Corporate Life-Cycle Stages, Leverage, and Earnings Management: Empirical Evidence from Listed Firms in Vietnam

The paper investigates the evolution of earnings management across corporate life-cycle stages and evaluates the moderating role of leverage within an emerging market context. Utilising a dataset of 273 non-financial firms listed on Vietnamese stock exchanges over the 2012–2022 period (3003 firm-year observations), we delineate life-cycle phases—introduction, growth, maturity, and decline—using net cash flow patterns. Earnings quality is proxied via diverse discretionary accrual models. Methodologically, the study employs fixed-effects regressions with firm-clustered standard errors, incorporating interaction terms to capture stage-specific leverage dynamics. The empirical evidence reveals a non-linear and stage-dependent trajectory of earnings management, with introduction- and decline-stage firms exhibiting higher discretionary accruals compared to benchmarks. Crucially, the institutional impact of debt financing is contingent upon corporate maturity; while leverage exhibits a baseline positive association with earnings management, this relationship diminishes or reverses during the introduction and decline phases. These insights withstand rigorous robustness checks, including different discretionary accrual models and alternative life-cycle classifications. This study advances current literature by integrating capital structure into the corporate life-cycle framework, demonstrating that leverage effects are dynamic and shaped by shifting financial constraints and monitoring environments. Ultimately, the findings offer valuable insights into financial reporting incentives in emerging markets characterised by concentrated ownership and transitional corporate governance, yielding critical implications for regulators, investors, and auditors.