Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: Sarra Elleuch Author-X-Name-First: Sarra Author-X-Name-Last: Elleuch Title: Are Tunisian firms managing their earnings through asset sales following the 2011 uprising? Abstract: This paper aims to provide evidence of the use of the asset sales tool by Tunisian managers as a way of real earnings management during the critical period following the 2011 uprising. For this purpose, we have expanded the models developed by Roychowdhury (2006) and Gunny (2010) by adding the cash-holdings ratio as an explanatory variable. Our findings reveal that following the 2011 uprising, Tunisian firms are more oriented to use the investment sales tool to increase both earnings and cash at the same time. This study is the first that analyses the impact of the Tunisian revolution on earnings management through asset sales. The findings of our study help investors to identify new earnings management tools that were used less frequently before the economic crisis. These findings have implications for regulators who need to understand the earnings management behaviour of managers before developing monitoring and supporting mechanisms during the economic crisis. Journal: Int. J. of Accounting, Auditing and Performance Evaluation Pages: 1-35 Issue: 1/2 Volume: 17 Year: 2021 Keywords: Tunisian 2011 uprising; big bath hypothesis; smoothing hypothesis; real earnings management; fixed asset sales; investment asset sales. File-URL: http://www.inderscience.com/link.php?id=117572 File-Format: text/html File-Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers. Handle: RePEc:ids:ijaape:v:17:y:2021:i:1/2:p:1-35 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: Anas Ghazalat Author-X-Name-First: Anas Author-X-Name-Last: Ghazalat Title: The effectiveness of board of directors and family ownership: interaction and impact on the discretionary accruals Abstract: Firms can curb managerial opportunistic behaviours through applying corporate governance mechanisms effectively. Using a sample of 114 Jordanian firms listed on ASE for the period from 2009 until 2015, this study investigates the combined effect of the board of directors and family ownership on the discretionary accruals. The results show that the higher effectiveness of board of directors plays a higher monitoring role to minimise discretionary accruals practices as one of the opportunistic-behaviours. Results also show that the monitoring role of the board of directors is positively moderated in firms with family ownership. This proves that board of directors as a whole in firms with family ownership is unlikely to be effective. This indicates that the corporate governance plays a pivotal role in mitigating the opportunistic behaviours and minimises the divergence gap under the traditional agency problem while it has become a legal fiction when the central-agency problem exists. Journal: Int. J. of Accounting, Auditing and Performance Evaluation Pages: 36-72 Issue: 1/2 Volume: 17 Year: 2021 Keywords: discretionary accruals (earnings management proxy); the effectiveness of board of directors; family ownership; firm size; financial leverage; audit firm; return on assets; ASE; Amman stock exchange; random-effect GLS regression. File-URL: http://www.inderscience.com/link.php?id=117573 File-Format: text/html File-Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers. Handle: RePEc:ids:ijaape:v:17:y:2021:i:1/2:p:36-72 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: Mohammad Azzam Author-X-Name-First: Mohammad Author-X-Name-Last: Azzam Author-Name: Alaa AlQudah Author-X-Name-First: Alaa Author-X-Name-Last: AlQudah Author-Name: Lara Al-Haddad Author-X-Name-First: Lara Author-X-Name-Last: Al-Haddad Author-Name: Ayman Abu Haija Author-X-Name-First: Ayman Abu Author-X-Name-Last: Haija Title: The trade-off between accrual-based and real earnings management: evidence from Jordan Abstract: This study examines the extent of accrual-based and real earnings management surrounding three important turning points in the Jordanian business environment. Using a sample of 1748 firm-year observations between 2002 and 2016, the results show that firms have a great tendency towards using discretionary accruals to alter their reported earnings compared with real manipulation. Indeed, the magnitude of accrual-based earnings manipulation is increased significantly in the aftermath of the issuance of listing requirements. Interestingly, accrual-based and real earnings management is decreased significantly with the passage of the corporate governance code. In relation to the Arab Spring era, no clear evidence appears that firms are engaged in earnings management to embellish their financial reports. The overall results suggest that the ability of managers to exercise their discretion over earnings depends on firms' attributes such as the quality of the governance system, regulatory requirements and the surrounding business and political environment. Journal: Int. J. of Accounting, Auditing and Performance Evaluation Pages: 73-92 Issue: 1/2 Volume: 17 Year: 2021 Keywords: accrual-based earnings management; real earnings management; financial reporting; corporate governance; listing requirements; Arab Spring; Jordan. File-URL: http://www.inderscience.com/link.php?id=117574 File-Format: text/html File-Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers. Handle: RePEc:ids:ijaape:v:17:y:2021:i:1/2:p:73-92 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: Mohammad Alhadab Author-X-Name-First: Mohammad Author-X-Name-Last: Alhadab Author-Name: Modar Abdullatif Author-X-Name-First: Modar Author-X-Name-Last: Abdullatif Author-Name: Ahmed Hassan Ahmed Author-X-Name-First: Ahmed Hassan Author-X-Name-Last: Ahmed Author-Name: Yasean Tahat Author-X-Name-First: Yasean Author-X-Name-Last: Tahat Author-Name: Israa Mansour Author-X-Name-First: Israa Author-X-Name-Last: Mansour Title: Political connections, government ownership, and earnings management: evidence from Jordan Abstract: This study examines the impact of political connections and government ownership on accrual and real earnings management. Based on a Jordanian sample of 310 firm-year observations, the study finds evidence that politically-connected firms exhibit a higher level of real earnings management, compared to non-politically-connected firms. This evidence suggests that politically-connected firms in Jordan opportunistically manipulate reported income to obtain a private gain through the use of real activities-based manipulation, at the expense of other minority shareholders. This may be caused by real earnings management activities being less subject to the risk of detection and monitoring. Further, the study finds evidence that government-connected firms engage in a lower level of accrual and real earnings management compared to non-government-connected firms, suggesting a positive effect for government ownership on the quality of financial reporting. Journal: Int. J. of Accounting, Auditing and Performance Evaluation Pages: 93-126 Issue: 1/2 Volume: 17 Year: 2021 Keywords: accrual earnings management; real earnings management; political connections; government ownership; financial reporting quality; Jordan. File-URL: http://www.inderscience.com/link.php?id=117575 File-Format: text/html File-Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers. Handle: RePEc:ids:ijaape:v:17:y:2021:i:1/2:p:93-126 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: Tarek Abdelfattah Author-X-Name-First: Tarek Author-X-Name-Last: Abdelfattah Author-Name: Mostafa Elfeky Author-X-Name-First: Mostafa Author-X-Name-Last: Elfeky Title: Earnings management, corporate social responsibility and governance structure: further evidence from Egypt Abstract: This study investigates the relationship between earnings management and corporate social responsibility disclosure (CSRD). In addition, it investigates whether the joint effect of corporate governance and CSRD impacts earnings management practices in an emerging capital market, Egypt. Using a sample of non-financial firms listed in the Egyptian stock exchange for the period 2012-2017, we find evidence of the opportunistic hypothesis of corporate social responsibility. Firms use corporate social responsibility reporting to mask earnings management. Our findings show a significant role of board independence in constraining earnings management. Moreover, board independence moderates the positive relationship between CSRD and earnings management. However, other governance factors do not alleviate earnings management. Furthermore, we find that institutional ownership is positively related to discretionary accruals supporting the notion of the passive role of institutional investors in developing countries. Journal: Int. J. of Accounting, Auditing and Performance Evaluation Pages: 173-201 Issue: 1/2 Volume: 17 Year: 2021 Keywords: earnings management; corporate social responsibility; corporate governance; Egypt; audit committee; ownership structure; board characteristics; developing countries. File-URL: http://www.inderscience.com/link.php?id=117576 File-Format: text/html File-Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers. Handle: RePEc:ids:ijaape:v:17:y:2021:i:1/2:p:173-201 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: Yi-Mien Lin Author-X-Name-First: Yi-Mien Author-X-Name-Last: Lin Author-Name: Tzu-Wen Lee Author-X-Name-First: Tzu-Wen Author-X-Name-Last: Lee Title: The effects of R%D expenditure and earnings management on stock options: evidence from market competition Abstract: This paper examines the effects of R&D expenditures and earnings management on executive stock options and the effects of the competitiveness of a firm in the industry on R&D and executive stock options under controlling for managerial incentive and corporate governance. The findings are that as R&D of a firm increases, managers are more likely to manipulate earnings to enhance the firm value, thus creating a higher value for stock options. Being more competitive in the industry motivates the firm to broaden business territory, thus it will invest more in R&D to obtain a larger market share. The stronger the competitiveness of a firm and the better the performance are, the more stock options that will be granted to managers. Journal: Int. J. of Accounting, Auditing and Performance Evaluation Pages: 148-172 Issue: 1/2 Volume: 17 Year: 2021 Keywords: product market competition; R&D expenditure; stock options compensation; corporate governance; managerial incentive; earnings management. File-URL: http://www.inderscience.com/link.php?id=117579 File-Format: text/html File-Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers. Handle: RePEc:ids:ijaape:v:17:y:2021:i:1/2:p:148-172 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: Bubaker Khaled Author-X-Name-First: Bubaker Author-X-Name-Last: Khaled Author-Name: Zakaria Ali Aribi Author-X-Name-First: Zakaria Ali Author-X-Name-Last: Aribi Title: The impact of corporate governance and accruals flexibility on the interaction between earnings management strategies Abstract: This study examines the impact of corporate governance mechanisms and accruals flexibility on the interaction between accruals earnings management (AEM) and real earnings management (REM) using a large sample of Indian firms for the period 2007-2015. The results show significant impact of board effectiveness, audit committee effectiveness, high auditor's quality and accruals flexibility on the level of AEM, and also we find significant relations between the level of REM and AEM, suggesting that managers may switch from AEM to REM when they find constraints on AEM. Additional analysis of firms with relatively strong earnings management incentives confirms the trade-off between AEM and REM. Our findings are also robust to the alternative measure of earnings management. Journal: Int. J. of Accounting, Auditing and Performance Evaluation Pages: 127-147 Issue: 1/2 Volume: 17 Year: 2021 Keywords: AEM; accruals earnings management; REM; real earnings management; corporate governance mechanisms; India; accruals flexibility; board effectiveness; audit committee effectiveness. File-URL: http://www.inderscience.com/link.php?id=117580 File-Format: text/html File-Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers. Handle: RePEc:ids:ijaape:v:17:y:2021:i:1/2:p:127-147