IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/jbfnac/v48y2021i9-10p1668-1710.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Freedom of the press and corporate misconduct

Author

Listed:
  • Trang Nguyen

Abstract

This study examines how freedom of the press affects corporate misconduct, focusing mainly on earnings management. I find that firms engage more in earnings management when they have a high percentage of sales in countries with restricted media freedom. I find that the influence of foreign partners’ media freedom on earnings management depends on how domestic investors process information about firm export markets and how multinational firms shape their relationship with stakeholders. Additionally, the presence of analysts in foreign countries reduces firms’ incentives to exploit media restriction to manipulate earnings. Finally, I further show that insiders of these firms tend to be involved in opportunistic insider trading, which could indicate corporate misconduct. Overall, these results show that corporate misconduct can be in part explained by a spill‐over effect of the media freedom of export markets.

Suggested Citation

  • 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.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:jbfnac:v:48:y:2021:i:9-10:p:1668-1710
    DOI: 10.1111/jbfa.12532
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/jbfa.12532
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/jbfa.12532?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. Djankov, Simeon & McLiesh, Caralee & Nenova, Tatiana & Shleifer, Andrei, 2003. "Who Owns the Media?," Journal of Law and Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 46(2), pages 341-381, October.
    2. Alexander Dyck & Natalya Volchkova & Luigi Zingales, 2008. "The Corporate Governance Role of the Media: Evidence from Russia," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 63(3), pages 1093-1135, June.
    3. Bruce Kogut & Harbir Singh, 1988. "The Effect of National Culture on the Choice of Entry Mode," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 19(3), pages 411-432, September.
    4. Gregory S. Miller, 2006. "The Press as a Watchdog for Accounting Fraud," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 44(5), pages 1001-1033, December.
    5. Garen Markarian & Juan Santalo´, 2014. "Product Market Competition, Information and Earnings Management," Journal of Business Finance & Accounting, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 41(5-6), pages 572-599, June.
    6. John M. Griffin & Nicholas H. Hirschey & Patrick J. Kelly, 2011. "How Important Is the Financial Media in Global Markets?," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 24(12), pages 3941-3992.
    7. James E. Anderson & Eric van Wincoop, 2003. "Gravity with Gravitas: A Solution to the Border Puzzle," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 93(1), pages 170-192, March.
    8. Brammer, Stephen J. & Pavelin, Stephen & Porter, Lynda A., 2006. "Corporate social performance and geographical diversification," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 59(9), pages 1025-1034, September.
    9. Shivakumar, Lakshmanan, 2000. "Do firms mislead investors by overstating earnings before seasoned equity offerings?," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 29(3), pages 339-371, June.
    10. Kedia, Simi & Rajgopal, Shiva, 2011. "Do the SEC's enforcement preferences affect corporate misconduct?," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 51(3), pages 259-278, April.
    11. Graham, John R. & Harvey, Campbell R. & Rajgopal, Shiva, 2005. "The economic implications of corporate financial reporting," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 40(1-3), pages 3-73, December.
    12. Matthew Gentzkow & Edward L. Glaeser & Claudia Goldin, 2006. "The Rise of the Fourth Estate. How Newspapers Became Informative and Why It Mattered," NBER Chapters, in: Corruption and Reform: Lessons from America's Economic History, pages 187-230, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    13. Houston, Joel F. & Lin, Chen & Ma, Yue, 2011. "Media ownership, concentration and corruption in bank lending," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 100(2), pages 326-350, May.
    14. Liu, Xiaoding, 2016. "Corruption culture and corporate misconduct," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 122(2), pages 307-327.
    15. Teoh, Siew Hong & Welch, Ivo & Wong, T. J., 1998. "Earnings management and the underperformance of seasoned equity offerings," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 50(1), pages 63-99, October.
    16. David Detomasi, 2007. "The Multinational Corporation and Global Governance: Modelling Global Public Policy Networks," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 71(3), pages 321-334, March.
    17. Mitchell A. Petersen, 2009. "Estimating Standard Errors in Finance Panel Data Sets: Comparing Approaches," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 22(1), pages 435-480, January.
    18. Najah Attig & Narjess Boubakri & Sadok El Ghoul & Omrane Guedhami, 2016. "Firm Internationalization and Corporate Social Responsibility," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 134(2), pages 171-197, March.
    19. Jeong-Bon Kim & Liuchuang Li & Hao Zhang, 2017. "Analyst Forecast Accuracy and Media Independence," Financial Management, Financial Management Association International, vol. 46(4), pages 1023-1051, December.
    20. Ali, Ashiq & Zhang, Weining, 2015. "CEO tenure and earnings management," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 59(1), pages 60-79.
    21. Jiaxing You & Bohui Zhang & Le Zhang, 2018. "Who Captures the Power of the Pen?," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 31(1), pages 43-96.
    22. Leuz, Christian & Nanda, Dhananjay & Wysocki, Peter D., 2003. "Earnings management and investor protection: an international comparison," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 69(3), pages 505-527, September.
    23. Ahern, Kenneth R. & Daminelli, Daniele & Fracassi, Cesare, 2015. "Lost in translation? The effect of cultural values on mergers around the world," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 117(1), pages 165-189.
    24. Sadok El Ghoul & Omrane Guedhami & Robert Nash & Ajay Patel, 2019. "New Evidence on the Role of the Media in Corporate Social Responsibility," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 154(4), pages 1051-1079, February.
    25. Christopher J. Malloy, 2005. "The Geography of Equity Analysis," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 60(2), pages 719-755, April.
    26. David Aboody & John Hughes & Jing Liu, 2005. "Earnings Quality, Insider Trading, and Cost of Capital," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 43(5), pages 651-673, December.
    27. Wei Chen & Paul Hribar & Samuel Melessa, 2018. "Incorrect Inferences When Using Residuals as Dependent Variables," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 56(3), pages 751-796, June.
    28. R. David Mclean & Tianyu Zhang & Mengxin Zhao, 2012. "Why Does the Law Matter? Investor Protection and Its Effects on Investment, Finance, and Growth," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 67(1), pages 313-350, February.
    29. Scott D. Dyreng & William J. Mayew & Christopher D. Williams, 2012. "Religious Social Norms and Corporate Financial Reporting," Journal of Business Finance & Accounting, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 39(7-8), pages 845-875, September.
    30. 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.
    31. Joseph E. Engelberg & Christopher A. Parsons, 2011. "The Causal Impact of Media in Financial Markets," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 66(1), pages 67-97, February.
    32. Kiridaran Kanagaretnam & Jimmy Lee & Chee Yeow Lim & Gerald J. Lobo, 2018. "Cross-Country Evidence on the Role of Independent Media in Constraining Corporate Tax Aggressiveness," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 150(3), pages 879-902, July.
    33. André, Paul & Filip, Andrei & Moldovan, Rucsandra, 2016. "Segment Disclosure Quantity and Quality under IFRS 8: Determinants and the Effect on Financial Analysts' Earnings Forecast Errors," The International Journal of Accounting, Elsevier, vol. 51(4), pages 443-461.
    34. Kothari, S.P. & Leone, Andrew J. & Wasley, Charles E., 2005. "Performance matched discretionary accrual measures," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 39(1), pages 163-197, February.
    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. Li, Zhen & Zheng, Panpan & Xie, Huobao, 2024. "Judicial digital intellectualization and corporate online misconduct," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 62(PA).
    2. Geng Niu & Yang Zhou & Weijie Lu & Hongwu Gan, 2022. "Religiosity and corruption in bank lending," Journal of Business Finance & Accounting, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 49(9-10), pages 1957-1983, October.
    3. Zaman, Rashid, 2024. "When corporate culture matters: The case of stakeholder violations," The British Accounting Review, Elsevier, vol. 56(1).
    4. Saeed, Abubakr & Ali, Ashiq & Azaaviele Liedong, Tahiru, 2024. "Parent firm reputational risk and TMT gender diversity of foreign subsidiaries," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 173(C).

    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. Huai Zhang & Jin Zhang, 2023. "Political corruption and accounting choices," Journal of Business Finance & Accounting, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 50(3-4), pages 443-481, March.
    2. Liu, Qigui & Tang, Jinghua & Li, Donghui & Xing, Lu, 2023. "The role of bad-news coverage and media environments in crash risk around the world," Journal of Empirical Finance, Elsevier, vol. 72(C), pages 488-509.
    3. An, Zhe & Chen, Chen & Naiker, Vic & Wang, Jun, 2020. "Does media coverage deter firms from withholding bad news? Evidence from stock price crash risk," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 64(C).
    4. 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.
    5. Yangyang Chen & C. S. Agnes Cheng & Shuo Li & Jingran Zhao, 2021. "The monitoring role of the media: Evidence from earnings management," Journal of Business Finance & Accounting, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 48(3-4), pages 533-563, March.
    6. Jia, Zhehao & Li, Donghui & Shi, Yukun & Xing, Lu, 2023. "Firm-level media news, bank loans, and the role of institutional environments," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 83(C).
    7. Dechow, Patricia & Ge, Weili & Schrand, Catherine, 2010. "Understanding earnings quality: A review of the proxies, their determinants and their consequences," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 50(2-3), pages 344-401, December.
    8. Pavol Durana & Lucia Michalkova & Andrej Privara & Josef Marousek & Milos Tumpach, 2021. "Does the life cycle affect earnings management and bankruptcy?," Oeconomia Copernicana, Institute of Economic Research, vol. 12(2), pages 425-461, June.
    9. Huasheng Gao & Huai Zhang & Jin Zhang, 2018. "Employee turnover likelihood and earnings management: evidence from the inevitable disclosure doctrine," Review of Accounting Studies, Springer, vol. 23(4), pages 1424-1470, December.
    10. Alexandre Garel & Jose Martin-Flores & Arthur Petit-Romec & Ayesha Scott, 2021. "Institutional investor distraction and earnings management," Post-Print hal-03096196, HAL.
    11. Ayers, Benjamin C. & Ramalingegowda, Santhosh & Eric Yeung, P., 2011. "Hometown advantage: The effects of monitoring institution location on financial reporting discretion," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 52(1), pages 41-61, June.
    12. Jia, Ming & Ruan, Hongfei & Zhang, Zhe, 2017. "How rumors fly," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 72(C), pages 33-45.
    13. Gounopoulos, Dimitrios & Loukopoulos, Georgios & Loukopoulos, Panagiotis & Zhang, Yu, 2024. "Do CFO career concerns matter? Evidence from IPO financial reporting outcomes," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 87(C).
    14. Qin, Yiyi & Cai, Jun & Rhee, S. Ghon, 2021. "Do Japanese firms systematically inflate expected rate of returns from defined benefit pension plans?," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 68(C).
    15. Dung Viet Tran & M. Kabir Hassan & Reza Houston, 2020. "Discretionary loan loss provision behavior in the US banking industry," Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting, Springer, vol. 55(2), pages 605-645, August.
    16. Bai, Jing & Tang, Xuesong & Zheng, Yuxin, 2023. "Serving the truth: Do directors with media background improve financial reporting quality?," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 85(C).
    17. Xingqiang Du & Wei Jian & Shaojuan Lai & Yingjie Du & Hongmei Pei, 2015. "Does Religion Mitigate Earnings Management? Evidence from China," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 131(3), pages 699-749, October.
    18. Fan, Yaoyao & Jiang, Yuxiang & John, Kose & Liu, Frank Hong, 2021. "From watchdog to watchman: Do independent directors monitor a CEO of their own age?," Journal of Empirical Finance, Elsevier, vol. 61(C), pages 206-229.
    19. Call, Andrew C. & Emett, Scott A. & Maksymov, Eldar & Sharp, Nathan Y., 2022. "Meet the press: Survey evidence on financial journalists as information intermediaries," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 73(2).
    20. Sha, Yezhou & Qiao, Lu & Li, Suyang & Bu, Ziwen, 2021. "Political freedom and earnings management," Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money, Elsevier, vol. 75(C).

    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:48:y:2021:i:9-10:p:1668-1710. 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://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.