Managing Earnings through Small-Loss Avoidance in South Africa

The issue of earnings management has been of prominent global interests. Earnings management in the forms of loss avoidance have resulted to some notable corporate scandal amongst firms participating in capital markets. The study provides evidence on whether South African firms manipulate earnings t...

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Main Author: Adedeji Daniel GBADEBO
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: International Educational and Social Sciences Association (IESSA) 2023-12-01
Series:Journal of Studies in Social Sciences and Humanities
Subjects:
Online Access:http://www.jssshonline.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/JSSSH_Vol.8_No.4_2022_418-432_Sr.-No.6.pdf
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author Adedeji Daniel GBADEBO
author_facet Adedeji Daniel GBADEBO
author_sort Adedeji Daniel GBADEBO
collection DOAJ
description The issue of earnings management has been of prominent global interests. Earnings management in the forms of loss avoidance have resulted to some notable corporate scandal amongst firms participating in capital markets. The study provides evidence on whether South African firms manipulate earnings to avoid reporting small earnings change and losses. The paper involves all listed firms on the Johannesburg Securities Exchange (2005–2020), but the sample selection adapts to only 205 companies. Based on prior studies, the study supposes prevalence of earnings management towards small profits and applies the nonparametric permutation (Kolmogorov-Smirnov, K-S) test to verify two hypotheses: (a) that managing earnings practice does not differ between financial and non-financial industries (b) that financial crisis does not influence managed earnings phenomenon. Applying the K-S permutation algorithm for three different simulation (1,000, 3,000 and 10,000 replications) using sample of different size (10, 30, and 100) at each bootstrapping, the result provide sufficient evidence to reject our null for all repetitions. The results offer strong evidence to suppose that managing earnings practices differ between financial and non-financial industries and that financial crisis have influence on the distribution of earnings. This has implications for policy purpose to prevent possible corporate scandals through use of discretions.
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spelling doaj.art-b365eb459eb54d0d9badb9c422a5f1812023-02-16T17:16:33ZengInternational Educational and Social Sciences Association (IESSA)Journal of Studies in Social Sciences and Humanities2413-92702023-12-0184418432Managing Earnings through Small-Loss Avoidance in South AfricaAdedeji Daniel GBADEBO 0Department of Accounting Science, Walter Sisulu University, Mthatha, Eastern Cape, South AfricaThe issue of earnings management has been of prominent global interests. Earnings management in the forms of loss avoidance have resulted to some notable corporate scandal amongst firms participating in capital markets. The study provides evidence on whether South African firms manipulate earnings to avoid reporting small earnings change and losses. The paper involves all listed firms on the Johannesburg Securities Exchange (2005–2020), but the sample selection adapts to only 205 companies. Based on prior studies, the study supposes prevalence of earnings management towards small profits and applies the nonparametric permutation (Kolmogorov-Smirnov, K-S) test to verify two hypotheses: (a) that managing earnings practice does not differ between financial and non-financial industries (b) that financial crisis does not influence managed earnings phenomenon. Applying the K-S permutation algorithm for three different simulation (1,000, 3,000 and 10,000 replications) using sample of different size (10, 30, and 100) at each bootstrapping, the result provide sufficient evidence to reject our null for all repetitions. The results offer strong evidence to suppose that managing earnings practices differ between financial and non-financial industries and that financial crisis have influence on the distribution of earnings. This has implications for policy purpose to prevent possible corporate scandals through use of discretions. http://www.jssshonline.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/JSSSH_Vol.8_No.4_2022_418-432_Sr.-No.6.pdfearnings managementcorporate scandalpermutation testingkolmogorov-smirnov test
spellingShingle Adedeji Daniel GBADEBO
Managing Earnings through Small-Loss Avoidance in South Africa
Journal of Studies in Social Sciences and Humanities
earnings management
corporate scandal
permutation testing
kolmogorov-smirnov test
title Managing Earnings through Small-Loss Avoidance in South Africa
title_full Managing Earnings through Small-Loss Avoidance in South Africa
title_fullStr Managing Earnings through Small-Loss Avoidance in South Africa
title_full_unstemmed Managing Earnings through Small-Loss Avoidance in South Africa
title_short Managing Earnings through Small-Loss Avoidance in South Africa
title_sort managing earnings through small loss avoidance in south africa
topic earnings management
corporate scandal
permutation testing
kolmogorov-smirnov test
url http://www.jssshonline.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/JSSSH_Vol.8_No.4_2022_418-432_Sr.-No.6.pdf
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