IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/hur/ijaraf/v7y2017i4p62-70.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Exploring the Motivation behind Leakage of Internal Audit Reports (Whistle Blowing) in the Public Sector in Kenya

Author

Listed:
  • Clement C.M. Akjekwe
  • Adzor Ibiamke

Abstract

This paper documents evidence that the Nigerian market rewards low earnings per share volatility with higher share prices. Earnings smoothing was measured by the standard deviation of earnings stream over a five year rolling period in addition to the two traditional measures that relate variability of earnings and changes in accruals to cash flows.Multiple regression was employed on a sample of 48 firms from 2013–2015. The study found that Nigerian market rewards stable earnings over time, but are somewhat indifferent to the smoothness of past earnings in relation to cash flows. The practical implication of these findings is that managers of firms in Nigeria will take even “desperate” measures to report stable earnings to boost their firm valuations. The paper recommends that investors should not just reward stable earnings streams; they should be concerned with stable earnings and cash flows stability simultaneously. Failure to do so might result in earnings fraud that erodes their investments.

Suggested Citation

  • Clement C.M. Akjekwe & Adzor Ibiamke, 2017. "Exploring the Motivation behind Leakage of Internal Audit Reports (Whistle Blowing) in the Public Sector in Kenya," International Journal of Academic Research in Accounting, Finance and Management Sciences, Human Resource Management Academic Research Society, International Journal of Academic Research in Accounting, Finance and Management Sciences, vol. 7(4), pages 62-70, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:hur:ijaraf:v:7:y:2017:i:4:p:62-70
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hrmars.com/hrmars_papers/Article_06_Market_Rewards_to_Earnings_Smoothing.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: http://hrmars.com/hrmars_papers/Article_06_Market_Rewards_to_Earnings_Smoothing.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Keun-Yeob Oh & Bonghan Kim & Honkee Kim, 2006. "An empirical study of the relation between stock price and EPS in panel data: Korea case," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 38(20), pages 2361-2369.
    2. Graham, John R. & Harvey, Campbell R. & Rajgopal, Shiva, 2005. "The economic implications of corporate financial reporting," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 40(1-3), pages 3-73, December.
    3. Steven J. Carlson & Chenchuramaiah T. Bathala, 1997. "Ownership Differences and Firms' Income Smoothing Behavior," Journal of Business Finance & Accounting, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 24(2), pages 179-196.
    4. Jacek Welc, 2014. "Impact of Earnings Smoothness on Stock Prices, Stock Returns and Future Earnings Changes - the Polish Experience," European Financial and Accounting Journal, Prague University of Economics and Business, vol. 2014(3), pages 67-94.
    5. Barth, ME & Elliott, JA & Finn, MW, 1999. "Market rewards associated with patterns of increasing earnings," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 37(2), pages 387-413.
    6. Leuz, Christian & Nanda, Dhananjay & Wysocki, Peter D., 2003. "Earnings management and investor protection: an international comparison," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 69(3), pages 505-527, September.
    7. Rountree, Brian & Weston, James P. & Allayannis, George, 2008. "Do investors value smooth performance?," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 90(3), pages 237-251, December.
    8. repec:ebl:ecbull:v:3:y:2008:i:30:p:1-12 is not listed on IDEAS
    9. Yusuke Takasu & Makoto Nakano, 2012. "What Do Smoothed Earnings Tell Us about the Future?," The Japanese Accounting Review, Research Institute for Economics & Business Administration, Kobe University, vol. 2, pages 1-32, December.
    10. Michael Kirschenheiter & Nahum D. Melumad, 2002. "Can “Big Bath” and Earnings Smoothing Co‐exist as Equilibrium Financial Reporting Strategies?," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 40(3), pages 761-796, June.
    11. Anand Mohan Goel, 2003. "Why Do Firms Smooth Earnings?," The Journal of Business, University of Chicago Press, vol. 76(1), pages 151-192, January.
    12. Subramanyam, K. R., 1996. "The pricing of discretionary accruals," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 22(1-3), pages 249-281, October.
    13. Chi-Wei Su & Ya-Wen Chang & Yahn-Shir Chen & Hsu-Ling Chang, 2008. "The Relationship between Stock Price and EPS: Evidence Based on Taiwan Panel Data," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 3(30), pages 1-12.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Jacek Welc, 2014. "Impact of Earnings Smoothness on Stock Prices, Stock Returns and Future Earnings Changes - the Polish Experience," European Financial and Accounting Journal, Prague University of Economics and Business, vol. 2014(3), pages 67-94.
    2. Chen, Changling & Kim, Jeong-Bon & Yao, Li, 2017. "Earnings smoothing: Does it exacerbate or constrain stock price crash risk?," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 42(C), pages 36-54.
    3. Silhan, Peter A., 2014. "Income smoothing from a Census X-12 perspective," Advances in accounting, Elsevier, vol. 30(1), pages 106-115.
    4. Yu, Kun & Hagigi, Moshe & Stewart, Scott D., 2018. "Income smoothing may result in increased perceived riskiness: Evidence from bid-ask spreads around loss announcements," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 48(C), pages 442-459.
    5. Persakis, Anthony & Iatridis, George Emmanuel, 2015. "Earnings quality under financial crisis: A global empirical investigation," Journal of Multinational Financial Management, Elsevier, vol. 30(C), pages 1-35.
    6. Li, Leon, 2019. "Is there a trade-off between accrual-based and real earnings management? Evidence from equity compensation and market pricing," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 28(C), pages 191-197.
    7. Bouwman, Christa H.S., 2014. "Managerial optimism and earnings smoothing," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 41(C), pages 283-303.
    8. Chauhan, Yogesh & Jaiswall, Manju, 2023. "Economic policy uncertainty and incentive to smooth earnings," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 85(C), pages 93-106.
    9. Takuya Iwasaki & Norio Kitagawa & Akinobu Shuto, 2012. "Managerial discretion over initial earnings forecasts “Forthcoming in Pacific-Basin Finance Journalâ€," CARF F-Series CARF-F-369, Center for Advanced Research in Finance, Faculty of Economics, The University of Tokyo, revised Nov 2022.
    10. Dichev, Ilia D. & Graham, John R. & Harvey, Campbell R. & Rajgopal, Shiva, 2013. "Earnings quality: Evidence from the field," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 56(2), pages 1-33.
    11. Leon Li & Nen-Chen Richard Hwang, 2017. "Prospect Theory and Earnings Manipulation: Examination of the Non-Uniform Relationship between Earnings Manipulation and Stock Returns Using Quantile Regression," Working Papers in Economics 17/25, University of Waikato.
    12. Shengzhong Huang & Chan Lyu & Xiaojun Lin, 2018. "Is Labor Related to the Duality of Earnings Smoothing?," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(12), pages 1-20, November.
    13. Dechow, Patricia & Ge, Weili & Schrand, Catherine, 2010. "Understanding earnings quality: A review of the proxies, their determinants and their consequences," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 50(2-3), pages 344-401, December.
    14. Minhua Yang & Hui Zhu, 2014. "How does market value earnings smoothing under uncertainty?," Applied Financial Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 24(20), pages 1335-1345, October.
    15. Jeong‐Bon Kim & Jeff J. Wang & Eliza Xia Zhang, 2021. "Does real earnings smoothing reduce investors’ perceived risk?," Journal of Business Finance & Accounting, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 48(9-10), pages 1560-1595, October.
    16. Dirk E. Black & Spencer R. Pierce & Wayne B. Thomas, 2022. "A Test of Income Smoothing Using Pseudo Fiscal Years," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 68(7), pages 5533-5555, July.
    17. Chang, Hsihui & Ho, L.C. Jennifer & Liu, Zenghui & Ouyang, Bo, 2021. "Income smoothing and audit fees," Advances in accounting, Elsevier, vol. 54(C).
    18. DEGEORGE, François & DING, Yuan & JEANJEAN, Thomas & STOLOWY, Hervé, 2005. "Does Analyst Following Curb Earnings Management?," HEC Research Papers Series 810, HEC Paris.
    19. Sudip Datta & Mai Iskandar‐Datta & Vivek Singh, 2014. "Opaque financial reports and R2: Revisited," Review of Financial Economics, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 23(1), pages 10-17, January.
    20. Goldman, Eitan & Slezak, Steve L., 2006. "An equilibrium model of incentive contracts in the presence of information manipulation," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 80(3), pages 603-626, June.

    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:hur:ijaraf:v:7:y:2017:i:4:p:62-70. 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.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with 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: Hassan Danial Aslam (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://hrmars.com/index.php/pages/detail/Accounting-Finance-Journal .

    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.