EXTERNAL AUDITOR, BOARD ATTRIBUTES, ACCRUAL AND REAL EARNINGS MANAGEMENT LINKAGE: NEW EVIDENCE FROM EMERGING ECONOMY

Abstract

This paper further examines the influence of external auditor and board attributes on incidence of discretionary accruals and real earnings management in Nigeria. The sample size comprises fifty (50) purposively selected quoted non-financial firms for a 7 year period (2014–2020), culminating into a 350 dataset. The descriptive statistics depict absence of both discretionary accruals and real earnings management with either classifications dependent upon the auditor-type, board independence and profitability among quoted non-financial firms in Nigeria. The regression results indicate reduction in discretionary accruals owing to concerted audit efforts and lower board size while large profitable firms still possess the tendencies to use discretionary accruals in manipulating earnings. On real manipulative propensities by management, audit fees contribute greatly while auditor-type and presence of female directors on corporate boards exhibit negative and statistically significant association with real earnings management.