IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/reveco/v74y2021icp192-205.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Product market competition and real activities manipulation: Theory and implications

Author

Listed:
  • Lee, Cheng-Few
  • Sung, Hao-Chang

Abstract

We investigate how a firm manipulates its real activities in production to meet the earnings target in product market competition against its product-market rivals. We show that the equilibratory way to reach the earnings target is to set a higher first-period output level, reaching a higher short-term profit level. However, once the expected level of demand uncertainty is high, a firm will exploit this effect on its output choice by taking a mixed strategy and raising its short-term output level. This result suggests that one should consider longer-horizon paths of variables to detect opportunistic real activities manipulation.

Suggested Citation

  • Lee, Cheng-Few & Sung, Hao-Chang, 2021. "Product market competition and real activities manipulation: Theory and implications," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 74(C), pages 192-205.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:reveco:v:74:y:2021:i:c:p:192-205
    DOI: 10.1016/j.iref.2021.01.019
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1059056021000198
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.iref.2021.01.019?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
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. 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.
    2. Avinash Dixit, 1979. "A Model of Duopoly Suggesting a Theory of Entry Barriers," Bell Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 10(1), pages 20-32, Spring.
    3. Holger Daske & Günther Gebhardt & Stuart McLeay, 2006. "The distribution of earnings relative to targets in the European Union," Accounting and Business Research, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 36(3), pages 137-167.
    4. 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.
    5. Philippe Aghion & Jeremy C. Stein, 2008. "Growth versus Margins: Destabilizing Consequences of Giving the Stock Market What It Wants," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 63(3), pages 1025-1058, June.
    6. Pelham Gore & Peter Pope & Ashni Singh, 2007. "Earnings management and the distribution of earnings relative to targets: UK evidence," Accounting and Business Research, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 37(2), pages 123-149.
    7. Murray Brown & Nagesh Revankar, 1971. "A Generalized Theory Of The Firm: An Integration Of The Sales And Profit Maximization Hypotheses," Kyklos, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 24(3), pages 427-443, August.
    8. Cindy Durtschi & Peter Easton, 2005. "Earnings Management? The Shapes of the Frequency Distributions of Earnings Metrics Are Not Evidence Ipso Facto," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 43(4), pages 557-592, September.
    9. Walter Novaes, 2002. "Managerial Turnover and Leverage under a Takeover Threat," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 57(6), pages 2619-2650, December.
    10. repec:bla:kyklos:v:24:y:1971:i:3:p:427-43 is not listed on IDEAS
    11. Natalie Mizik & Robert Jacobson, 2007. "Myopic Marketing Management: Evidence of the Phenomenon and Its Long-Term Performance Consequences in the SEO Context," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 26(3), pages 361-379, 05-06.
    12. Daniel Cohen & Shailendra Pandit & Charles E. Wasley & Tzachi Zach, 2020. "Measuring Real Activity Management†," Contemporary Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 37(2), pages 1172-1198, June.
    13. Viral V. Acharya & Bart M. Lambrecht, 2015. "A Theory of Income Smoothing When Insiders Know More Than Outsiders," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 28(9), pages 2534-2574.
    14. Simi Kedia & Thomas Philippon, 2009. "The Economics of Fraudulent Accounting," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 22(6), pages 2169-2199, June.
    15. Cohen, Daniel A. & Zarowin, Paul, 2010. "Accrual-based and real earnings management activities around seasoned equity offerings," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 50(1), pages 2-19, May.
    16. Andergassen, Rainer, 2016. "Managerial compensation, product market competition and fraud," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 45(C), pages 1-15.
    17. Roychowdhury, Sugata, 2006. "Earnings management through real activities manipulation," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 42(3), pages 335-370, December.
    18. Nirvikar Singh & Xavier Vives, 1984. "Price and Quantity Competition in a Differentiated Duopoly," RAND Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 15(4), pages 546-554, Winter.
    19. Stein, Jeremy C., 2003. "Agency, information and corporate investment," Handbook of the Economics of Finance, in: G.M. Constantinides & M. Harris & R. M. Stulz (ed.), Handbook of the Economics of Finance, edition 1, volume 1, chapter 2, pages 111-165, Elsevier.
    20. Mariela Carvajal & Jeffrey J. Coulton & Andrew B. Jackson & Tom Smith, 2017. "Earnings benchmark hierarchy," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 57(1), pages 87-111, March.
    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. Kęstutis Peleckis, 2022. "Application of the Multicriteria Method Seeking to Assess Concentration, and Its Effects on Competition in the Manufacturing Sector," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(19), pages 1-30, September.
    2. Kęstutis Peleckis, 2022. "Application of the Fuzzy VIKOR Method to Assess Concentration and Its Effects on Competition in the Energy Sector," Energies, MDPI, vol. 15(4), pages 1-16, February.

    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. Liu, Zheng & Shen, Hongtao & Welker, Michael & Zhang, Ning & Zhao, Yang, 2021. "Gone with the wind: An externality of earnings pressure," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 72(1).
    2. Cao, Zhangfan & Rees, William & Zhang, Zhifang, 2023. "The effect of real earnings smoothing on corporate labour investment," The British Accounting Review, Elsevier, vol. 55(6).
    3. 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.
    4. 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.
    5. Roychowdhury, Sugata & Shroff, Nemit & Verdi, Rodrigo S., 2019. "The effects of financial reporting and disclosure on corporate investment: A review," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 68(2).
    6. Craig J. Chapman & Thomas J. Steenburgh, 2011. "An Investigation of Earnings Management Through Marketing Actions," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 57(1), pages 72-92, January.
    7. Özgür, Arslan-Ayaydin & Thewissen, James & Torsin, Wouter, 2021. "Earnings Management Methods and CEO Political Affiliation," LIDAM Discussion Papers LFIN 2021017, Université catholique de Louvain, Louvain Finance (LFIN).
    8. Pan Xu & Jun He & Daojuan Wang & Sofia A. Johan & Siwei Lin, 2024. "Could the simultaneous persistence of greater cash holdings and interest‐bearing debts affect stock price crash risk?," International Journal of Finance & Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 29(3), pages 3226-3262, July.
    9. Alexandre Garel & Jose Martin-Flores & Arthur Petit-Romec & Ayesha Scott, 2021. "Institutional investor distraction and earnings management," Post-Print hal-03096196, HAL.
    10. Hao-Chang Sung & Chunsheng Yuan, 2017. "Biased Voluntary Disclosure, Earnings Target, And Product Market Competition," Annals of Financial Economics (AFE), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 12(03), pages 1-20, September.
    11. Martin Walker, 2013. "How far can we trust earnings numbers? What research tells us about earnings management," Accounting and Business Research, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 43(4), pages 445-481, August.
    12. James Jianxin Gong & S. Mark Young & Aner Zhou, 2023. "Real earnings management and the strategic release of new products: evidence from the motion picture industry," Review of Accounting Studies, Springer, vol. 28(3), pages 1209-1249, September.
    13. 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.
    14. William Grieser & Charles J. Hadlock & Joshua R. Pierce, 2021. "Doing good when doing well: evidence on real earnings management," Review of Accounting Studies, Springer, vol. 26(3), pages 906-932, September.
    15. Yenpao Chen & Chien-Hsun Chen & Yu-Ting Wu, 2019. "An assessment of the relationship between channel stuffing and related party transactions: evidence from China’s listed companies," International Journal of Disclosure and Governance, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 16(2), pages 116-127, July.
    16. Eiler, Lisa A. & Filzen, Joshua J. & Jackson, Mark & Tama-Sweet, Isho, 2021. "Real earnings management and the properties of analysts' forecasts," Advances in accounting, Elsevier, vol. 55(C).
    17. Yim, Andrew, 2013. "Mixture and Continuous 'Discontinuity' Hypotheses: An Earnings Management Model with Auditor-Required Adjustment," MPRA Paper 44702, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    18. Lauren M. Cunningham & Bret A. Johnson & E. Scott Johnson & Ling Lei Lisic, 2020. "The Switch‐Up: An Examination of Changes in Earnings Management after Receiving SEC Comment Letters†," Contemporary Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 37(2), pages 917-944, June.
    19. Ramesh Chandra Das & Chandra Sekhar Mishra & Prabina Rajib, 2017. "Real Versus Accrual-based Earnings Management," Paradigm, , vol. 21(2), pages 156-174, December.
    20. Karan Gandhi, 2024. "Real earnings management’s effects on performance in firms reaching the loss avoidance threshold: indian evidence after controlling for variations in firm’s competitive strategy," DECISION: Official Journal of the Indian Institute of Management Calcutta, Springer;Indian Institute of Management Calcutta, vol. 51(3), pages 369-395, September.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Earnings target; Real activities manipulation; Cournot competition; One-sided; Incomplete information;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D82 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty - - - Asymmetric and Private Information; Mechanism Design
    • L13 - Industrial Organization - - Market Structure, Firm Strategy, and Market Performance - - - Oligopoly and Other Imperfect Markets
    • M41 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting; Personnel Economics - - Accounting - - - Accounting

    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:eee:reveco:v:74:y:2021:i:c:p:192-205. 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: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/inca/620165 .

    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.