The Comparison between Accrual Earnings Management and Real Earnings Management

Earnings management is an important topic in modern financial accounting. With the development of social economy, practical circles and theory circles have studied the earnings management more and more carefully. In this paper, we will contrast accrual earnings management with real earnings management in definition, motivation, approach, and economic consequences, and hope to provide some suggestions for our government.

The Effect of Real Activities Manipulation on Accrual Earnings Management： The Case in Indonesia Stock Exchange （IDX）

There are three ways to manage earnings, namely, accruals earnings management, real activities manipulation, and shifting of core expense. The famous methods to manage earnings are accruals earnings management and real activities manipulation. Usually, real activities manipulation is conducted on the going period. The action will increase the loss for the firms at the end of the period. To avoid the loss, managers will manage earnings through accruals （discretionary accruals）. Therefore, the objective of this study is to investigate whether real activities manipulation positively influences accruals earnings management. To investigate the issue, this study collected data from Indonesia Stock Exchange （IDX）. Samples of this study are the manufacturing companies. There are 196 firms from the year 2003 to 2007. The results of this study support the research hypothesis that real activities manipulation positively influences accruals earnings management. The higher the real activities manipulation effects, the higher the accruals earnings management at the end of the period.There are three ways to manage earnings, namely, accruals earnings management, real activities manipulation, and shifting of core expense. The famous methods to manage earnings are accruals earnings management and real activities manipulation. Usually, real activities manipulation is conducted on the going period. The action will increase the loss for the firms at the end of the period. To avoid the loss, managers will manage earnings through accruals （discretionary accruals）. Therefore, the objective of this study is to investigate whether real activities manipulation positively influences accruals earnings management. To investigate the issue, this study collected data from Indonesia Stock Exchange （IDX）. Samples of this study are the manufacturing companies. There are 196 firms from the year 2003 to 2007. The results of this study support the research hypothesis that real activities manipulation positively influences accruals earnings management. The higher the real activities manipulation effects, the higher the accruals earnings management at the end of the period.

Earnings Management and Fraudulent Financial Reporting： The Malaysian Story

Earnings management research has a long and rich history. The agency conflict, incentives, rationalization, opportunity plus having the capability among the managers to manipulate the financial statements lead them to commit fraud. The loopholes in the standards or the deviation from real operational activities promote this situation to prolong. In relation to this issue, this study examines the earnings management behavior among fraud firms in Malaysia. Further, this study examines the relationship between accruals earnings management as a proxy variable for discretionary accruals and real earnings management as the proxy variable for discretionary cash flow. Sample of 57 alleged fraud firms was selected based on the fraudulent financial reporting offences announced in Bursa Malaysia website. The sample data are collected from public firms which committed fraud from 2001 to 2013. This study found a significant negative relationship between accruals earnings management and real earnings management among the fraud firms in Malaysia suggesting that these firms aggressively manage earnings downwards or upwards essentially to avoid regulators scrutiny apart from aiming to achieve personal incentives. The study significantly finds evidence that fraud firms manage earnings on a sequential basis between accruals earnings management and real earnings management prior to fraud year. The findings indicate that firms opt for real earnings management and make full use of its distinguished features of not easily traceable to continue managing earnings immediately subsequent to fraud year. This study may assist regulators, auditors, and policymakers to curb earnings management patterns that have high likelihood of becoming part of fraud antecedent.