IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/jbfnac/v45y2018i5-6p604-624.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Product market competition and earnings management: A firm†level analysis

Author

Listed:
  • Guifeng Shi
  • Jianfei Sun
  • Li Zhang

Abstract

In this paper, we employ a firm†level measure of product market competition constructed from the textual analysis of firms’ 10†K filings to examine the relationship between managers’ perceived competition pressure and earnings management. We find that accounting irregularities and accrual†based earnings management are positively related to product market competition. This finding is consistent with the notion that competition pressure increases managerial incentives to manage earnings, due to their career concerns. We also find that real earnings management is negatively related to product market competition. This finding suggests that real earnings management involves actions that decrease firms’ competitiveness and thus is costly for firms confronted with high competition pressure.

Suggested Citation

  • Guifeng Shi & Jianfei Sun & Li Zhang, 2018. "Product market competition and earnings management: A firm†level analysis," Journal of Business Finance & Accounting, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 45(5-6), pages 604-624, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:jbfnac:v:45:y:2018:i:5-6:p:604-624
    DOI: 10.1111/jbfa.12300
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/jbfa.12300
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/jbfa.12300?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
    ---><---

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Wajih Abbassi & Sabri Boubaker & Wael Louhichi, 2024. "Why do corporate social responsibility‐oriented companies opt for bond debt? Evidence from crisis periods," International Journal of Finance & Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 29(2), pages 1534-1568, April.
    2. Xia, Xiaoxue & Xiao, Yao, 2023. "Firm-level perception of competition and innovation: Textual evidence from China," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 53(C).
    3. Rahman, Dewan & Kabir, Muhammad & Oliver, Barry, 2021. "Does exposure to product market competition influence insider trading profitability?," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 66(C).
    4. Nengqi Pan & Millicent Chang & Xiaofei Pan, 2024. "Career concerns and earnings management in government‐owned banks," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 64(1), pages 475-506, March.
    5. Babar, Md. & Habib, Ahsan, 2021. "Product market competition in accounting, finance, and corporate governance: A review of the literature," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 73(C).
    6. Mahmoud Delshadi & Mahmoud Hosseinniakani & Zabihollah Rezaee, 2023. "Does options trading deter real activities manipulation?," Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting, Springer, vol. 61(2), pages 673-699, August.
    7. Cheng, Jie & Huang, Dan & Wu, Yanling, 2023. "Managerial perception on competition and strategic R&D decisions1," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 123(C).
    8. Wang, Tracy Yue & Winton, Andrew, 2021. "Industry informational interactions and corporate fraud," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 69(C).
    9. Trang Nguyen, 2021. "Freedom of the press and corporate misconduct," Journal of Business Finance & Accounting, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 48(9-10), pages 1668-1710, October.
    10. Li, Tianpei (Constance) & Walton, Stephanie, 2023. "Is there a dark side of competition? Product market competition and auditor-client contracting," Advances in accounting, Elsevier, vol. 62(C).
    11. El Diri, Malek & Lambrinoudakis, Costas & Alhadab, Mohammad, 2020. "Corporate governance and earnings management in concentrated markets," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 108(C), pages 291-306.
    12. Shrikant P. Jategaonkar & Linda M. Lovata & Xiaoxiao Song, 2023. "Growth opportunities and earnings management by cross-listed and U.S. firms," Journal of Economics and Finance, Springer;Academy of Economics and Finance, vol. 47(1), pages 157-183, March.
    13. Li, Zhaochu & Lytvynenko, Iryna P. & Philippoff, Karl S., 2021. "Stock market reactions to R&D cuts used to manage earnings," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 77(C).
    14. Ahsan Habib & Dinithi Ranasinghe & Julia Yonghua Wu & Pallab Kumar Biswas & Fawad Ahmad, 2022. "Real earnings management: A review of the international literature," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 62(4), pages 4279-4344, December.
    15. Pallab Kumar Biswas & Dinithi Ranasinghe & Eric K. M. Tan, 2023. "Impact of product market competition on real activity manipulation: Moderating role of managerial ability," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 63(1), pages 247-275, March.
    16. Xiaolu Xu & Leo L. Yang & Joseph H. Zhang, 2022. "How do auditors respond to client firms’ technological peer pressure? Evidence from going‐concern opinions," Journal of Business Finance & Accounting, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 49(9-10), pages 1553-1580, October.

    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:jbfnac:v:45:y:2018:i:5-6:p:604-624. 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.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using 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=0306-686X .

    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.