The impact of social ties and gender diversity on earnings quality
Keywords
Loading...
Authors
Issue Date
2017-07-13
Language
en
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Abstract
This research investigates the influence of social ties between the CEOs and board members and the gender of these CEOs on the quality of the earnings, measured by earnings management. Several accounting scandals in the last years have increased the scrutiny on financial reporting and have highlighted the importance of good corporate governance. In order to reduce agency conflicts, the board should be independent and diversified. Social ties could impair the independence, although the prior literature fails to deliver conclusive results. This study expects a negative relation between socially connected CEOs and earnings quality. Gender diversity is also a heavily discussed topic in a business setting. The general belief is that women are more ethical at the workplace, suggesting that they engage in less earnings management and therefore higher earnings quality. A sample of 99 UK listed firms, comprising 198 observations covering the period of two years (2015 and 2016) is used to test the hypothesis. Although no significant results were found, which indicates no relation between social connectedness, gender and quality of the reported earnings, the study is important in advancing the knowledge about social ties and gender in earnings management.
Description
Citation
Supervisor
Faculty
Faculteit der Managementwetenschappen