IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/aud/audfin/v17y2019i156p666.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Influence of Audit Opinion on the Degree of Real Earnings Management. The Case of Romanian Listed Companies

Author

Listed:
  • Mihai CARP

    (“Alexandru Ioan Cuza” University of Ia?i, Romania)

  • Iuliana Eugenia GEORGESCU

    (“Alexandru Ioan Cuza” University of Ia?i, Romania)

Abstract

The quality of financial information is a decisive landmark in the decision-making process of all users. This is why meeting the quality criteria should be a desideratum for all the stakeholders involved in the development and verifying of financial reports. In this context, this paper aims to analyze the influence exercised by the audit opinion on the quality of the financial information reported by Romanian companies listed on the regulated market of the Bucharest Stock Exchange. Quality is assessed in terms of the degree of manipulation of operational activities (intervention in the conduct of commercial transactions and controlling the cost of the goods sold via overproduction, respectively). The analyzed data cover a time frame of 6 financial years (2012-2017), and the dependency relations are also tested by introducing control variables such as: company size, indebtedness, profitability and reputation of the auditor. The results obtained highlight the contribution of the audit opinion to boosting the quality of financial information, measured based on the degree of manipulation of sales (under the aspect of value and the time when the transactions were made). In case of manipulation via overproduction, the audit opinion does not exercise significant influences, reflecting possible limitations of the audit endeavor in terms of its capacity to identify corrupt activities associated with production. The auditor’s reputation does not have a significant impact on the manipulation of sales, only in overproduction case this characteristic having a positive role.

Suggested Citation

  • Mihai CARP & Iuliana Eugenia GEORGESCU, 2019. "The Influence of Audit Opinion on the Degree of Real Earnings Management. The Case of Romanian Listed Companies," The Audit Financiar journal, Chamber of Financial Auditors of Romania, vol. 17(156), pages 666-666.
    • Handle: RePEc:aud:audfin:v:17:y:2019:i:156:p:666
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://revista.cafr.ro/temp/Article_9626.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Li‐Chin Jennifer Ho & Chao‐Shin Liu & Thomas Schaefer, 2010. "Audit tenure and earnings surprise management," Review of Accounting and Finance, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 9(2), pages 116-138, May.
    2. Kuo, Jing-Ming & Ning, Lutao & Song, Xiaoqi, 2014. "The Real and Accrual-based Earnings Management Behaviors: Evidence from the Split Share Structure Reform in China," The International Journal of Accounting, Elsevier, vol. 49(1), pages 101-136.
    3. In†Mu Haw & Simon S.M. Ho & Annie Yuansha Li, 2011. "Corporate Governance and Earnings Management by Classification Shifting," Contemporary Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 28(2), pages 517-553, June.
    4. Dechow, Patricia M. & Kothari, S. P. & L. Watts, Ross, 1998. "The relation between earnings and cash flows," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 25(2), pages 133-168, May.
    5. Pappas, Kostas & Walsh, Eamonn & Xu, Alice Liang, 2019. "Real earnings management and loan contract terms," The British Accounting Review, Elsevier, vol. 51(4), pages 373-401.
    6. Maria Tsipouridou & Charalambos Spathis, 2014. "Audit opinion and earnings management: Evidence from Greece," Accounting Forum, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 38(1), pages 38-54, March.
    7. Khaled Hussainey, 2009. "The impact of audit quality on earnings predictability," Managerial Auditing Journal, Emerald Group Publishing, vol. 24(4), pages 340-351, April.
    8. Sandra Alves, 2013. "The impact of audit committee existence and external audit on earnings management," Journal of Financial Reporting and Accounting, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 11(2), pages 143-165, October.
    9. Kais Baatour & Hakim Ben Othman & Khaled Hussainey, 2017. "The effect of multiple directorships on real and accrual-based earnings management," Accounting Research Journal, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 30(4), pages 395-412, November.
    10. Prapaporn Kiattikulwattana, 2014. "Earnings management and voluntary disclosure of management's responsibility for the financial reports," Asian Review of Accounting, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 22(3), pages 233-256, August.
    11. Salma Ibrahim & Li Xu & Genese Rogers, 2011. "Real and accrual‐based earnings management and its legal consequences," Accounting Research Journal, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 24(1), pages 50-78, July.
    12. El-Helaly, Moataz & Georgiou, Ifigenia & Lowe, Alan D., 2018. "The interplay between related party transactions and earnings management: The role of audit quality," Journal of International Accounting, Auditing and Taxation, Elsevier, vol. 32(C), pages 47-60.
    13. Angel Arturo Pacheco Paredes & Clark Wheatley, 2017. "Real earnings management or “just business”," Journal of Financial Economic Policy, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 9(3), pages 268-283, August.
    14. Sun, Jerry & Liu, Guoping, 2016. "Does analyst coverage constrain real earnings management?," The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 59(C), pages 131-140.
    15. Ge, Wenxia & Kim, Jeong-Bon, 2014. "Real earnings management and the cost of new corporate bonds," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 67(4), pages 641-647.
    16. Hongkang Xu & Mai Dao & Jia Wu, 2018. "The effect of real activities manipulation on going concern audit opinions for financially distressed companies," Review of Accounting and Finance, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 17(4), pages 514-539, October.
    17. John L. Abernathy & Brooke Beyer & Eric T. Rapley, 2014. "Earnings Management Constraints and Classification Shifting," Journal of Business Finance & Accounting, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 41(5-6), pages 600-626, June.
    18. Jerry Sun & George Lan & Guoping Liu, 2014. "Independent audit committee characteristics and real earnings management," Managerial Auditing Journal, Emerald Group Publishing, vol. 29(2), pages 153-172, February.
    19. Roychowdhury, Sugata, 2006. "Earnings management through real activities manipulation," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 42(3), pages 335-370, December.
    20. Khalid Al-Amri & Saif Al Shidi & Munther Al Busaidi & Serkan Akguc, 2017. "Real earnings management in public vs private firms in the GCC countries: a risk perspective," Journal of Applied Accounting Research, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 18(2), pages 242-260, May.
    21. Huang, Xuerong (Sharon) & Sun, Li, 2017. "Managerial ability and real earnings management," Advances in accounting, Elsevier, vol. 39(C), pages 91-104.
    22. DeAngelo, Linda Elizabeth, 1981. "Auditor size and audit quality," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 3(3), pages 183-199, December.
    23. Andra GAJEVSZKY, 2014. "The Impact Of Auditor`S Opinion On Earnings Management: Evidence From Romania," Network Intelligence Studies, Romanian Foundation for Business Intelligence, Editorial Department, issue 3, pages 61-73, April.
    24. Li, Valerie, 2019. "The effect of real earnings management on the persistence and informativeness of earnings," The British Accounting Review, Elsevier, vol. 51(4), pages 402-423.
    25. Mohammad Alhadab, 2018. "Abnormal audit fees and accrual and real earnings management: evidence from UK," Journal of Financial Reporting and Accounting, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 16(3), pages 395-416, September.
    26. Zeljana Aljinovic Barac & Tina Vuko & Slavko Šodan, 2017. "What can auditors tell us about accounting manipulations?," Managerial Auditing Journal, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 32(8), pages 788-809, September.
    27. Alhadab, Mohammad & Clacher, Iain, 2018. "The impact of audit quality on real and accrual earnings management around IPOs," The British Accounting Review, Elsevier, vol. 50(4), pages 442-461.
    28. Pavinee Manowan & Ling Lin, 2013. "Dual class ownership structure and real earnings management," International Journal of Accounting and Finance, Inderscience Enterprises Ltd, vol. 4(1), pages 86-97.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Sayaf Algrady & Xie Xiaojun, 2022. "Influential Factors Affecting Earnings Management in Public Listed Companies: A Conceptual Model," International Review of Management and Marketing, Econjournals, vol. 12(2), pages 1-10, March.
    2. Veronica Grosu & Dorel Mateș & Monica-Laura Zlati & Svetlana Mihaila & Marian Socoliuc & Marius-Sorin Ciubotariu & Simona-Maria Tanasă, 2020. "Econometric Model for Readjusting Significance Threshold Levels through Quick Audit Tests Used on Sustainable Companies," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(19), pages 1-32, October.

    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. Ahsan Habib & Dinithi Ranasinghe & Julia Yonghua Wu & Pallab Kumar Biswas & Fawad Ahmad, 2022. "Real earnings management: A review of the international literature," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 62(4), pages 4279-4344, December.
    2. Eiler, Lisa A. & Filzen, Joshua J. & Jackson, Mark & Tama-Sweet, Isho, 2021. "Real earnings management and the properties of analysts' forecasts," Advances in accounting, Elsevier, vol. 55(C).
    3. Sayaf Algrady & Xie Xiaojun, 2022. "Influential Factors Affecting Earnings Management in Public Listed Companies: A Conceptual Model," International Review of Management and Marketing, Econjournals, vol. 12(2), pages 1-10, March.
    4. Amin, Qazi Awais & Cumming, Douglas, 2021. "Blockholders and real earnings management-the emerging markets context," Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money, Elsevier, vol. 75(C).
    5. Pappas, Kostas & Walsh, Eamonn & Xu, Alice Liang, 2019. "Real earnings management and loan contract terms," The British Accounting Review, Elsevier, vol. 51(4), pages 373-401.
    6. Hung Chi Chen & Hsiang-Tsai Chiang & Dessy Voren, 2023. "The Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Quality of Financial Reports," Journal of Applied Finance & Banking, SCIENPRESS Ltd, vol. 13(4), pages 1-1.
    7. Naser Makarem & Harjinder Singh & Nigar Sultana & Darren Henderson, 2023. "Policy uncertainty and real activities manipulation: evidence from Brexit," Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting, Springer, vol. 61(4), pages 1415-1440, November.
    8. Po‐Chang Chen & William J. Moser & Gans Narayanamoorthy, 2023. "Are all types of real transaction management equal in the eyes of bank lenders?," Journal of Business Finance & Accounting, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 50(3-4), pages 680-715, March.
    9. Nagar, Neerav & Raithatha, Mehul, 2016. "Does good corporate governance constrain cash flow manipulation? Evidence from India," IIMA Working Papers WP2016-03-23, Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad, Research and Publication Department.
    10. XiaoJiao Li & Ei Thuzar Than & Rizwan Ahmed & Maria Ishaque & Toan Luu Duc Huynh, 2023. "Gender diversity of boards and executives on real earnings management in the bull or bear period: Empirical evidence from China," International Journal of Finance & Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 28(3), pages 2753-2771, July.
    11. Nagar, Neerav & Sen, Kaustav, 2016. "Earnings management in India: Managers’ fixation on operating profits," Journal of International Accounting, Auditing and Taxation, Elsevier, vol. 26(C), pages 1-12.
    12. Alaa Mansour Zalata & Collins Ntim & Ahmed Aboud & Ernest Gyapong, 2019. "Female CEOs and Core Earnings Quality: New Evidence on the Ethics Versus Risk-Aversion Puzzle," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 160(2), pages 515-534, December.
    13. Ahmad Almashaqbeh & Hasnah Shaari & Hijattulah Abdul-Jabbar, 2019. "The Effect of Board Diversity on Real Earnings Management: Empirical Evidence From Jordan," International Journal of Financial Research, International Journal of Financial Research, Sciedu Press, vol. 11(5), pages 495-508, August.
    14. Rezaee, Zabihollah & Dou, Huan & Zhang, Huili, 2020. "Corporate social responsibility and earnings quality: Evidence from China," Global Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 45(C).
    15. Xiangyu Chen & Muhammad Safdar Sial & Dang Khoa Tran & Waseem Alhaddad & Jinsoo Hwang & Phung Anh Thu, 2020. "Are Socially Responsible Companies Really Ethical? The Moderating Role of State-Owned Enterprises: Evidence from China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(7), pages 1-19, April.
    16. Giuseppe Iuliano & Gaetano Matonti, 2015. "Do big 4 audit companies detect earnings management and report it in the audit opinion? Empirical evidence from italian non-listed firms," ESPERIENZE D'IMPRESA, FrancoAngeli Editore, vol. 2015(2), pages 5-43.
    17. Giovanna Gavana & Pietro Gottardo & Anna Maria Moisello, 2022. "Related Party Transactions and Earnings Management: The Moderating Effect of ESG Performance," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(10), pages 1-21, May.
    18. Poonawala, Sakina H. & Nagar, Neerav, 2019. "Gross profit manipulation through classification shifting," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 94(C), pages 81-88.
    19. Salem, Rami & Usman, Muhammad & Ezeani, Ernest, 2021. "Loan loss provisions and audit quality: Evidence from MENA Islamic and conventional banks," The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 79(C), pages 345-359.
    20. Nitai Chandra Debnath & Suman Paul Chowdhury & Safaeduzzaman Khan, 2022. "The impact of audit quality on real earnings management: evidence from Bangladesh," International Journal of Disclosure and Governance, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 19(2), pages 218-231, June.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    quality of financial information; real earnings management; the audit opinion;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • M41 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting; Personnel Economics - - Accounting - - - Accounting
    • M42 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting; Personnel Economics - - Accounting - - - Auditing

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    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:aud:audfin:v:17:y:2019:i:156:p:666. 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: Dumitru Valentin Florentin (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://revista.cafr.ro/ .

    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.