The impact of creative accounting methods on earnings per share

• Main Authors: Nancy Al-Natsheh, Saleh Al-Okdeh
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Growing Science 2020-04-01
• Series: Management Science Letters
• Subjects: Creative Accounting; Earnings Management; Income Smoothing; Earnings Per Share
• Online Access: http://www.growingscience.com/msl/Vol10/msl_2019_297.pdf

This study was aimed at investigating the impact of creative accounting methods called “Earnings Manage-ment and Income Smoothing” on earnings per share in the Jordanian industrial companies. The model of Dechow et al. (1995) [Dechow, P. M., Sloan, R. G., & Sweeney, A. P. (1995). Detecting earnings management. Accounting Review, 70(2), 193-225.] was adopted to measure earnings management, and the model of Francis et al. (2004) [Francis, J., LaFond, R., Olsson, P. M., & Schipper, K. (2004). Costs of equity and earnings attributes. The accounting review, 79(4), 967-1010.] was adopted to measure income smoothing. In order to achieve the objectives of the study, the analytical quantitative approach was adopted. The study community consisted of the 57 industrial companies listed on the Amman Stock Exchange (ASE). As for the study sample, 36 companies were selected according to the target sample method in the period from 2008 to 2017. The results showed that there was a statistically significant impact of using the creative accounting methods on earnings per share in the industrial companies listed on the ASE, and there was an impact of practicing both earnings management and income smoothing on earnings per share in the industrial companies listed on the ASE. The results also showed that 27.8% of the industrial companies practiced earning management, while 47.2% of the industrial companies practiced income smoothing.