustrate important words associated with the above terms, the VosViewer program was used, which drew mind maps that represented the words and expressions that were closest to the topic. Scientific articles from the Web of Science database, which contains many world-class articles related to the topic, were used as input data. Findings & Value added: The results of the study provided an interesting insight into the keywords associated with the issues of creative accounting, revenue management, and fraudulent accounting. The results show that the keywords and phrases are related, as several of them are repeated in each of the terms mentioned. This means that, although these terms are different in nature, they are nevertheless connected by many words and phrases. However, it remains necessary to observe that each of the given terms appears on a different colour of fraud (white, grey, or black fraud).

Creative accounting and its influence on corporate performance and financial reporting: A case study of Kosovo

As it is known, Kosovo is a newly established and developing country. Naturally, creative accounting practices in Kosovo are becoming more frequent due to gaps and weaknesses in management and audit quality. This study aims to examine the relationship between creative accounting and corporate performance and management, as well as the impact of managers’ ethics including audit period on financial reporting and creative accounting limitation. The study adopted a survey-based approach. The questionnaires were distributed among 159 managers, auditors, and head accountants. Linear regression was used to analyze the hypotheses. The research results confirmed the rejection of the first hypothesis, as the mean is less than 3 (the average on a five-point Likert scale). The results confirmed that creative accounting has a significant impact on corporate performance. The results also confirmed the second hypothesis as the mean is greater than 3.5 (the average on a five-point Likert scale). Thus, managers’ ethics have a significant effect on the reliability of financial statements. In addition, the research results confirmed the acceptance of the third hypothesis, as the mean is greater than 3 (the average on a five-point Likert scale), thus there is a positive influence of the audit period on creative accounting limitation. The study found a negative impact of creative accounting on corporate performance. Furthermore, a significant effect of managers’ ethics on financial statements’ reliability was concluded; and finally, the findings concluded that audit period and quality could significantly contribute to the creative accounting limitation.

Present-biased Government, Creative Accounting and a Pitfall in Balanced Budget Rules

I propose a general equilibrium model with a quasi-hyperbolic discounting government that optimally decides upon using creative accounting in order to evaluate a balanced budget rule and a debt rule. In that context, I find that a binding balanced budget rule could fail to properly constrain public overindebtedness when government uses creative accounting while a debt rule is effective, since targets are set on total public liabilities. Results suggest that a balanced budget fiscal rule can also deteriorate welfare due to the higher interest rates derived from doing operations under the line, implying future expenditure cuts that are harmful for households, who value public goods and services. A debt rule is also preferred for its capacity to reverse some welfare losses generated by the present-biased government.

CREATIVE ACCOUNTING BEHAVIOUR : MENCERMINKAN KINERJA BAIK ATAU MENYESATKAN ?

This study aims to test empirically about creative accounting which is proxied by the income smoothing variable. The population used in this study were all companies listed on the Indonesia Stock Exchange, while the sample of this study were property, real estate and construction companies totaling 48 companies using purposive sampling technique. The results of this study indicate that there is a significant negative effect on the variable return on equity, current ratio, dividend payout ratio. This shows that the smaller the value of the company's return on equity, current ratio, and dividend payout ratio, the more likely the company is to do income smoothing. The results of this study also indicate that there is a significant effect of the CFO variable on income smoothing. This means that the greater the CFO of the company, the more likely the company is to do income smoothing. The results of this study provide contributions and input for the report users in seeing which companies do creative accounting so that they can decide whether to invest or not. Keywords: Creative accounting, income smoothing, profitabilitas, deviden payout ratio, return on equity Abstrak Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk menguji secara empiris tentang akuntansi kreatif (creative accounting) yang diproksikan oleh variabel perataan laba. Populasi yang digunakan dalam penelitian ini adalah semua perusahaan yang terdaftar di Bursa Efek Indonesia, sedangkan sampel penelitian ini adalah perusahaan properti, real estate dan konstruksi yang berjumlah 48 perusahaan menggunakan teknik purposive sampling. Hasil dari penelitian ini menunjukkan bahwa terdapat pengaruh negatif signifikan variabel return on equity, current ratio, deviden payout ratio. Hal ini menunjukkan bahwa semakin kecil nilai return on equity, current ratio, dan dividen payout ratio perusahaan, maka semakin besar kemungkinan perusahaan melakukan perataan laba. Hasil penelitian ini juga menunjukkan bahwa terdapat pengaruh yang signifikan variabel Cash Flows From Operating Activities (CFO) terhadap income smoothing. Hal ini berarti semakin besar Cash Flows From Operating Activities (CFO) perusahaan maka semakin besar kemungkinan perusahaan melakukan perataan laba. Dapat disimpulkan bahwa tingginya nilai laba bukan berarti menunjukkan kinerja perusahaan dalam kondisi baik. Hal ini dikarenakan adanya indikasi perusahaan melakukan perataan laba untuk tujuan tertentu. Hasil penelitian ini memberikan kontribusi dan masukan bagi para pihak pengguna laporan dalam melihat perusahaan mana saja yang melakukan creative accounting sehingga dapat memutuskan untuk menanamkan investasinya atau tidak. Kata kunci: Creative accounting, income smoothing, profitabilitas, deviden payout ratio, return on equity