The present study investigates the relationship between audit quality and earnings management in banks listed on the Stock Exchange of Iraq and Oman. This paper used audit firm size, auditors’ industry expertise, audit report timeliness, auditor change, and auditors’ opinions to measure audit quality. Financial statements, notes attached to financial statements, and reports of independent auditors of 28 banks listed on the Iraqi Stock Exchange and 8 banks listed on the Oman Stock Exchange during the financial period of 7 years (2015 to 2021), and hypotheses were tested using EViews software and panel data. The results of the hypothesis testing showed no significant relationship between the firm size and the auditors’ change and earnings management for both countries (Iraq and Oman). This is while the relationship between the auditor’s industry expertise, the timely presentation of the audit report, and the auditor’s opinion and earnings management for both countries (Iraq and Oman) is negative.

In the process of seeking sustainable development, enterprises have chosen international business strategy. The purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between the degree of internationalization of Chinese listed firms and financial reporting quality, as well as whether audit committees can moderate the impact of enterprise internationalization on financial reporting quality. The empirical analysis results of Chinese listed manufacturing firms from 2014 to 2018 show that: the degree of corporate internationalization has a significant U-shaped relationship with earnings management. This new finding solves the problem that scholars have inconsistent views on the internationalization of enterprises and the quality of financial reporting. The study also found that audit committees with experience working in accounting firms can inhibit firm earnings management behavior in the early stage of internationalization; audit committees with experience working overseas can inhibit firm earnings management behavior in the later stage of internationalization; the higher the remuneration of audit committee experts, the more it can inhibit firm earnings management behavior in the early stage of internationalization. In the later stage of internationalization, the higher the remuneration of audit committee experts, it helps the earnings management behavior of firms. This provides new evidence on the functioning of the audit committee’s role; however, the independence of the audit committee and the proportion of financial experts do not have a significant effect on the inhibition of earnings management.

Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system utilization and Environmental, Governance, Social (ESG) practice incorporation have jointly wielded significant influence on various aspects of accounting operations. On the other side, leveraging the robust information infrastructure, Taiwanese firms have widely implemented ERP systems and have been aligning with international ESG initiatives in recent years. The objective of this study is to investigate the impact of ERP utilization and ESG practices on real and accrual earnings management among firms listed in Taiwan over an 19-year span from 2003 to 2021. The results of this study suggest duration of ERP implementation has a negative impact on accruals earnings management, but has a positively influence on real management. The results underscore the significant influence of ERP utilization duration on the different aspects of corporate earnings management activity. Additionally, our investigation illustrates a negative association between the corporate assimilation of ESG practices and both real and accrual earnings management. This reveals that enterprises committed to implementing ESG practices highlight long-term substantive operations over the short term periodic performance of financial statements.

This study uses the annual financial data of Chinese A-share listed firms from 2010 to 2020 to investigate the relationship between multiple large shareholders (MLS) and earnings management (EM). After analyzing the samples using the Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) model and endogenous switching regression (ESR) model, the empirical results show that the presence of MLS can increase corporate EM activities and the MLS have a significantly positive effect on EM in both the treatment and control groups. In addition, this conclusion still holds after conducting multiple robustness tests. The cross-section analysis shows that the external audit supervision quality, institutional shareholders, and the uncertainty of the external economic environment have significant impacts on the baseline model results. Lastly, mediation effect analysis shows that the presence of MLS increases the corporate operating risk through EM activities. The conclusions of this paper are critical for policymakers to supervise China’s capital market, improve the level of corporate governance of China’s listed firms, and further promote reform of ownership structure.

The study’s objectives are to investigate the relationships between earnings management, government ownership, and corporate performance in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) region during the period 2017–2021, utilizing a dataset comprising 188 companies. It further explores the moderating role of government ownership in the association between earnings management and company performance. The study used the panel regression data analysis to investigate the relationship between the variables under the study. Employing linear regression and moderated linear regression, the research discerns notable patterns. The result shows a positive effect emerges between government ownership and corporate performance. Conversely, the result shows a negative association is observed between earnings management and corporate performance. Finally, the moderating role of government ownership in GCC countries is a good governance mechanism to mitigate the agency problem.