IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/abacus/v44y2008i3p317-340.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Influence of Culture on Earnings Management: A Note

Author

Listed:
  • Timothy S. Doupnik

Abstract

This article examines the influence of national culture on earnings management across a broad cross‐section of countries. In addition to examining the relation between culture and earnings management in general, two different types of earnings management are examined, namely, earnings smoothing and earnings discretion. Regression results indicate that, as expected, the cultural dimensions of uncertainty avoidance and individualism are significantly related to earnings management, even after controlling for investor protection and other legal institutional factors. Culture has a stronger relation with earnings smoothing than with earnings discretion, and cultural dimensions explain a greater percentage of the variation in aggregate earnings management and earnings smoothing than do investor protection variables. These findings suggest that there is a significant link between culture and cross‐national differences in earnings management, especially in the form of earnings smoothing.

Suggested Citation

  • Timothy S. Doupnik, 2008. "Influence of Culture on Earnings Management: A Note," Abacus, Accounting Foundation, University of Sydney, vol. 44(3), pages 317-340, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:abacus:v:44:y:2008:i:3:p:317-340
    DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-6281.2008.00265.x
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-6281.2008.00265.x
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/j.1467-6281.2008.00265.x?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
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. George T. Tsakumis, 2007. "The influence of culture on accountants’ application of financial reporting rules," Abacus, Accounting Foundation, University of Sydney, vol. 43(1), pages 27-48, March.
    2. Fudenberg, Drew & Tirole, Jean, 1995. "A Theory of Income and Dividend Smoothing Based on Incumbency Rents," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 103(1), pages 75-93, February.
    3. Rafael La Porta & Florencio Lopez-de-Silanes & Andrei Shleifer & Robert W. Vishny, 1998. "Law and Finance," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 106(6), pages 1113-1155, December.
    4. 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.
    5. Peter B Smith, 2006. "When elephants fight, the grass gets trampled: the GLOBE and Hofstede projects," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 37(6), pages 915-921, November.
    6. Baskerville, Rachel F., 2003. "Hofstede never studied culture," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 28(1), pages 1-14, January.
    7. Chung, Richard & Firth, Michael & Kim, Jeong-Bon, 2002. "Institutional monitoring and opportunistic earnings management," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 8(1), pages 29-48, January.
    8. Ball, Ray & Kothari, S. P. & Robin, Ashok, 2000. "The effect of international institutional factors on properties of accounting earnings," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 29(1), pages 1-51, February.
    9. In‐Mu Haw & Bingbing Hu & Lee‐Seok Hwang & Woody Wu, 2004. "Ultimate Ownership, Income Management, and Legal and Extra‐Legal Institutions," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 42(2), pages 423-462, May.
    10. Ben-Hsien Bao & Da-Hsien Bao, 2004. "Income Smoothing, Earnings Quality and Firm Valuation," Journal of Business Finance & Accounting, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 31(9-10), pages 1525-1557.
    11. Peter D. Wysocki, 2004. "Discussion of Ultimate Ownership, Income Management, and Legal and Extra‐Legal Institutions," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 42(2), pages 463-474, May.
    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. Guermazi, Walid & Halioui, Khamoussi, 2020. "Do differences in national cultures affect cross-country conditional conservatism behavior under IFRS?," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 52(C).
    2. Boubaker, Sabri & Labégorre, Florence, 2008. "Ownership structure, corporate governance and analyst following: A study of French listed firms," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 32(6), pages 961-976, June.
    3. Fang, Yiwei & Fornaro, James & Li, Lingxiang & Zhu, Yun, 2018. "The impact of accounting laws and standards on bank risks: Evidence from transition countries," Journal of Economics and Business, Elsevier, vol. 95(C), pages 103-118.
    4. Christian Leuz, 2010. "Different approaches to corporate reporting regulation: How jurisdictions differ and why," Accounting and Business Research, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 40(3), pages 229-256.
    5. Omrane Guedhami & Jeffrey A. Pittman, 2006. "Ownership Concentration in Privatized Firms: The Role of Disclosure Standards, Auditor Choice, and Auditing Infrastructure," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 44(5), pages 889-929, December.
    6. Houqe, Muhammad Nurul & van Zijl, Tony & Dunstan, Keitha & Karim, A.K.M. Waresul, 2012. "The Effect of IFRS Adoption and Investor Protection on Earnings Quality Around the World," The International Journal of Accounting, Elsevier, vol. 47(3), pages 333-355.
    7. Tinaikar, Surjit, 2017. "Executive compensation disclosure and private control benefits: A comparison of U.S. and Canadian dual class firms," Journal of International Accounting, Auditing and Taxation, Elsevier, vol. 29(C), pages 32-51.
    8. Srinidhi, Bin & Lim, Chee Yeow & Hossain, Mahmud, 2009. "Effects of country-level legal, extra-legal and political institutions on auditing: A cross-country analysis of the auditor specialization premium," Journal of Contemporary Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 5(1), pages 34-46.
    9. Arnedo, Laura & Lizarraga, Fermin & Sanchez, Santiago, 2007. "Does public/private status affect the level of earnings management in code-law contexts outside the United States? A study based on the Spanish case," The International Journal of Accounting, Elsevier, vol. 42(3), pages 305-328.
    10. Kusnadi, Yuanto & Srinidhi, Bin, 2020. "Cross-country differences in the effect of political connections on stock price informativeness," Journal of Contemporary Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 16(2).
    11. Chung, Chune Young & Kim, Hye Seok & Liu, Chang, 2024. "Institutional monitoring on corporate earnings: Evidence from U.S. Cross-listed Firms," The North American Journal of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 70(C).
    12. Singgih Wijayana & Sidney J. Gray, 2019. "Institutional Factors and Earnings Management in the Asia-Pacific: Is IFRS Adoption Making a Difference?," Management International Review, Springer, vol. 59(2), pages 307-334, April.
    13. Gerakos, Joseph & Kovrijnykh, Andrei, 2013. "Performance shocks and misreporting," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 56(1), pages 57-72.
    14. Erik Peek & Roger Meuwissen & Frank Moers & Ann Vanstraelen, 2012. "Comparing Abnormal Accruals Estimates across Samples: An International Test," European Accounting Review, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 22(3), pages 533-572, September.
    15. Cristina Gaio, 2010. "The Relative Importance of Firm and Country Characteristics for Earnings Quality around the World," European Accounting Review, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 19(4), pages 693-738.
    16. Massimiliano Bonacchi & Antonio Marra & Paul Zarowin, 2019. "Organizational structure and earnings quality of private and public firms," Review of Accounting Studies, Springer, vol. 24(3), pages 1066-1113, September.
    17. Filip, Andrei & Raffournier, Bernard, 2014. "Financial Crisis And Earnings Management: The European Evidence," The International Journal of Accounting, Elsevier, vol. 49(4), pages 455-478.
    18. Anagnostopoulou, Seraina C., 2017. "Accounting Quality and Loan Pricing: The Effect of Cross-country Differences in Legal Enforcement," The International Journal of Accounting, Elsevier, vol. 52(2), pages 178-200.
    19. Radhakrishnan Gopalan & Sudarshan Jayaraman, 2012. "Private Control Benefits and Earnings Management: Evidence from Insider Controlled Firms," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 50(1), pages 117-157, March.
    20. Masahiro Enomoto, 2018. "Cross-Country Research on Earnings Quality: A Literature Review and Future Opportunities," Discussion Paper Series DP2018-06, Research Institute for Economics & Business Administration, Kobe University, revised Oct 2020.

    More about this item

    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:bla:abacus:v:44:y:2008:i:3:p:317-340. 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: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/journal.asp?ref=0001-3072 .

    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.