IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/pal/palcom/v10y2023i1d10.1057_s41599-023-01638-6.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Earnings management and financial distress or soundness determining CEOs’ future over- and under-investment decisions

Author

Listed:
  • Sumiyana Sumiyana

    (Gadjah Mada University)

  • Ainun Na’im

    (Gadjah Mada University)

  • Firdaus Kurniawan

    (Gadjah Mada University)

  • Albertus H. L. Nugroho

    (Gadjah Mada University)

Abstract

This study investigates the association between CEOs’ over-confidence in experiencing financial distress or soundness, future earnings management, and over and under-investment decisions. Specifically, it makes deeper the association between financial distress (soundness), requiring to increase (decrease) earnings management and over (under)-investment decisions. Methodologically, the authors demonstrate the CEOs’ aggressive behaviour in managing their firms’ earnings in developing countries. In other words, it shows a literature gap in some extant research that most CEOs in developing countries would intentionally manage future earnings for constructing future investment decisions. Then, it highlights that CEOs in developing countries tend to be over-confident because of cognitive distortion, assembling the earnings management to improve future performance. Finally, this study presents a newness with three critical reasoning arguments. First, this study uses the prospect theory, framing, conservatism and psychological projection to explain the CEOs’ future investment decisions due to past earnings information, which causes their behaviour to be more optimistic. Second, this research considers that financial distress or soundness influences the association between earnings management and future over(under) investment decisions. Third, this study investigates CEOs’ over-confidence using an international setting due to characteristic differentiation between advanced and developing countries, influencing this association.

Suggested Citation

  • Sumiyana Sumiyana & Ainun Na’im & Firdaus Kurniawan & Albertus H. L. Nugroho, 2023. "Earnings management and financial distress or soundness determining CEOs’ future over- and under-investment decisions," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 10(1), pages 1-10, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:pal:palcom:v:10:y:2023:i:1:d:10.1057_s41599-023-01638-6
    DOI: 10.1057/s41599-023-01638-6
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1057/s41599-023-01638-6
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1057/s41599-023-01638-6?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. Ma Zhong & Lucia Gao, 2017. "Does corporate social responsibility disclosure improve firm investment efficiency?," Review of Accounting and Finance, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 16(3), pages 348-365, August.
    2. Norman Saleh & Kamran Ahmed, 2005. "Earnings management of distressed firms during debt renegotiation," Accounting and Business Research, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 35(1), pages 69-86.
    3. Sanz, Luis J. & Ayca, Julio, 2006. "Financial distress costs in Latin America: A case study," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 59(3), pages 394-395, March.
    4. Chinmoy Ghosh & Fan He, 2015. "Investor Protection, Investment Efficiency and Value: The Case of Cross-Listed Firms," Financial Management, Financial Management Association International, vol. 44(3), pages 499-546, September.
    5. Biddle, Gary C. & Hilary, Gilles & Verdi, Rodrigo S., 2009. "How does financial reporting quality relate to investment efficiency?," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 48(2-3), pages 112-131, December.
    6. 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.
    7. Bhagat, Sanjai & Moyen, Nathalie & Suh, Inchul, 2005. "Investment and internal funds of distressed firms," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 11(3), pages 449-472, June.
    8. Eben Otuteye & Mohammad Siddiquee, 2015. "Overcoming Cognitive Biases: A Heuristic for Making Value Investing Decisions," Journal of Behavioral Finance, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 16(2), pages 140-149, April.
    9. Malcolm Baker & Brock Mendel & Jeffrey Wurgler, 2016. "Dividends as Reference Points: A Behavioral Signaling Approach," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 29(3), pages 697-738.
    10. Daniel Kahneman & Amos Tversky, 2013. "Prospect Theory: An Analysis of Decision Under Risk," World Scientific Book Chapters, in: Leonard C MacLean & William T Ziemba (ed.), HANDBOOK OF THE FUNDAMENTALS OF FINANCIAL DECISION MAKING Part I, chapter 6, pages 99-127, World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd..
    11. Frank, Murray Z. & Shen, Tao, 2016. "Investment and the weighted average cost of capital," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 119(2), pages 300-315.
    12. Ewert, Ralf & Wagenhofer, Alfred, 2012. "Earnings Management, Conservatism, and Earnings Quality," Foundations and Trends(R) in Accounting, now publishers, vol. 6(2), pages 65-186, December.
    13. Guay, WR & Kothari, SP & Watts, RL, 1996. "A market-based evaluation of discretionary accrual models," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 34, pages 83-105.
    14. Bassetto, Camila F. & Kalatzis, Aquiles E.G., 2011. "Financial distress, financial constraint and investment decision: Evidence from Brazil," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 28(1-2), pages 264-271, January.
    15. Peeter Maripuu & Kadri Männasoo, 2014. "Financial distress and cycle-sensitive corporate investments," Baltic Journal of Economics, Baltic International Centre for Economic Policy Studies, vol. 14(1-2), pages 181-193, December.
    16. 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).
    17. Gilles Hilary & Gary C. Biddle, 2006. "Accounting Quality and Firm-Level Capital Investment," Post-Print hal-00481720, HAL.
    18. Satish Kumar & Nisha Goyal, 2015. "Behavioural biases in investment decision making – a systematic literature review," Qualitative Research in Financial Markets, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 7(1), pages 88-108, February.
    19. Xiaoyan Wen, 2013. "Voluntary Disclosure and Investment," Contemporary Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 30(2), pages 677-696, June.
    20. Miller, Richard A., 2009. "The weighted average cost of capital is not quite right," The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 49(1), pages 128-138, February.
    21. Rebecca L. Rosner, 2003. "Earnings Manipulation in Failing Firms," Contemporary Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 20(2), pages 361-408, June.
    22. Bassetto, Camila F. & Kalatzis, Aquiles E.G., 2011. "Financial distress, financial constraint and investment decision: Evidence from Brazil," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 28(1), pages 264-271.
    23. Ma Zhong & Lucia Gao, 2017. "Does corporate social responsibility disclosure improve firm investment efficiency?," Review of Accounting and Finance, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 16(3), pages 348-365, August.
    24. Xingqiang Du & Shaojuan Lai, 2018. "Financial Distress, Investment Opportunity, and the Contagion Effect of Low Audit Quality: Evidence from China," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 147(3), pages 565-593, February.
    25. 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.
    26. García Lara, Juan Manuel & García Osma, Beatriz & Penalva, Fernando, 2016. "Accounting conservatism and firm investment efficiency," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 61(1), pages 221-238.
    27. Pindado, Julio & Rodrigues, Luis & de la Torre, Chabela, 2008. "Estimating financial distress likelihood," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 61(9), pages 995-1003, September.
    28. Miller, Richard A., 2009. "The weighted average cost of capital is not quite right: Reply to M. Pierru," The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 49(3), pages 1213-1218, August.
    29. Dhami, Sanjit & al-Nowaihi, Ali, 2007. "Why do people pay taxes? Prospect theory versus expected utility theory," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 64(1), pages 171-192, September.
    30. Laux, Volker & Ray, Korok, 2020. "Effects of accounting conservatism on investment efficiency and innovation," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 70(1).
    31. 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.
    32. Liu, Shengqiang & Lin, Shu & Sun, Zhaoyu & Yuan, Lihua, 2021. "Earnings management and firms' investment behavior: The threshold effect of ROE," Emerging Markets Review, Elsevier, vol. 47(C).
    33. Guay, W. & Kothari, S.P. & Watts, R.L., 1996. "A Market-Based Evaluation of Discretionary-Accrual Models," Papers 96-01, Rochester, Business - Financial Research and Policy Studies.
    34. Satish Kumar & Nisha Goyal, 2015. "Behavioural biases in investment decision making – a systematic literature review," Qualitative Research in Financial Markets, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 7(1), pages 88-108, February.
    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. Biehl, Henrike & Bleibtreu, Christopher & Stefani, Ulrike, 2024. "The real effects of financial reporting: Evidence and suggestions for future research," Journal of International Accounting, Auditing and Taxation, Elsevier, vol. 54(C).
    2. 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.
    3. Khushbu Agrawal & Chanchal Chatterjee, 2015. "Earnings Management and Financial Distress: Evidence from India," Global Business Review, International Management Institute, vol. 16(5_suppl), pages 140-154, October.
    4. Hsu, Audrey Wen-hsin & Liu, Sophia Hsin-Tsai, 2016. "Organizational structure, agency costs, and accrual quality," Journal of Contemporary Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 12(1), pages 35-60.
    5. Gaurav Gupta & Jitendra Mahakud, 2022. "Impact of financial distress on investment-cash flow sensitivity: evidence from emerging economy," International Journal of Managerial Finance, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 19(4), pages 713-743, July.
    6. Campa, Domenico & Camacho-Miñano, María-del-Mar, 2015. "The impact of SME’s pre-bankruptcy financial distress on earnings management tools," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 42(C), pages 222-234.
    7. Mujeeb Saif Mohsen Al-Absy & Ku Nor Izah Ku Ismail & Sitraselvi Chandren, 2018. "Accounting expertise in the audit committee and earnings management," Business and Economic Horizons (BEH), Prague Development Center, vol. 14(3), pages 451-476, June.
    8. 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.
    9. Zhang, Zhuang & Ntim, Collins G. & Zhang, Qingjing & Elmagrhi, Mohamed H., 2020. "Does accounting comparability affect corporate employment decision-making?," The British Accounting Review, Elsevier, vol. 52(6).
    10. Papanastasopoulos, Georgios & Thomakos, Dimitrios & Wang, Tao, 2011. "Information in balance sheets for future stock returns: Evidence from net operating assets," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 20(5), pages 269-282.
    11. Aljughaiman, Abdullah A. & Nguyen, Tam Huy & Trinh, Vu Quang & Du, Anqi, 2023. "The Covid-19 outbreak, corporate financial distress and earnings management," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 88(C).
    12. Yasean A. Tahat & Ahmed H. Ahmed & David Power, 2022. "Earnings quality and investment efficiency: the role of the institutional settings," Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting, Springer, vol. 58(3), pages 1277-1306, April.
    13. Li Liu & Gary Gang Tian, 2021. "Mandatory CSR disclosure, monitoring and investment efficiency: evidence from China," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 61(1), pages 595-644, March.
    14. Chizoba Mary Nwoye & Alphonsus Sunday Anichebe & Ifeanyi Francis Osegbue, 2021. "Effect of Audit Quality on Earnings Management in Insurance Companies in Nigeria," Athens Journal of Business & Economics, Athens Institute for Education and Research (ATINER), vol. 7(2), pages 173-202, April.
    15. Bilyay-Erdogan, Seda & Danisman, Gamze Ozturk & Demir, Ender, 2024. "ESG performance and investment efficiency: The impact of information asymmetry," Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money, Elsevier, vol. 91(C).
    16. Dichev, Ilia D. & Graham, John R. & Harvey, Campbell R. & Rajgopal, Shiva, 2013. "Earnings quality: Evidence from the field," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 56(2), pages 1-33.
    17. 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).
    18. Ashraf, Sumaira & Félix, Elisabete G.S. & Serrasqueiro, Zélia, 2020. "Development and testing of an augmented distress prediction model: A comparative study on a developed and an emerging market," Journal of Multinational Financial Management, Elsevier, vol. 57.
    19. 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.
    20. Nguyen, Hang Thu & Alphonse, Pascal & Nguyen, Hiep Manh, 2022. "Financial distress and the accrual anomaly," Journal of Contemporary Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 18(3).

    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:pal:palcom:v:10:y:2023:i:1:d:10.1057_s41599-023-01638-6. 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: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.nature.com/ .

    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.