IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/wly/mgtdec/v43y2022i8p3301-3315.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Benford's law, small business financial reporting, and survival

Author

Listed:
  • Pankaj C. Patel
  • Mike G. Tsionas
  • Maria João Guedes

Abstract

Benford's law states that in collections of numbers, the leading digit is likely to be small. Drawing on this law, which is a widely used tool in forensic accounting, we ask whether small and medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs) that violate Benford's law on the reporting of key accounting items are more likely to fail. Using a sample of 220,583 Portuguese SMEs (2010–2018), those companies violating Benford's law in reporting cash had the highest odds of failure, followed by net income, current liabilities, assets, and sales. The findings indicate that myopic strategic manipulation in financial reporting may lead to SME failure.

Suggested Citation

  • Pankaj C. Patel & Mike G. Tsionas & Maria João Guedes, 2022. "Benford's law, small business financial reporting, and survival," Managerial and Decision Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 43(8), pages 3301-3315, December.
  • Handle: RePEc:wly:mgtdec:v:43:y:2022:i:8:p:3301-3315
    DOI: 10.1002/mde.3595
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1002/mde.3595
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1002/mde.3595?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. Sandberg, William R. & Hofer, Charles W., 1987. "Improving new venture performance: The role of strategy, industry structure, and the entrepreneur," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 2(1), pages 5-28.
    2. Jean-Noël Chauvey & Sophie Giordano-Spring & Charles H. Cho & Dennis M. Patten, 2015. "The Normativity and Legitimacy of CSR Disclosure: Evidence from France," Post-Print hal-02009500, HAL.
    3. Tae Choi & Jinhan Pae, 2011. "Business Ethics and Financial Reporting Quality: Evidence from Korea," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 103(3), pages 403-427, October.
    4. Demsetz, Harold & Lehn, Kenneth, 1985. "The Structure of Corporate Ownership: Causes and Consequences," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 93(6), pages 1155-1177, December.
    5. repec:kap:iaecre:v:17:y:2011:i:4:p:476-483 is not listed on IDEAS
    6. Antonio Davila & Daniel Oyon, 2009. "Introduction to the Special Section on Accounting, Innovation and Entrepreneurship," European Accounting Review, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 18(2), pages 277-280.
    7. Beatriz Casais & Marisa R. Ferreira & João F. Proença, 2019. "Social Marketing for the Reduction of Tax Evasion: The Case of Electronic Invoicing in Portugal," Springer Texts in Business and Economics, in: Debra Z. Basil & Gonzalo Diaz-Meneses & Michael D. Basil (ed.), Social Marketing in Action, chapter 0, pages 175-186, Springer.
    8. Druică, Elena & Oancea, Bogdan & Vâlsan, Călin, 2018. "Benford's law and the limits of digit analysis," International Journal of Accounting Information Systems, Elsevier, vol. 31(C), pages 75-82.
    9. Ioana Sorina Deleanu, 2017. "Do Countries Consistently Engage in Misinforming the International Community about Their Efforts to Combat Money Laundering? Evidence Using Benford’s Law," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 12(1), pages 1-19, January.
    10. Diekmann Andreas & Jann Ben, 2010. "Benford’s Law and Fraud Detection: Facts and Legends," German Economic Review, De Gruyter, vol. 11(3), pages 397-401, August.
    11. Pappa, Evi & Sajedi, Rana & Vella, Eugenia, 2015. "Fiscal consolidation with tax evasion and corruption," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 96(S1), pages 56-75.
    12. Lorenzo Patelli & Matteo Pedrini, 2015. "Is Tone at the Top Associated with Financial Reporting Aggressiveness?," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 126(1), pages 3-19, January.
    13. Michael Carney, 2005. "Corporate Governance and Competitive Advantage in Family–Controlled Firms," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 29(3), pages 249-265, May.
    14. Jean-Noël Chauvey & Sophie Giordano-Spring & Charles Cho & Dennis Patten, 2015. "The Normativity and Legitimacy of CSR Disclosure: Evidence from France," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 130(4), pages 789-803, September.
    15. Réal Labelle & Rim Gargouri & Claude Francoeur, 2010. "Erratum to: Ethics, Diversity Management, and Financial Reporting Quality," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 93(2), pages 355-355, May.
    16. Jaroslaw Ropega, 2011. "The Reasons and Symptoms of Failure in SME," International Advances in Economic Research, Springer;International Atlantic Economic Society, vol. 17(4), pages 476-483, November.
    17. Daniel Tschopp & Ronald Huefner, 2015. "Comparing the Evolution of CSR Reporting to that of Financial Reporting," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 127(3), pages 565-577, March.
    18. Morrow, John, 2014. "Benford's Law, families of distributions and a test basis," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 60364, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    19. Andreas Diekmann & Ben Jann, 2010. "Benford's Law and Fraud Detection: Facts and Legends," German Economic Review, Verein für Socialpolitik, vol. 11(3), pages 397-401, August.
    20. Xue Wang & Feng Cao & Kangtao Ye, 2018. "Mandatory Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Reporting and Financial Reporting Quality: Evidence from a Quasi-Natural Experiment," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 152(1), pages 253-274, September.
    21. Kibler, Ewald & Mandl, Christoph & Kautonen, Teemu & Berger, Elisabeth S.C., 2017. "Attributes of legitimate venture failure impressions," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 32(2), pages 145-161.
    22. Maria Poço & Cidália Lopes & Alexandre Silva, 2015. "Perception of tax evasion and tax fraud in Portugal: a sociological study," OBEGEF Working Papers 039, OBEGEF - Observatório de Economia e Gestão de Fraude;OBEGEF Working Papers on Fraud and Corruption.
    23. Shafu Zhang & Like Jiang & Michel Magnan & Lixin Nancy Su, 2021. "Dealing with Ethical Dilemmas: A Look at Financial Reporting by Firms Facing Product Harm Crises," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 170(3), pages 497-518, May.
    24. Venkataraman, S. & Van De Ven, Andrew H. & Buckeye, Jeanne & Hudson, Roger, 1990. "Starting up in a turbulent environment: A process model of failure among firms with high customer dependence," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 5(5), pages 277-295, September.
    25. Réal Labelle & Rim Makni Gargouri & Claude Francoeur, 2010. "Ethics, Diversity Management, and Financial Reporting Quality," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 93(2), pages 335-353, May.
    26. Aldrich Howard E. & Yang Tiantian, 2012. "What Did Stinchcombe Really Mean? Designing Research to Test the Liability of Newness among New Ventures," Entrepreneurship Research Journal, De Gruyter, vol. 2(3), pages 1-14, July.
    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. Roman Blazek & Pavol Durana & Jakub Michulek, 2023. "Renaissance of Creative Accounting Due to the Pandemic: New Patterns Explored by Correspondence Analysis," Stats, MDPI, vol. 6(1), pages 1-20, March.

    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. Nicolas Garcia‐Torea & Belen Fernandez‐Feijoo & Marta De La Cuesta, 2020. "CSR reporting communication: Defective reporting models or misapplication?," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 27(2), pages 952-968, March.
    2. Druică, Elena & Oancea, Bogdan & Vâlsan, Călin, 2018. "Benford's law and the limits of digit analysis," International Journal of Accounting Information Systems, Elsevier, vol. 31(C), pages 75-82.
    3. Majid Khan & James C. Lockhart & Ralph J. Bathurst, 2018. "Institutional impacts on corporate social responsibility: a comparative analysis of New Zealand and Pakistan," International Journal of Corporate Social Responsibility, Springer, vol. 3(1), pages 1-13, December.
    4. Jian Liang & Ameeta Jain & Hao Wu, 2021. "Does Corporate Social Responsibility Vary by Real Estate Asset Types? Evidence from Real Estate Investment Trusts," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(22), pages 1-18, November.
    5. Asif Saeed & Ammar Ali Gull & Asad Ali Rind & Muhammad Shujaat Mubarik & Muhammad Shahbaz, 2022. "Do socially responsible firms demand high‐quality audits? An international evidence," International Journal of Finance & Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 27(2), pages 2235-2255, April.
    6. Marta Cristina Pelucio Grecco, 2013. "The Effect of Brazilian convergence to IFRS on earnings managment by listed Brazilian nonfinancial companies," Brazilian Business Review, Fucape Business School, vol. 10(4), pages 110-132, October.
    7. Hamed, Ruba Subhi & Al-Shattarat, Basiem Khalil & Al-Shattarat, Wasim Khalil & Hussainey, Khaled, 2022. "The impact of introducing new regulations on the quality of CSR reporting: Evidence from the UK," Journal of International Accounting, Auditing and Taxation, Elsevier, vol. 46(C).
    8. Rind, Asad Ali & Abbassi, Wajih & Allaya, Manel & Hammouda, Amira, 2022. "Local peers and firm misconduct: The role of sustainability and competition," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 116(C).
    9. Mazzi, Francesco & Slack, Richard & Tsalavoutas, Ioannis, 2018. "The effect of corruption and culture on mandatory disclosure compliance levels: Goodwill reporting in Europe," Journal of International Accounting, Auditing and Taxation, Elsevier, vol. 31(C), pages 52-73.
    10. Begoña Giner & Francisca Pardo, 2015. "How Ethical are Managers’ Goodwill Impairment Decisions in Spanish-Listed Firms?," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 132(1), pages 21-40, November.
    11. Andrea Venturelli & Fabio Caputo & Simona Cosma & Rossella Leopizzi & Simone Pizzi, 2017. "Directive 2014/95/EU: Are Italian Companies Already Compliant?," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(8), pages 1-19, August.
    12. Pelucio-Grecco, Marta Cristina & Geron, Cecília Moraes Santostaso & Grecco, Gerson Begas & Lima, João Paulo Cavalcante, 2014. "The effect of IFRS on earnings management in Brazilian non-financial public companies," Emerging Markets Review, Elsevier, vol. 21(C), pages 42-66.
    13. Charles H. Cho & Jonathan Maurice & Emmanuelle Nègre & Marie-Anne Verdier, 2016. "Is environmental disclosure good for the environment? A meta-analysis and research agenda," Post-Print halshs-01369422, HAL.
    14. Angus W. H. Yip & William Y. P. Yu, 2023. "The Quality of Environmental KPI Disclosure in ESG Reporting for SMEs in Hong Kong," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(4), pages 1-26, February.
    15. Liu, Chengyun & Su, Kun & Zhang, Miaomiao, 2021. "Water disclosure and financial reporting quality for social changes: Empirical evidence from China," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 166(C).
    16. Andrea Vacca & Antonio Iazzi & Demetris Vrontis & Monica Fait, 2020. "The Role of Gender Diversity on Tax Aggressiveness and Corporate Social Responsibility: Evidence from Italian Listed Companies," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(5), pages 1-14, March.
    17. Garanina, Tatiana & Kim, Oksana, 2023. "The relationship between CSR disclosure and accounting conservatism: The role of state ownership," Journal of International Accounting, Auditing and Taxation, Elsevier, vol. 50(C).
    18. Lee Roberts & Monomita Nandy & Abeer Hassan & Suman Lodh & Ahmed A. Elamer, 2022. "Corporate Accountability Towards Species Extinction Protection: Insights from Ecologically Forward-Thinking Companies," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 178(3), pages 571-595, July.
    19. Michael Breen & Robert Gillanders & Gemma Mcnulty & Akisato Suzuki, 2017. "Gender and Corruption in Business," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 53(9), pages 1486-1501, September.
    20. Michel Coulmont & Sylvie Berthelot & Vincent Gagné, 2022. "Sustainability performance indicator trends: a Canadian industry-based analysis," International Journal of Corporate Social Responsibility, Springer, vol. 7(1), pages 1-17, December.

    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:wly:mgtdec:v:43:y:2022:i:8:p:3301-3315. 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://www3.interscience.wiley.com/cgi-bin/jhome/7976 .

    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.