Earnings Management

However, the free cash flows scale is important for the financial health of the company, but it has also its own limitations. Moreover, it’s not immune from accounting tricks. Free cash flows can be considered as a measure of value for shareholders of listed companies on Tehran Stock Exchange. The managers of these companies have tended to use the earnings management for managing the free cash flow and ultimately shareholder value and wealth. The main objective of this study is to investigate the interactive effect of institutional ownership and board independence on the relationship between excess free cash flow and earnings management in the Tehran Stock Exchange. The study is applied and correlation research by its objective and nature. The variables used in this study have been extracted from the financial reports of listed companies in Tehran Stock Exchange and the web page of Tehran Stock Exchange in the period of 2009 to 2015. The results suggest that, "institutional ownership" and "board independence" on the relationship between "surplus free cash flow and earnings management" had no significant effect.

This paper investigates the variability of real business activities in the form of discretionary expenditures (accounts receivable, selling, general and administrative expenses, and net change in accruals), and the firm’s stock price performance concerning the frequency of meeting or beating analysts’ earnings forecast. Also, the study investigated the relationship between the firm’s stock price performance and the variability of these financial statement accounts. The objective was to examine if these selected financial statements of accounts could be used by management to manipulate earnings in order to meet and/or beat analysts’ earnings forecasts so as to enhance the firm’s stock performance. The study found that there is a significant difference between the variance of SG&A, NCA and stock returns of the firms that meet and/or beat the analysts’ forecast and those that do not. It was also found that there is a significant difference in stock returns based on meeting and/ or beating the analysts’ estimate.

This Study seeks to scrutinize whether surplus free cash flow is correlated with earnings management, if auditor size moderates this relationship. To do so, modified Jones discretionary accrual model (1995) and audit firm size are used as audit quality indicator to measure earnings management. The research hypotheses are built upon a sample of 103 companies listed on the Tehran Stock Exchange during the years 2013 to 2017 and then tested using multiple regression model based on panel data techniques. The results reveal that earnings management is significantly associated with surplus free cash flow. Furthermore, the findings confirm that auditor size exerts no significant impact on the relationship between surplus free cash flow and corporate earnings management.

Earnings management has a negative effect on earnings quality and it may weaken validity of financial reports. The main focus of researches about earnings management is why companies manipulate earnings. Pricing power of companies can potentially affect earnings management. Since the relation between product pricing power and earnings management has not been studied in Tehran Stock Exchange, this research tries to find a relation between product pricing power and earnings management and a relation between existing competition in industries and earnings management in Tehran Stock Exchange. The results show that there is not a significant relation between pricing power and earnings management. This is due to the mandatory nature of rules and regulations of product pricing in many internal industries. Also, those companies in more competitive industries may manage earnings in order to limit their competitors in obtaining precise information. The results of the present research show that there is a significant relation between existing competition of industries and earnings management in industries such as vehicle & parts, cement, gypsum & lime, chemicals, main metals, tile & ceramic, machinery & equipment, and pharmaceuticals. On the other hand, the results from the research model indicate no direct relation between the competitive pressure and earnings management.

Governments always affect the economic environment as legislators in the field of business. The economic conditions governing the market and business require different conditions and contexts for decision making and corporate execution practices. Companies and managers administering them under environmental conditions, achieve their goals by employing various earnings management methods. Hence, the present study examines the effect of governments’ economic performance on the earnings management methods used in listed companies of Tehran Stock Exchange (2004-2016) for a sample of 16 industries and 271 companies. To test the hypotheses, multivariate regression model was used. The results showed that during the research period, companies managed earnings, and while more than 70% of companies used the accrual earnings management method, there was a relationship between annual economic indicators and real earnings management, and the change in general level of prices and the political connections of states have affected the relationship. Also, the accruals-based earnings management method occurred independent of annual economic indicators and there is a significant relationship between governments changes and earnings management methods.

This study aimed to investigate the relationship between voluntary disclosure and earnings management and financial performance during the life cycle of the listed companies in Tehran Stock Exchange. The statistical population of the study included all listed companies in Tehran Stock Exchange since 2013-2018. In this study, earnings management, the financial performance of the companies (including return on equity, returns on assets, Tobin Q ratio, economic value-added, and refined economic value added) were the dependent variables, and the level of voluntary disclosure was the independent variable and the life cycle of the company was considered as the moderating variable. Also, in order to test the research hypotheses, a linear multivariate regression model using combined data was used. The results showed that earnings management and financial performance indicators have a significant relationship with voluntary disclosure over the life cycle. Accordingly, an increase in the level of voluntary disclosure increased the company's performance. Also, the results of the study indicated that the company's life cycle mediates the relationship between the level of voluntary disclosure and the company's performance.

Background: Since preparation of financial statements is responsibility of the management of the Company, so the type of management personality is one of the critical factors influencing their behavior in performing earnings management. As a result, the dark (negative) personality dimensions can play an effective role in earnings management. On the other hand, ethical leadership can act as a moderating factor; this research measures the effect of ethical leadership style on reducing dark personality dimensions (Machiavellianism, psychopathy, narcissism) of effective person in earnings management. Methods: The data of 77 companies listed in the Tehran Stock Exchange (TSE) and Iran Fara Bourse (IFB) from 2011 to 2018 used in this research for testing the hypotheses. Also, the linear regression test and structural equations model used. Results: The results show that most of the effective persons in earnings management are the CEOs of companies. The results also indicate a positive relationship between ethical leadership and dark personality dimensions (Machiavellianism, psychopathy, narcissism). Conclusion: The results indicate a positive relationship between ethical leadership and the dimensions of the dark personality; This is due to the closeness of dimension of "Narcissism" to the issues of intrinsic leadership, and on the other hand, this issue could be considered close to the perspective of the person involved in earnings management and supervisors and lack of belief in ethical supervision and leadership.

The most comprehensive criteria for evaluating management performance is economic value added, accounting added value, and over-valuation, which can best reflect how managers operate because of the information content that they provide. Therefore, considering the importance of earnings, this study investigates The Role of Earnings Management in Economic Growth and the Corporate’s Growth Illusion in Tehran Stock Exchange during the period 2012-2018 using systematic elimination method of information of 150 selected companies. The study data and theoretical foundations were collected through library studies. Hypotheses were tested using correlation method and multivariate regression. The results showed that with increasing in real earnings management, economic value added and accounting added value also increased. Also, with the increase in revenue earnings management, economic value added and accounting added value also increase. But there was no significant relationship between accrual earnings management and income with accounting added value. There is a positive significant relationship between actual earnings management resulting from abnormal and overvaluation operating cash flows and, there is a positive and significant relationship between accrual earnings management and overvaluation.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the role of political instability in the context of the association between board of directors (BOD) and audit committee (AC) quality as indicators of corporate governance effectiveness and earnings management (EM). The non-financial listed companies on the Palestine Exchange (PEX) between the period from 2011 to 2018 were the samples of the study. Based on the OLS regression results by using a panel data of 232 observations, the findings show that the BOD quality is positively related to EM, while AC quality is negatively associated with EM. The results also reveal that political instability plays a moderating role by weakening the relationship between the AC quality and EM during the severe unstable political situation, while the BOD quality is negatively associated with EM under the same situation. This finding implies that the BODs might substitute ACs under severe political instabilities to protect the stockholders and stakeholders’ interests. Unlike most previous studies, this article addresses political instability as a moderating variable for the relationship between the BOD and AC quality as a composite measure of EM in the most emerging and smallest stock market in the region. The results of this work may assist the regulatory bodies, policymakers, and practitioners in revising the corporate governance code to promote the efficiency of the BOD and AC monitoring functions for the purpose to improve the faithfulness and reliability of financial reports and also to deter the management from engaging in critical levels of EM.

Earnings management has inverted the main objective of financial reporting through the distortion of the actual economic performance of companies and prevented the complete transfer of information to market. Given the importance of subject of research, incentives that cause earnings management have been reviewed from various aspects. The main purpose of this research is to examine the relationship between competition in industry and pricing power at product market and earnings management in the companies listed in Tehran stock exchange. For this, modified Lerner index was used to measure pricing power and three middle Lerner indices including industry, reverse number of firms in the industry, four-firm concentration ratio were used as the indices of competition in industry. To measure earnings management, Modified Jones Model was used. The statistical population consists of all the firms listed in Tehran stock exchange. With regard to the considered criteria, 100 companies among 9 industries were selected as sample based on two digit ISIC codes. Findings of research indicate that the companies which enjoy the pricing power at product market less likely manage their earnings. Another finding indicates that earnings management increases by increasing competition in industry. Hence, the investors who intend to invest in competition industry should pay more attention to earnings management.