Earnings management and initial public offerings among Indonesian manufacturing companies

This study examines the relationship between corporate social responsibility (CSR) and earnings management after controlling for endogeneity of CSR. Using a sample of non-financial firms listed on Korean Securities Market between 2002 and 2010, this study finds that ignoring endogeneity biases the estimated relation between CSR and earnings management. Specifically, the results show that the negative and significant relation between CSR commitment and discretionary accruals reported in the previous studies becomes insignificant. However, the negative and significant relation between CSR commitment and real activities manipulation remains significant even when the endogeneity of CSR commitment is taken into account. Therefore, this study provides evidence that proactive CSR engagement significantly affects firm’s practice of real activities manipulation, while it does not affect its practice of discretionary accruals. These results indicate that CSR commitment leads managers to be more responsible in management of operational activities than in accruals management.

This study examines the effect of foreign directors in the board of directors on the monitoring function by analyzing the association between foreign directors and opportunistic financial reporting. The authors address this question by examining the effect of the foreign directors in the board on firms’ discretionary accruals and book-tax difference. The researchers analyze by using Korean firm data for the years 2001–2014 as Korea is one of the few countries that nepotism is strong within the board, providing the ideal setting to analyze the effect of foreign directors on the monitoring function of the board. The authors find that foreign directors have a positive effect on the monitoring function of the board, as discretionary accruals and book-tax differences of firms with foreign directors are lower than those without foreign directors. Further, the researchers find that the positive effect of foreign directors on the monitoring function is more pronounced if foreign directors are independent directors or expertise in accounting or finance. Overall, the findings support the view that foreign directors in the board increase the board diversity, which increases the independence of the board and so the monitoring function.

Banks are expected to operate within acceptable standards of governance for consistent profitable operations. They run heavily on customer deposits, which is confidence-driven. Since the quality of governance is critical to winning and retaining customer confidence and patronage, the imperative for good governance practices in banks cannot be overemphasized. This research paper explores the nexus between governance practices and bank profitability in Nigeria. It adopts the size of bank board and directors’ stake as proxies for corporate governance, with return on assets and return on equity as representations for financial performance. The research incorporates firm size as a controlled variable. The estimation technique of the Generalized Method of Moments was employed. Evidence from the research reveals that board size, directors’ equity, and firm size substantially affect Nigerian banks’ financial performance. Besides, the study shows a robust effect of lagged return on equity on the current level of performance. Therefore, the study asserts that governance in business entities strongly affects their financial performance and recommends maintaining optimum board size to minimize boardroom conflicts. It further prescribes that the requirement for substantial equity stake by directors of banking institutions be sustained, as it secures commitment to governance practices that support profitability.

Acknowledgment
The authors acknowledge the support of Covenant University towards the publication of this paper.