REAL EARNINGS MANAGEMENT, AUDIT QUALITY AND FIRM CHARACTERISTICS: THE CASE OF INDUSTRIAL LISTED FIRMS IN VIETNAM

Abstract

The thesis focuses on investigating the relationship between audit quality, firm characteristics, and the engagement level of manipulating real earnings. Conceptual information and empirical findings of many prior studies are reviewed to clarify the definition of real activities management. Quantitative method is applied with the sample of 109 industrial listed firms on HOSE from 2016 to 2020. To measure REM, three models of Roychowdhury (2006) and two aggregate metrics of Cohen and Zarowin (2010) are employed, which includes the residuals of operational cashflows, production costs and discretionary expenses. Besides, the hypotheses are testified by running dynamic GMM. The final results show evidence of some relatively significant relationships among tested variables, except for firm age which is not influential enough to affect the level of real earnings management. Regard of firm size and profitability, negative relations are reported. For audit quality and firm leverage, there are adverse associations with real earnings management. The findings bring benefits to both investors and executives of firms by interpreting the associations concluded. Besides, some limitations are witnessed in sample size, lagged time, and limited industries in the thesis.