Assessment of the Effects of Firms Characteristics on Earnings Management of Listed Firms in Nigeria

Abstract

This study assessed the effects of firms’ characteristics on earnings management of listed companies in Nigeria. To achieve the objectives of this study, a total of 20 listed firms in the Nigerian stock exchange market were selected and analyzed for the study using the judgmental sampling technique. The corporate annual reports for the period 2006-2010 were used for the study. In testing the research hypothesis, the study adopted the use of both descriptive statistics and econometric analysis using the pooled ordinary least square regression for the listed sampled firms. Findings from the study revealed that while firm size and firms’ corporate strategy have a significant positive impact on earnings management (proxied by discretionary accruals); on the other hand, the relationship between firms’ financial leverage and discretionary accruals of the sampled firms in Nigeria was not significant. Thus, the study concludes that large firms tend to have higher motivations and more prospects to engage in the manipulation earnings and exaggerate earnings due to the intricacy of their operations and the complexity for users to identify overstatement.