IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/avo/emipdu/v32y2023i2p495-509.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Agency Conflicts And Financial Reporting Quality

Author

Listed:
  • Slavko Sodan

    (University of Split, Split, Croatia, Faculty of Economics, Business and Tourism)

  • Ivana Perica

    (University of Split, Split, Croatia, Faculty of Economics, Business and Tourism)

  • Stipe Curkovic

    (University of Split, Split, Croatia, Faculty of Economics, Business and Tourism)

Abstract

This paper examines the impact of agency conflicts in owner-manager-creditors relations on financial reporting quality. Based on arguments from the agency theory and the positive accounting theory, we assume that companies without debt and in which managers are ultimate owners, i.e. where agency conflicts are not profound, have a higher earnings quality than companies using financial leverage and with separated owner-manager role. The data for empirical part of the research was gathered from Orbis Europe database. The sample consists of very large, large, and medium-sized companies from Croatia, Serbia, and Slovenia with financial data covering 2018 and 2019. In order to test research hypotheses the sample is divided into two groups depending on a company's ownership and debt characteristics. Descriptive statistics, univariate tests, correlation analysis and regression analysis are used to analyse the results. Our findings indicate that there is no statistically significant difference in the earnings quality concerning the type of ownership, while the level of financial leverage, by contrast, significantly decreases the earnings quality.

Suggested Citation

  • Slavko Sodan & Ivana Perica & Stipe Curkovic, 2023. "Agency Conflicts And Financial Reporting Quality," Economic Thought and Practice, Department of Economics and Business, University of Dubrovnik, vol. 32(2), pages 495-509, december.
    • Handle: RePEc:avo:emipdu:v:32:y:2023:i:2:p:495-509
    DOI: 10.17818/EMIP/2023/2.10
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://hrcak.srce.hr/index.php/clanak/448601
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.17818/EMIP/2023/2.10?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. Jiraporn, Pornsit & Miller, Gary A. & Yoon, Soon Suk & Kim, Young S., 2008. "Is earnings management opportunistic or beneficial? An agency theory perspective," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 17(3), pages 622-634, June.
    2. Essien Ekerette Akpanuko & Ntiedo John Umoren, 2018. "The influence of creative accounting on the credibility of accounting reports," Journal of Financial Reporting and Accounting, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 16(2), pages 292-310, June.
    3. Fan, Joseph P. H. & Wong, T. J., 2002. "Corporate ownership structure and the informativeness of accounting earnings in East Asia," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 33(3), pages 401-425, August.
    4. DeFond, Mark L., 2010. "Earnings quality research: Advances, challenges and future research," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 50(2-3), pages 402-409, December.
    5. Liu, Mingzhi & Shi, Yulin & Wilson, Craig & Wu, Zhenyu, 2017. "Does family involvement explain why corporate social responsibility affects earnings management?," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 75(C), pages 8-16.
    6. Wan Masliza Wan Mohammad & Shaista Wasiuzzaman, 2020. "Effect of audit committee independence, board ethnicity and family ownership on earnings management in Malaysia," Journal of Accounting in Emerging Economies, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 10(1), pages 74-99, January.
    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. Bert Scholtens & Feng‐Ching Kang, 2013. "Corporate Social Responsibility and Earnings Management: Evidence from Asian Economies," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 20(2), pages 95-112, March.
    2. Ozili, Peterson K, 2017. "Bank Loan Loss Provisions Research: A Review," MPRA Paper 76495, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    3. Zhijun Lin & Ming Liu & Carlos Noronha, 2016. "The Impact of Corporate Governance on Informative Earnings Management in the Chinese Market," Abacus, Accounting Foundation, University of Sydney, vol. 52(3), pages 568-609, September.
    4. Duréndez, Antonio & Madrid-Guijarro, Antonia, 2018. "The impact of family influence on financial reporting quality in small and medium family firms," Journal of Family Business Strategy, Elsevier, vol. 9(3), pages 205-218.
    5. Ruqia Shaikh & Guo Fei & Muhammad Shaique & Muhammad Rizwan Nazir, 2019. "Control-Enhancing Mechanisms and Earnings Management: Empirical Evidence from Pakistan," JRFM, MDPI, vol. 12(3), pages 1-23, August.
    6. Hui-Wen Tang & Chong-Chuo Chang, 2015. "Does corporate governance affect the relationship between earnings management and firm performance? An endogenous switching regression model," Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting, Springer, vol. 45(1), pages 33-58, July.
    7. Attig, Najah & Chen, Ruiyuan & El Ghoul, Sadok & Guedhami, Omrane & Kwok, Chuck & Pittman, Jeffrey, 2020. "Are insiders equal? Evidence from earnings management in closely held East Asian firms," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 54(C).
    8. Ahmad Hammami & Mohammad Hendijani Zadeh, 2022. "Predicting earnings management through machine learning ensemble classifiers," Journal of Forecasting, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 41(8), pages 1639-1660, December.
    9. Bao, Shuji Rosey & Lewellyn, Krista B., 2017. "Ownership structure and earnings management in emerging markets—An institutionalized agency perspective," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 26(5), pages 828-838.
    10. Xu, Shen & Yin, Bichao & Lou, Chunjie, 2022. "Minority shareholder activism and corporate social responsibility," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 116(C).
    11. Kooyul Jung & Boyoung Kim & Byungmo Kim, 2009. "Tax Motivated Income Shifting and Korean Business Groups (Chaebol)," Journal of Business Finance & Accounting, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 36(5‐6), pages 552-586, June.
    12. He, Wei & Kyaw, NyoNyo A., 2018. "Ownership structure and investment decisions of Chinese SOEs," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 43(C), pages 48-57.
    13. Li, Chunyu & Lou, Chenxin & Luo, Dan & Xing, Kai, 2021. "Chinese corporate distress prediction using LASSO: The role of earnings management," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 76(C).
    14. Fan, Joseph P.H. & Gillan, Stuart L. & Yu, Xin, 2013. "Property rights, R&D spillovers, and corporate accounting transparency in China," Emerging Markets Review, Elsevier, vol. 15(C), pages 34-56.
    15. Daeheon Choi & Chune Young Chung & Young-Eun Kim & Ye Jun Kim & Paul Moon Sub Choi, 2020. "Sustainable Corporate Ownership Structures and Earnings Management in the Vietnamese Stock Market," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(15), pages 1-32, July.
    16. Zhen Li & Yitong Sun & Jinhao Liu & Yi Li & Zhifang Zhou, 2024. "Corporate violations and bank debt cost: The insurance effect of corporate social responsibility," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 31(5), pages 4487-4503, September.
    17. Yang Deng & Tze San Ong & Rosmila Senik, 2024. "Trick or treat? A bibliometric literature review of corporate social responsibility and earnings management," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 31(5), pages 4361-4383, September.
    18. Yin‐Hua Yeh & Pei‐Gi Shu & Re‐Jin Guo, 2008. "Ownership Structure and IPO Valuation—Evidence from Taiwan," Financial Management, Financial Management Association International, vol. 37(1), pages 141-161, March.
    19. Shujun Ding & Chunxin Jia & Zhenyu Wu, 2016. "Mutual Fund Activism and Market Regulation During the Pre-IFRS Period: The Case of Earnings Informativeness in China from an Ethical Perspective," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 138(4), pages 765-785, November.
    20. Chen, Donghua & Chen, Yinying & Li, Oliver Zhen & Ni, Chenkai, 2018. "Foreign residency rights and corporate fraud," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 51(C), pages 142-163.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Financial leverage; Agency costs; Financial reporting quality;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • M40 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting; Personnel Economics - - Accounting - - - General
    • M41 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting; Personnel Economics - - Accounting - - - Accounting
    • M48 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting; Personnel Economics - - Accounting - - - Government Policy and Regulation

    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:avo:emipdu:v:32:y:2023:i:2:p:495-509. 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: Nebojsa Stojcic (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/oedubhr.html .

    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.