IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eme/mrrpps/mrr-02-2019-0076.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Determinants of accounting choice: do CFOs’ characteristics matter?

Author

Listed:
  • Neirilaine Silva de Almeida
  • Sirlei Lemes

Abstract

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to examine associations between observable characteristics of Chief Financial Officer (CFO) and accounting choices. Design/methodology/approach - The dependent variable is an index that measures a manager's propensity to choose accounting policies that increase earnings and/or operating cash flow (OCF). The index consists of ten accounting policies collected from the financial statements of 175 entities located in Germany, Brazil and the UK (2010-2016). Findings - The results demonstrate that the observable characteristics of CFOs partially explain their accounting choices. Specifically, entities that tend to adopt accounting policies that increase earnings and/or OCF have CFOs that lack graduate education or greater internationalization. Practical implications - CFOs can use the flexibility inherent in accounting choices to adopt accounting policies that increase earnings and/or OCF in ways that fit their personal characteristics. Therefore, it may be beneficial to reflect on the potential benefits of reducing the use of certain accounting policies that affect financial statements. Originality/value - This paper contributes to the literature by identifying which CFOs characteristics determine the choices of a set of accounting policies that affect companies’ earnings and/or OCF in countries with different economic, social and cultural realities.

Suggested Citation

  • Neirilaine Silva de Almeida & Sirlei Lemes, 2019. "Determinants of accounting choice: do CFOs’ characteristics matter?," Management Research Review, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 43(2), pages 185-203, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:eme:mrrpps:mrr-02-2019-0076
    DOI: 10.1108/MRR-02-2019-0076
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/MRR-02-2019-0076/full/html?utm_source=repec&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=repec
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers
    File URL: https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/MRR-02-2019-0076/full/pdf?utm_source=repec&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=repec
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1108/MRR-02-2019-0076?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eme:mrrpps:mrr-02-2019-0076. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Emerald Support (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.