Relationship between board characteristics and earnings management - Evidence from some listed companies on Ho Chi Minh stock exchange (HOSE)

Abstract

In the context of fluctuated economy and financial crisis, corporate governance is extremely essential to the companies and it has gained significant attention from recent studies all over the world. And in the current condition of Vietnam, which is considered as an emerging market, this field is definitely needed to be investigated more. Therefore, this thesis is conducted to examine the relationship between board characteristics (board size, CEO duality, women director, board meetings) and earnings management. The data collection is based on the annual reports of 104 listed companies in Ho Chi Minh stock exchange (HOSE) from 2012 to 2014. The main model has one dependent variable, which is discretionary accruals – used as a proxy to measure earnings management, and four independent variables, which are mentioned above. Next, the panel data is formed to test the four hypothesis with the help of STATA 12 software. Finally, the finding reveals that only CEO duality has a negative relationship with earnings management ; board size, women director and board meeting have no impact on earnings management. Further discussion about the results is presented in the last chapter of this study. Key words : Board characteristics, Earnings management.