خلاصة:
The purpose of this study is to examine the possible impact of value systems on earnings management in France, Tunisia and Canada. Cultural values include power distance, uncertainty avoidance, individualism, masculinity and long-term orientation. The cross-cultural study uses the method of structural equations trough LISREL approach. The examination covers the period between 2003 and 2009. Findings show first of all, that ecological factors are able to determine cultural dimensions in the sample countries. Secondly, we found that all studied cultural dimensions are able to define national culture in the sample countries. Yet, results indicate that only three of cultural dimensions are significant in explaining differences in earnings management in the studied context. In fact earnings management seems to be positively related to uncertainty avoidance and negatively related to power distance and individualism
ملخص الجهاز:
Yet, results indicate that only three of cultural dimensions are significant in explaining differences in earnings management in the studied context.
Keywords: Accounting practices, Discretionary accruals, Cultural dimensions, Structural equations method INTRODUCTION Earnings management determinants have taken a great deal in academic research.
First, our findings contribute to understand cross-national differences in earnings management and help clarifying the role of national culture in determining this practice over studied sample countries.
Empirical results are provided in section 4 and framework and has revolutionized researches studying the relationship between culture and management practices (Leung et al.
His work has been inspired from Hofstede (1980) and has been the basis for most research studying cultural effects in several ways such as international accounting (Doupnik and Salter, 1995; Belkaoui, 1995), disclosure practices (Tsakumis, 2007), audit practices (Cohen et al.
As provided in table 1, uncertainty avoidance negatively influences flexibility, transparency and professionalism, which leads to a decrease in the practice of earnings management (Guan et al.
However, contrary to our expectations, we did not find a significant relationship between earnings management and the two cultural dimensions masculinity and long-term orientation.