This research paper aims to examine the relationship between earning management and corporate  governance  in Egypt  by sending a survey online ,the response obtain demonstrated that there is a negative relationship between earning management and corporate governance mechanism Keywords: Egypt – governance – earning managemen

razek, Marwa abdel

English

International Institute for Science, Technology and Education (IISTE): E-Journals

Research Journal of Finance and Accounting                                                                                                        www.iiste.org ISSN 2222-1697 (Paper) ISSN 2222-2847 (Online) Vol 3, No 8, 2012  128   The association between earning management and corporate governance – a survey from Egypt Marwa abdel razek Senior accountant *email: Marwa_moh_mm@yahoo.com Abstract: This research paper aims to examine the relationship between earning management and corporate  governance  in Egypt  by sending a survey online ,the response obtain demonstrated that there is a negative relationship between earning management and corporate governance mechanism Keywords: Egypt – governance – earning management  Introduction: The end of the 1990 "s and the beginning of the 2000"s has witnessed a series of recent corporate accounting scandals across the united state and Europe (eg: Euron, HealthSouth, Palamalat, Tyco, world com and Xerox) .The core of these accounting scandals was usually the phenomenon of earning management (Groncharow, 2005). Earning management (EM) has been a great and consistent concern among regulators and has received considerable attention in the accounting literature. It has been argued that earning management behavior masks the true financial results and position of business and obscures facts that stakeholders ought to know (Habbash et al. 2012) While there is an extensive literature on opportunistic earning management in response to specific incentive to achieve one results or another , research looking at the impact of corporate governance on earning management is quite limited (Ayguin et al, 2010). This current research aims to investigate the relationship between earning management and corporate governance mechanism in Egypt  Previous studies have examined some characteristics in mitigating earning management but this is a unique study using a variety of corporate governance characteristics together in transition country such as Egypt  The remaining of this paper is structured as follow, section 2 literature review, section 3, methodology and data analysis, and section 4, summary, conclusion and suggest for future research  Section 2: literature review Earning management definitions: According to Healy &Wahlen(1998 )" earnings management occurs when management when managers use judgment in financial reporting and in structuring transactions to alter financial report to either mislead some stakeholders about the underlying economic performance of the company or to influence contractual outcomes that depend on reported accounting number ."  Earning management and internal audit function quality:  Firm established the internal audit function to provide it with an assurance and consulting services, which can improve the effectiveness of their risk management control and governance process.  An international audit function also expected to facility the operation and effective functioning of the audit committee as the goals of audit function are closely aligned with the financial reporting oversight the responsibilities of the committee (Scarborough et al 1998, Goodwin and Yeo 2001, Goodwin 2003). The formation of an internal Research Journal of Finance and Accounting                                                                                                        www.iiste.org ISSN 2222-1697 (Paper) ISSN 2222-2847 (Online) Vol 3, No 8, 2012  129 audit function is endorsed by governance reports although traditionally internal audit focused more on controls and operational risks there has been increasing emphasis in the professional literature on the need to also focus on earning management and inappropriate financial reporting (Eighme AND Cashell 2002, martin et al 2002). In addition sherron Watkins, former eron vice president believes that internal auditors should look for warning signs such as undue pressure from senior management to meet earning target and compensation arrangements that might encourage employee to manipulate earning in order to receive financial results. According to Clikeman 2003 that internal auditors should not only be actively involved in detecting earning  management but that they should take a proactive approach to educating managers and directors about the dangers of the practice .furthermore Eighme and Cashell 2002 regard the role of internal audit in detecting earning management as being a   Complementary one that of external audit. .  they believe that both should be actively involved in the detection of inappropriate earning management , thereby providing two unrelated opinion to the audit committee (Davidson et al 2005, pp.247-248)  Furthermore prawitt et al 2009 aim to examine the relationship between internal audit quality and earning management , they measure the internal function quality based on SAS 65 which include :the average experience of the internal auditors , the percentage of internal auditors that are professionally certified , the amount of time spent training during the year , the amount of time spent training during the year , the amount of financial work the IAF perform , the reporting relation of the head of the IAF  and the size of the   IAF relative to its industry , they measure earning management using two different proxies : the absolute value of abnormal accruals as determined by the performance adjusted modified Jones model reported in Kothari , Leone and wasley (2005) and the propensity of companies to meet versus just miss analyst " consensus earnings forecasts . They found evidence that internal audit function quality is associated with a moderation in the level of earning management as measured by both proxies. Earning management and auditor's size: many studies( beker et al 1998 , Francis et al 1999 , lin et al 2006) show that the use of brand name ( auditor size) reduce earning management (lin and hwang , 2010) Earning management and board size: Board  size on financial reporting and hence , information quality will be higher for those firm with a small board size .this may be due to the possibility of better discussion of financial reporting , numbers among the member of a small board compared to a large board , inversely , a larger board is expected to be less effective as the  monitoring responsibility will be diffused among many directors (Vafeas , 2000)while several authors found that a smaller board size could enhance the quality of earning ( Beasley , 1996 ,vafeas 2000, ahmed at al 2006) Other found no relationship or a negative relationship between board size and earning management (chtourou et al 2001, xie et al 2003, peasnell et al 2005) as cited by Mohamed et al 2012  Earning management and audit committee: According to the blue ribbon committee report, audit committee report serves as an ultimate monitor of the financial reporting system, the committee selects the outside and question management, external auditor and internal auditor to determine whether they are acting in the best interest of the company. one of the primary function of the audit committee is to safe cards the independence of external auditor , given the strong economic or personnel affiliation of inside directors with the company or its management audit committee  that have a majority of affiliated directors will be more likely to side with management in any disputes with the auditor ( Ebrahim , 2007)  In addition Klein( 2002 a) finds that an independent audit committee and active audit committee are associated with lower levels of discretionary , earning management is negatively associated with a committee composed only of independent directors , that meet more than twice a year .(Siregar &Utama(2008) Earning management and CEO duality: Research Journal of Finance and Accounting                                                                                                        www.iiste.org ISSN 2222-1697 (Paper) ISSN 2222-2847 (Online) Vol 3, No 8, 2012  130 The board exist in order to keep management accountable for the power its wield , when the chairman of the board is the CEO, management is accountable to a body led by management , the CEO is then put the position  of evaluating his own performance , creating a clear conflict of interest when the CEO control the quality , quantity and timing of the information that is presented to directors , they cannot be assured of getting what is needed for true independent oversight (monks and minnow (2001), additionally , when the CEO is also the chairman , he has incentive to tilt decisions and agenda toward protecting and advancing his career interest . Jensen 1993 argue that directors are more likely to acquiesce to the CEO  desire when the CEO  is also the chairman of the board , separation of the role of chairman and CEO  is also the chairman of the board , therefore should lead to more objective evaluation of the CEO and management and greater accountability (Hochberg 2003) Earning management and the board of directors meeting: Vafeas 1999 has demonstrated that board meet more often during periods of turmoil and the board meeting more often show improved financial performance. A board that meets more often should able to devote more time to issue such as earning management. A board that seldom meets may not focus on these issue and may perhaps only rubber – stamps management plans .(Xie et al , 2001) Earning management and ownership construction" An institutional ownership: One increasing important issue relating to investor concerns the role of institutional shareholders activism by pension funds and issuance companies such institutional investors often buy large stakes in firms and could take an active role in monitoring management, prior studies (del 1996, chung et al 2002) present that ownership by institutional investors is positively related to earning performance and corporate value (Mitanni, 2010)  Section 3: Methodology and data collection: Used an online survey sent through the website (www.esurveyspro.com) during the period 29\6\2012 to 31-7-2012, I received 34 response whish they been from the following categories:   27 from academics  3 from external auditors  1 from economists' expert  1 from real estate management  2 from financial management  === 34   total response of the survey  === In the following I propose the questions included in the surveys and the response for them: 1. There is a negative relationship between number of board of director (board size) and earning management  5.88% of the sample strongly agree, 47, 6 % agree, 35, 29% neutral, 8, 82%     disagree and 2, 94% strongly disagree. 2. There is a negative relationship between the number of board of directors meeting and earning management  5.88% of the sample strongly agree, 44, 12%agree, 29, 41% neutral, 14, 71%dissagree and 5.88%strongly disagree  3. There is a negative relationship between the board director duality and earning management  20, 59% strongly agree, 44, 18% agree, 26, 47% neutral an 11, 76% disagree 4. There is a negative relationship between the internal auditor experience and earning management  38, 24% strongly agree, 44, 12% agree, 14, 71%neutral, and 2, 94% disagree 5. There is a negative relationship between internal auditing certificate and earning management  11.76% strongly agree, 47, 06%agree, 29, 41%neutral, and 11, 76 disagree  Research Journal of Finance and Accounting                                                                                                        www.iiste.org ISSN 2222-1697 (Paper) ISSN 2222-2847 (Online) Vol 3, No 8, 2012  131 6. There is a negative relationship between the internal auditing training and earning management  26, 47%strongly agree, 47, 06% agree, 20, 59% neutral and 2.94% disagree  7. There is a negative relationship between the external auditors size and earning management  23, 53% strongly agree, 50% agree, 14, 71%neutral, 8.82%dissagree and 2.94%strongly disagree 8. There is a negative relationship between the presence of audit committee and earning management  38, 24%strongly agree, 52, 82%agree and8.82%neutral  9. There is a negative association between ownership construction and earning management in Egypt 26, 47% strongly agree, 50%agree, 17, 65% neutral and 5.88% disagree   Suggest research   This research paper is only a survey posted online and that has limited response so I suggest taking other sample without taken the industry different in consideration, and this research could retake by take measure of earning management and another research methodology and analysis   For audit committee I ask about the presence of audit committee, researcher could take the impact of audit committee characteristics on earning management   Or the influence of board of directors on earning management such as board composition, CEO compensation, --- extra In other way researcher can take the relationship between internal audits qualities on earning management finally this survey can take in another country   Reference: Davidson, Stewart & Kent, (2005)," internal audit function and earning management", accounting and finance, (45), pp.241-267 M.habbash , a. Salama, Dixon , hussainey ,(2012) , the effect of non executive directors committee and chairman independence on earning management , uk, evidence , working paper accepted to be published in journal of applied accounting research . Ayguin, suleyman , akif ,(2010) , corporate governance and earning management , an investigation on Turkish capital market , working paper for the 2 nd international symposium on sustainable development , June 8-9 -2010 , Sarajevo  Prawitt, smith, wood, (2009), internal audit quality and earning management, the accounting review, vol. (84), no. (4), pp.1255-1280 Lin and hwang ,(2010), audit quality , corporate governance and earning management : a meta analysis , international journal of auditing , vol.(14),no.(1), pp.57-77  Mohamed , Abdul rashied , shawtari ,( 2012), corporate governance and earning management  in Malaysian government :linked companies , the impact of glcs transformation policy , Asian review of accounting , vol( 20), issue 3  Ebrahim, (2007), earning management and board activity: additional evidence, review of accounting and finance, vol. (6), no. (1), pp.42-58  Siregar &Utama(2008), type of earning management and the effect of ownership structure , firms size and corporate governance practice – evidence from Indonesia , the international journal of accounting , vol(43), issue (1), pp.1-27 Hochberg (2003), essays in venture capital, corporate governance and earning management, www.proquest.com   Xie, Davidson, Dadalt, (2001), earning management and corporate governance, the role of the boards and the audit committee, www.ssrn.com  Mitanni, (2010), additional evidence on earnings management and corporate governance, discussion paper series, financial research and training center, www.google.com  Healy and Wahlen, (1998), a review of the earnings management literature and its implication for standards setting, www.ssrn.com   

The association between earning management and corporate governance – a survey from Egypt

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The association between earning management and corporate governance – a survey from Egypt

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