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Earnings management techniques in the context of Italian unlisted firms

Matonti, Gaetano; Iuliano, Giuseppe; Palazzi, Federica; Tucker, Jon

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Authors

Gaetano Matonti

Giuseppe Iuliano

Federica Palazzi



Abstract

Our research expands the earnings management (EM) literature for Italian unlisted firms by investigating the drivers of both accrual-based (AEM) and real activity-based (REM) earnings management. According to prior literature, the reliability of financial statements of these firms concerns mainly lenders in assessing borrower creditworthiness, and Tax Offices in calculating corporate tax. We analyse non-listed firms as they represent 99.9% of Italian firms, consistent with most European countries. We estimate models using factors drawn from the literature which potentially influence both AEM and REM, along with some robustness tests. For AEM, ownership concentration is a positive driver, consistent with the entrenchment hypothesis, and firm leverage is a positive driver, suggesting the use of debt covenant violation avoidance strategies. Quality auditor engagement tends to constrain AEM, while size has a negative impact. However, tax drives AEM and profitability has a positive impact. For REM, ownership concentration has no impact, and leverage has a positive impact. The engagement of Big 4 constrains REM. Our expectations are confirmed when the total earnings management variable is used as the dependent.

Citation

Matonti, G., Iuliano, G., Palazzi, F., & Tucker, J. (2021). Earnings management techniques in the context of Italian unlisted firms. African Journal of Business Management, 15(2), 79-92. https://doi.org/10.5897/AJBM2021.9199

Journal Article Type Article
Acceptance Date Mar 2, 2021
Online Publication Date Feb 28, 2021
Publication Date Feb 28, 2021
Deposit Date Mar 12, 2021
Publicly Available Date Apr 7, 2021
Print ISSN 1990-3839
Publisher Academic Journals
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
Volume 15
Issue 2
Article Number 0402C9C66291
Pages 79-92
Series ISSN 1993-8233
DOI https://doi.org/10.5897/AJBM2021.9199
Public URL https://uwe-repository.worktribe.com/output/7197792
Publisher URL https://academicjournals.org/journal/AJBM/article-abstract/0402C9C66291

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