Search

Many firms engage in corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives, which aim to serve a broader set of stakeholders (e.g., workforce, communities, environment). These companies often encourage management to consider these stakeholders when making operational and financial decisions. One such decision that managers face involves managing earnings. We conduct an experiment in which experienced managers are placed in the role of a division manager facing an accrual decision. We find that a company's demonstrated commitment to CSR moderates both upward and downward earnings management attempts. We propose, and find support for, a moderated-mediation model in which the firm's commitment to CSR influences managers' consideration of constituents. Managers' consideration of these stakeholders differentially affects the level of accruals, depending on the direction of the earnings management incentive. Our results provide insight into how CSR may influence individuals' decisions within the organization, minimizing the impact that incentives have on maximizing one's self-interest. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Contemporary Accounting Research is the property of Canadian Academic Accounting Association and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Contemporary Accounting Research is the property of Canadian Academic Accounting Association and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Contemporary Accounting Research is the property of Canadian Academic Accounting Association and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Management earnings forecasts (MEFs) may reduce information risk by corroborating the inferences that lenders draw from their private communication with borrowers. Consistent with this idea, we find that among firms with a general policy of issuing MEFs, those providing MEFs in the 6 months before loan origination with a forecast horizon beyond the origination date enjoy lower loan spreads. The frequency and precision of MEFs are also negatively associated with loan spreads. The associations are stronger when lenders' need for corroboration of their private information is expected to be greater. The associations are not driven by a firm's general information environment, signaling of managerial ability, opportunistic disclosure, or competition between public and private debt markets. Moreover, the issuance, frequency, and precision of MEFs are associated with loan amounts more spread out among participating lenders, suggesting that MEFs also reduce information asymmetry within a loan syndicate. Our study provides insight into the corroboration role of publicly disseminated MEFs in private loan markets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Contemporary Accounting Research is the property of Canadian Academic Accounting Association and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Contemporary Accounting Research is the property of Canadian Academic Accounting Association and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Contemporary Accounting Research is the property of Canadian Academic Accounting Association and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

We demonstrate the benefits of merging traditional hypothesis-driven research with new methods from machine learning that enable high-dimensional inference. Because the literature on post-earnings announcement drift (PEAD) is characterized by a "zoo" of explanations, limited academic consensus on model design, and reliance on massive data, it will serve as a leading example to demonstrate the challenges of high-dimensional analysis. We identify a small set of variables associated with momentum, liquidity, and limited arbitrage that explain PEAD directly and consistently, and the framework can be applied broadly in finance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We find that firms with preliminary earnings that are expected to just meet analyst forecasts are more likely to only disclose (i.e., not accrue) litigation loss contingencies, claiming that the litigation event falls below the qualitative thresholds necessitating accrual. We also find that this opportunistic treatment of a subjective estimate is reduced when firms' auditors have expertise in the defendant's industry or have experience auditing litigation contingencies. Furthermore, we find that opportunistic disclosure usage increases when firms are more economically important to auditors' client portfolios. Our results are robust to a series of additional tests. We provide evidence to support the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board's (PCAOB) call for increased auditor professional skepticism toward management bias and opportunism when evaluating subjective estimates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The literature provides conflicting arguments and mixed results regarding whether capital markets punish managerial myopia. Using managers cutting research and development (R&D) investments to meet short-term earnings goals as a research setting, this study reveals that capital markets penalize managerial myopia, especially for firms with high investor sophistication. Moreover, the negative market reactions to managerial myopia are weaker for firms with overinvestment problems than for those without such problems. Overall, the results support the notion that security markets are not shortsighted. In further analysis, we document that compensation, especially earnings-based compensation, may cause managers to behave myopically. Our study contributes to the literature, reconciling previously mixed findings by capturing managers' myopic behavior in a more targeted way and showing that markets punish myopic R&D cutting. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Contemporary Accounting Research is the property of Canadian Academic Accounting Association and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Previous literature on the engagement quality (EQ) review argues that EQ reviewers should provide more efforts into the review process when fieldwork auditors' judgments and conclusions on the financial statements are potentially biased. Little empirical study has been done, however, partly due to the confidentiality of the detailed data on EQ reviewers' audit hours. The purpose of the article is to shed light on the existing literature by conducting an empirical investigation using a unique actual data set available in Korea. The results show that the EQ review hours are positively associated with CEO turnovers, a proxy for the audit risk, which supports the prediction of the theory on the EQ review. Additional analyses show that such results are stronger under (a) the upward earnings management and (b) the forced CEO turnover. The article extends the existing literature on the EQ review process and enhances the understanding of the engagement-level quality control in the volatile audit environment by providing empirical evidence to the analytic discussions on the EQ review. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We demonstrate that investors in initial public offering (IPO) firms value revenues and that the number of U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) revenue recognition comment letters issued on the S-1 registration statement are positively associated with reported revenues. We also find that IPO managers report revenues opportunistically in the fiscal year just prior to the offer. In additional analysis, we find that discretionary revenues are associated with significantly higher first day IPO stock returns but significantly lower 1 year stock returns. Our results are consistent with the incentives of managers to report revenues opportunistically outweighing the higher monitoring and regulatory scrutiny pre-IPO. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We revisit the predictive ability of dividend changes for firms' future earnings and extend the literature by examining the effect of management forecasting ability. Although prior studies have examined the relationship between dividend changes and future earnings, the empirical evidence is mixed. The belief that dividend changes have implications for future earnings depends on the assumption that managers can accurately assess future earnings prospects. In this regard, we posit that the predictive ability of dividends can vary with managers' forecasting ability. Analyzing a large sample of Japanese dividend-paying firms, we find that dividend changes, particularly dividend increases, are positively associated with increases in future earnings. Consistent with our hypothesis, this positive association is more pronounced for firms with high-forecasting ability managers. Our findings support the signaling theory of dividend changes and indicate that management forecasting ability has a moderating effect on the linkage between firms' dividend changes and future earnings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines how rank-order tournament incentives in the top management team (TMT) influence the quality of management earnings forecasts (MEFs). Instead of breeding feelings of inequality and fostering peer sabotage, the large pay gap between the CEO and subordinates may motivate top executives to issue more accurate and precise forecasts to win the prize of promotion. The positive tournament effect on the quality of MEFs is weakened (strengthened) when the perceived probability of promotion for candidates is low (high). We find that firms with higher tournament incentives are more likely to issue supplementary forecasts to increase the credibility of MEFs. By examining the tournament effect at each subordinate manager level, we find that CFOs are the driving force in controlling the frequency and quality of management forecasts and chief marketing officers (CMOs) may also contribute to the quality of management forecasts. The results are robust to multiple measures of tournament incentives and multiple research designs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Throughout their business life cycle, firms may experience financial distress. Successful emergence from such distress is important to their multiple stakeholders. Using a sample of publicly listed firms in China that emerged from Special Treatment (an indicator of delisting risk), we focus on the key actions such firms take prior to emergence, namely, fixing the core of the business and earnings management. We examine how these actions are associated with sustainable emergence, which we define as emergence from Special Treatment without reentry in the next 5 years. Consistent with the expectation that shortcut fixes to problems do not yield a long-term solution, we find that repairing the core of the business by improving operating efficiency is positively associated with sustainable emergence, whereas earnings management is negatively associated with it. We also find that the positive (negative) association between fixing the core (earnings management) and sustainable emergence is pronounced only for state-owned enterprises. Our article adds to the limited literature that examines issues related to distressed firms' sustainable turnaround. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Contemporary Accounting Research is the property of Canadian Academic Accounting Association and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Contemporary Accounting Research is the property of Canadian Academic Accounting Association and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Background: The firm value is a crucial metric that accurately represents financial performance. Various elements influence the worth of a company inside the framework of a constantly changing worldwide market. These factors are crucial for managers, investors, and stakeholders. Establishing public trust is a crucial factor in enabling success. In 1998, Indonesia faced a monetary crisis triggered by inadequate implementation of corporate governance. Having a CGPI as a business controller enhances the comprehension of the many aspects that impact the value of a firm. Implementing GCG is an essential strategy for continually enhancing the value of a business. Objective: This research examines how the CGPI acts as a moderator, influencing the impact of profitability, dividend policy, and earnings management on firm value. Methods: This study applies a quantitative approach using purposive sampling. The object of research is companies listed on the CGPI, with data sources from the IDX and the results of the IICG assessment from 2017-2021. Methods of data analysis using Moderate Regression Analyze (MRA) with SPSS 29. Results: The research results demonstrate how businesses inform investors and lend credibility to signalling. This suggests that characteristics that influence a firm's value might be used as indicators to make decisions regarding investments. Moreover, the utilization of CGPI indicates improved financial results, suggesting efficient and clear earnings management. The CGPI effectively prevents managers from engaging in opportunistic earnings management. Conclusion: Various factors, including profitability, dividend policy, and earnings management, impact a business's value. Establishing the CGPI is essential to encouraging sustainable growth in corporate valuation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines the linkage between real earnings management (REM); environmental, social, and governance performance (ESGP); financial performance (FP); and total enterprise value (TEV). This study employs multiple methods to accomplish its goals, such as the algorithm of PLS-SEM, regression analyses, and additional analyses. The results confirm that firms adopting the REM strategy are likely to have lower ESGP and TEV, whereas those adopting the ESG strategy are likely to have higher TEV and FP. Using moderated mediation analysis, we also find that ESGP and FP mediate the relationship between REM strategies and TEV. This finding underscores the significance of ESGP and FP as crucial aspects that should not be disregarded when seeking to enhance firm value. The results also suggest a moderate impact of FP on the connection between ESGP and TEV. This finding implies that FP plays a crucial role in enhancing the connection between a firm's ESGP and its TEV. This study contributes to the current literature by elucidating the effect of REM and ESG strategies on a firm's total value, which is a subject that has received limited attention thus far. Additionally, this study examines the moderated mediation effects, offering valuable insights to decision-makers in organizations. These insights can aid in the ongoing improvement process and promote sustainability. Furthermore, the results may affect trading processes and financing facilities because investors and financiers are expected to pay more attention to companies that care closely about sound strategies to achieve attractive financial yields from their investments or financing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyses the relationship between monetary policy uncertainty and earnings management using financial data of Chinese listed companies from 2008 to 2019. The study finds a significant positive association between monetary policy uncertainty and earnings management. Additionally, the research shows monetary policy uncertainty enhances earnings management through corporate operating risk and financial constraints. Furthermore, the results indicate monetary policy uncertainty has a more significant impact on earnings management in non-state-owned enterprises compared to state-owned enterprises. Moreover, the positive impact of monetary policy uncertainty on earnings management is more significant in companies with a higher asset liability ratio. This study contributes to the understanding of the economic consequences of monetary policy uncertainty and expands the literature on the factors influencing corporate earnings management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Excessive earnings management can significantly reduce the quality of accounting information, consequently harming the interests of investors and creditors. In the Chinese market, research on earnings management focuses primarily on corporate governance and external environmental viewpoints, with limited literature addressing debt governance. This paper centers on exploring the protective impact of bond covenants, revealing their inhibitory effect on both accrual and real earnings management through two potential mechanisms (agency conflicts and risk-taking). Furthermore, this study conducts a heterogeneous analysis from various perspectives, identifying how bond covenants influence earnings management in different ways and underscoring the moderating role played by underwriters. The findings offer theoretical insights for the development of a high-quality information disclosure system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Theoretical models predict that the threat of outside blockholder exit can mitigate agency problems and force managers to undertake actions that would maximize firm value in the long run. We examine whether the institutional blockholder exit threat curbs managerial misbehavior and short-termism reflected in real earnings management. Our study exploits a natural experiment—the Polish pension fund reform of 2013 that encouraged pension funds to trade more actively and imposed a real threat of exit on their portfolio companies. Using a difference-in-differences approach, we provide evidence that the reform significantly decreased the level of real earnings management in "treated" companies, that is, companies with open-ended pension funds (OFEs) playing the role of blockholders. The effect was more significant for firms in a multiple blockholder setting, firms under common ownership, and firms with higher insider's stakes. Moreover, we confirmed that treated companies that decreased real earnings management in the post-reform period experienced the increased long-term operating performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to examine the moderating effect of an exogenous corporate governance shock that curbs Chief Executive Officers' (CEOs) power on the relationship between CEO narcissism and earnings management practices. Design/methodology/approach: The authors performed a quasi-experiment using a differences-in-differences approach to examine Brazil's duality split regulatory change on 101 Brazilian public firms during the period 2010–2022. Findings: The main findings indicate that the introduction of duality split curtails the positive influence of CEO narcissism on earnings management, suggesting that this corporate governance regulation may act as a complementary corporate governance mechanism in mitigating the negative consequences of powerful narcissistic CEOs. Further robustness checks indicate that the results remain consistent after using entropy balancing and alternative measures of CEO narcissism. Practical implications: In emerging markets, where governance systems are frequently perceived as less than optimal, policymakers and regulatory authorities can draw insights from this enforcement to shape governance systems, reducing CEO power and, consequently, improving the quality of financial reporting. Originality/value: To the best of the authors' knowledge, this is the first study to examine whether a duality split mitigates the influence of CEO narcissism on earnings management. Thus, this study contributes to the corporate governance literature that calls for research on the effectiveness of external corporate governance mechanisms in emerging markets as well as the CEO narcissism literature that calls for research on moderating factors that could curtail negative consequences of narcissistic CEO behavior. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the accounting for defined benefit pension plans in U.S. family firms. Relying on agency theory and the literature on defined benefit pension plans, we test whether the allocation of pension plan assets, the expected rate of return on pension plan assets and the contributions to defined benefit pension plans in family firms are significantly different from those in non‐family firms. Relying on a sample of U.S. firms over the period 2004–2018, we first document that family firms take more risk when allocating their pension plan assets relative to non‐family firms where they allocate a larger (smaller) percentage of pension plan assets in equity (debt) securities. We also show that family firms are more aggressive in setting the expected rate of return on pension plan assets than non‐family firms. However, family firms' contributions to defined benefit pension plans are comparable to those of non‐family firms. Our findings hold after controlling for the endogeneity in family firms. These findings are important since they provide first hand empirical evidence on the accounting for defined benefit pension plans in family firms. They further shed light over pension plans that serve as a key tool to attract and retain executive talents and make up a significant portion of firms balance' sheets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

SUMMARY: Prior research documents positive effects of PCAOB oversight on reporting and audit quality. However, to have a clear understanding of the net benefits of regulation, it is important to also investigate corresponding costs. To this end, we investigate the relation between PCAOB inspection oversight and real earnings management, a potentially value-destroying activity. We exploit the staggered timing of foreign governments' allowance of PCAOB inspections in a generalized difference-in-differences design and find that companies engage in greater REM after the introduction of PCAOB inspection oversight. This relation is stronger for companies with a reduced ability to manage earnings via accruals. Lastly, we find a negative association between PCAOB oversight and innovation, particularly for firms making larger discretionary cuts to R&D expenditures. Collectively, our findings document unintended consequences of auditor regulatory oversight. JEL Classifications: G38; M41; M42; M48. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

IMPACT: Motivated by the complexity and challenges of public sector accounting, this structured literature review (SLR) takes a broad approach combined with structured analysis to unravel the development, cross-temporal challenges and remaining gaps in public sector accounting and reporting research. By highlighting these gaps, the authors outline future research paths within the current literature and compare them with previous literature reviews to provide researchers with a roadmap for future research. Although this SLR does not provide direct assistance with day-to-day problems, through its comparative, quantitative and structured approach, it provides practitioners with an interdisciplinary overview of public sector accounting research in one article—helping them to navigate the complex field of public sector accounting without having to read multiple literature reviews. This structured literature review follows a broad approach in order to unravel the development, identify trends and research gaps in public sector accounting and reporting. The results document a considerable increase and diverse development in methods, theory, research settings and themes. Especially, accounting change emerges as a recurring theme that is likely to continue given contemporary regulatory changes, sustainability and non-financial reporting and harmonization issues. Future research paths are identified—emphasizing methodological gaps and research opportunities in earnings management and standard setting research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The link between corporate social responsibility (CSR) and earnings management represents an attractive empirical research topic in recent years. In view of the heterogeneous research results, the purpose of this structured literature review is to analyze the contextual factors of this complex relationship. We selected 107 quantitative peer‐reviewed archival studies on that topic and explain a possible positive and negative link between CSR and earnings management by the moral licensing hypothesis (principal agent theory) and the moral track hypothesis (stakeholder theory). We focus on firm‐ and country‐related moderator effects as contextual factors. Country‐specific studies are separated in developed (Anglo‐American and Continental European settings) and developing countries (African and Asian settings), code and case law regimes as well as the degree of shareholder protection and legal enforcement. In line with stakeholder theory, we stress that most of the included studies found a negative impact of CSR on earnings management with a focus on CSR performance and accruals‐based earnings management. Other measures, for example, CSR reporting, sub‐pillars of CSR performance, and real earnings management, are inconclusive due to reduced research activity. We do not find any structural changes between developed and developing countries, case and code law regimes, and regarding the strength of shareholder protection and legal enforcement. However, there are clear indications that corporate and country governance strengthens (weakens) the negative (positive) influence of CSR on earnings management. We stress major limitations of prior research and formulate useful recommendations for future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Merchant guild culture is one of the most important traditional cultures, and it has had a profound impact on the economics of China. This paper explores the influence of merchant guild culture on real earnings management (REM). Using hand-collected data, we find robust evidence that merchant guild culture has a negative effect on REM. This effect operates through improving integrity and easing financing constraints. The negative effect is larger for state-owned firms, firms with appropriate internal controls, and firms with high analyst attention. On the whole, the study complements the existing literature by illustrating how traditional culture affects REM. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Our study examines whether Venture capitalists (VCs) prefer independent or syndicated investments when faced with exit uncertainty. By exploiting an initial public offering (IPO) suspension in China, our analysis reveals that VCs are more likely to independently invest in start-ups during such a suspension, which is driven by the screening and monitoring roles of VCs. Specifically, we find a greater likelihood of VC exits and a higher return on investment for VCs investing in start-ups during the suspension. Further, start-ups that obtain financing from VCs during the suspension are strictly monitored by VCs and reduce the extent of upward earnings management in the pre-IPO year. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the incentive effect of the personal legal liability for a CEO. Exploiting a unique Chinese law that a legal representative of a firm bears personal legal liability for a firm's illegal activities, we document a decrease in earnings management when the CEO is also the firm's legal representative. Additional analysis shows that the impact of a CEO's legal liability on earnings management is more salient when the CEO is externally recruited, lacks family background, and when the firm faces enormous litigation risk. The findings are robust to endogeneity and after accounting for the CEO's characteristics. Our study contributes to managerial legal liability, law and finance, and financial reporting research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fancy Fliers uses a simple and fun activity—making paper airplanes—to create a competitive environment where students feel reporting pressure. Students engage in an interactive group learning activity that helps them appreciate the pressures under which accountants operate in a manufacturing or corporate setting and develop an understanding of what constitutes aggressive accounting. The activity facilitates a meaningful discussion of financial reporting pressure and distinctions between aggressive accounting and fraud. This activity can be used in undergraduate or graduate accounting classes and is designed as an in-class group project. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study shows that, unlike the positive role played by other institutional investors documented in the literature, venture capital (VC) in pursuit of short‐term gains through exit strategies reduces the stock price informativeness of portfolio companies, especially when VC is associated with a higher level of the ability (longer‐term VC directors, large VC syndicate), incentive (private VC sponsors), and willingness (less reputable VCs) to manipulate information. Furthermore, internal and external monitoring helps mitigate the negative impact of VC on stock price informativeness. Finally, earnings management and reduced information disclosure mediate the relationship between VC involvement and stock price informativeness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aims to test and analyze the effect of corporate governance with the proxies of managerial ownership, corporate social responsibility and leverage on earnings management with audit quality as a moderating variable. The population of this study are non-cyclical consumer sector companies listed on the Indonesia Stock Exchange during the 2020-2022 period. The sample of companies used in this study were 34 companies, which were selected using purposive sampling method. This study uses Ordinary Least Squares regression testing technique using Eviews 12. The results showed that managerial ownership and corporate social responsibility have a negative effect on earnings management but leverage has no effect on earnings management. In addition, audit quality is unable to strengthen or weaken the influence of managerial ownership, corporate social responsibility, leverage on earnings management. This study provides a new empirical contribution to the earnings management literature by showing that non-financial factors such as CSR can be an effective control mechanism in reducing management incentives to manipulate earnings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines the influence of financial distress, earnings management, and profitability on firm value, with good corporate governance (institutional ownership) as a moderating variable. Focusing on infrastructure sector companies listed on the Indonesia Stock Exchange from 2019 to 2023, this research employs Tobin's Q to measure firm value, the Altman Z-Score for financial distress, the modified Jones model for earnings management, and Return on Assets (ROA) for profitability. The findings reveal that profitability positively and significantly affects firm value, while financial distress and earnings management show no significant impact. Additionally, institutional ownership does not moderate the effects of financial distress and earnings management on firm value, though it successfully moderates the relationship between profitability and firm value. These results underscore the importance of profitability and good corporate governance in enhancing firm value, with implications for investor decision-making and corporate strategy in Indonesia’s infrastructure sector. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Contaduría y Administración is the property of Facultad de Contaduria y Administracion-Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Revista Foco (Interdisciplinary Studies Journal) is the property of Revista Foco and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Digital investment determines enterprises' internal resource structure and drives them from traditional to digital business models, increasing the difficulty and risk of external audits. This study empirically examines the impact of an enterprise's digital investment on auditor choice to clarify the impact of digital businesses on external audits. We find a positive association between enterprises' digital investment and their propensity to hire Big Four auditors, suggesting that digital investment leads to an increased demand for high-quality audit services from enterprises. This positive effect is more pronounced in enterprises with more complex businesses, high degrees of earnings management, and high degrees of the digital economy in their location. Additional analysis suggests that enterprises with digital investments that hire Big Four auditors have lower audit delay and higher audit quality. The findings provide empirical evidence for improving subsequent digital transformation and audit quality in emerging markets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In income classification shifting, firms shift recurring income components (in core earnings) that are income reducing to items commonly assumed to be nonrecurring (special items) to increase core earnings, which are used by analysts and investors to forecast future earnings and value a firm. Some special items tend to extend over multiple quarters and are more amenable to classification shifting because it is easier to shift core expenses into those items (continuous special items). Nevertheless, as the recurrence of special items increases, the market perceives them more like recurring earnings components (Cready et al. in Account Rev 85(5):1577–1615, 2010), which reduces the benefits of classification shifting. Therefore, we hypothesize that when special items are continuous and first in a sequence of quarterly continuous special items, firms are more likely to use them to shift income than when continuous special items are last in the series. Our results confirm our expectations. The findings highlight that the location of a continuous special item in a sequence of continuous special items affects the likelihood of income classification shifting. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This paper aims to examine how a firm's exposure to economic policy uncertainty affects the auditors' perceptions of financial reporting risk. Firms that are more sensitive to policy uncertainty are predicted to engage in more earnings management because these firms are more likely to experience greater uncertainty in future operations. Audit fees will reflect this reporting risk. On the other hand, auditors might feel more fee pressure from policy-sensitive firms because firms are more inclined to reduce spending in the face of uncertainty and subsequently charge lower fees. Design/methodology/approach: The author tests my hypothesis using U.S. data on audit fees and client characteristics of public companies between the years 2001 and 2021. The author estimates a standard audit fee model based on the audit fee literature (Hay et al., 2006) while also including the two policy sensitivity measures. This study uses panel data methods that allow time-series analyses, providing a powerful setting to test dynamic audit fee adjustment to improve the understanding of the audit market. Findings: The results suggest that audit fee is higher for policy-sensitive firms than for policy-neutral firms. These results are robust to various proxies of policy sensitivity and various specifications designed to mitigate the endogeneity concerns. The study provides assurance that on average, auditor pricing reflects client risk adequately, mitigating the concern that auditors give in to fee pressure and compromise audit quality as a result. Research limitations/implications: While the findings from this study should be of value to regulators and academics seeking to understand audit activities amid escalating macroeconomic uncertainty, when interpreting these results, several limitations must be considered. The study does not examine how external auditors evaluate risks tied to policy uncertainty. A comprehensive understanding of how and why external auditors respond to heightened policy uncertainty faced by firms could be better achieved through interviews with external auditors and audit committee members. In addition, while this study posits that auditors adjust their approach in response to changes in policy uncertainty, largely due to potential shifts in the risks of material misstatement, there might be additional factors at play that warrant higher audit fees post a change in policy uncertainty. For instance, specific policy changes may give rise to new risks or modify existing ones, thereby precipitating increased scrutiny of records and procedures as company directors' demand. These aspects offer potential avenues for future research. Practical implications: This study underscores the significant role of policy sensitivity in determining audit fees and audit quality. Policy-sensitive firms present unique complexities and potential risks that require additional effort and vigilance from auditors. Auditors must develop a specialized understanding of sectors prone to policy fluctuations to navigate these unique challenges effectively. In addition, the role of professional standards boards and regulators in establishing guidelines for auditing policy-sensitive firms cannot be understated. Such guidelines could lead to more consistent audit practices and improved audit quality. Finally, by recognizing and effectively responding to the policy sensitivity of client firms, audit firms can mitigate their own risks, strengthen public trust and enhance the reliability of financial reports. Originality/value: First, this study adds to an emerging stream of auditing literature that focuses on how audit fees interact with a firm's external environment by providing evidence of an unexplored implication, a firm-specific policy sensitivity. Second, my main construct, policy sensitivity, provides two distinct advantages over other variables used in prior studies that explore the relationship between audit fees and external firm environments. Third, this study answers the calls for research by De Villiers et al. (2013, p. 3), who identified the cost behavior of audit fees, especially over time, as an area not well understood. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]