本研究以我國1994年至2003年由四大會計師事務所查核簽證之上市上櫃公司為研究對象，探討會計師之產業專精與任期及其交互作用對於查核品質之影響，其中以裁決性應計數作為查核品質之代理變數，並同時採用會計師事務所及合夥會計師在特定產業之市場佔有率，作為產業專家之衡量指標。實證結果發現，產業專家可以限制受查客戶透過裁決性應計數從事盈餘管理，而以合夥會計師為基礎所計算之市場佔有率較會計師事務所為基礎所計算之市場佔有率，更能解釋審計品質的差異。在任期方面，研究結果顯示，會計師任期愈長愈能限制盈餘管理，而任期對於裁決性應計數絕對値之影響係反映於任期較長會計師之查核年資。但進一步檢測會計師對管理當局操弄盈餘向上或向下的態度是否隨著任期之增長而有所不同時，本研究發現，當管理當局操弄盈餘使其降低時，會計師任期增長愈能抑制管理當局向下操弄盈餘以預留未來盈餘空間；而在管理當局操弄盈餘使其增加時，會計師任期增長則沒有理由支持具查核品質。此外，在產業專家與任期之交互作用對查核品質影響方面，實證結果發現，產業專家會計師抑制盈餘管理的能力較非產業專家好，所以較不須要透過任期的增加來提升其偵測盈餘管理的能力。 / This study uses the sample comprised of listed and OTC firms in Taiwan during 1994-2003 and examines the effects of auditor industry specialization, auditor tenure and the interaction on audit quality. I use discretionary accruals as proxies for audit quality and industry specialization is measured in terms of both audit firm market share in an industry and auditor market share in an industry. My empirical results provide evidence that industry specialist auditors can restrict accruals-based earnings management and explain the differentiation of audit quality more than industry specialist audit firms. About auditor tenure, I find that absolute discretionary accruals decline with auditor tenure and tenure traced at the longer auditor tenure is superior to shorter auditor tenure. The results show that longer auditor tenure enhances audit quality. In addition, a further analysis shows that the clients have motivations on income-decreasing earnings management, auditors can limit management’s ability to create reserve to manage future earnings. But the clients have motivations on income-increasing earnings management, the study did not provide sufficient evidences to explain that audit quality is improved with tenure. Besides, the result of empirical analysis support my estimation about the interaction between auditor industry specialization and auditor tenure. The industry specialist auditors mitigate earnings management more than nonspecialist auditors and don’t enhance audit quality through extending auditor tenure.

O gerenciamento de resultados, conforme definição da Comissão de Valores Mobiliários (CVM), órgão regulador do mercado de capitais brasileiro, é o julgamento arbitrário no processo de reportar as demonstrações financeiras, com o objetivo de influenciar ou manipular os números apresentados, ainda que dentro dos limites prescritos pela legislação contábil e fiscal. Esta tese teve como objetivo principal delinear o perfil das empresas brasileiras com maior propensão ao gerenciamento de resultados. Com este objetivo, foi investigado se existe um padrão de accruals discricionárias (proxy de gerenciamento adotada) entre categorias de variáveis qualitativas e quantitativas que representam os incentivos das empresas a praticar o gerenciamento. As variáveis analisadas incluíram indicadores econômicos, de mercado, medidas de concentração acionária e tamanho, características relacionadas à qualidade da governança, relacionamento com a auditoria, remuneração de executivos, captação de recursos em bolsa estrangeira e sanção do órgão regulador. A amostra analisada abrangeu empresas brasileiras de capital aberto, não financeiras, com ações negociadas na Bolsa de Valores de São Paulo (BOVESPA). O período de estudo foi 1997 a 2006. Os dados foram analisados através de técnicas univariadas e multivariadas. Verificou-se que maiores níveis de accruals podem ser associados a empresas com maior expectativa de crescimento, maior exposição ao risco e menor concentração acionária. Para as variáveis rentabilidade patrimonial, operacional, endividamento e rentabilidade do acionista, maiores valores de accruals foram associados tanto a menores como a maiores níveis destas variáveis. Encontrou-se que são mais propensas a praticar o gerenciamento as empresas não listadas nos segmentos especiais da Bovespa, que não apresentam programa de ADR, que têm plano de opções, que apresentam contratação de serviços não relacionados à auditoria junto ao auditor independente, com valor superior a 5% dos serviços de auditoria e que têm parecer de auditoria com ressalva. Adicionalmente, foi investigado o perfil das empresas brasileiras solicitadas a republicar suas demonstrações financeiras (DF) pela CVM. Estas empresas, de acordo com pesquisas em gerenciamento, podem ser tomadas como intencionalmente envolvidas em manipulação. Observou-se que, em relação às empresas não solicitadas a republicar suas DF, as empresas que foram objeto desta solicitação apresentaram maior endividamento, menor liquidez contábil, menor rentabilidade patrimonial, maior (quando medida pela margem de ebitda) e menor (quando medida pelo retorno sobre as vendas) rentabilidade operacional, menor rentabilidade para o acionista, menor exposição ao risco, menor expectativa de crescimento, maior concentração acionária, menor volatilidade dos retornos das ações e menores accruals discricionárias. No exercício para o qual o refazimento foi solicitado, a maioria não era listada nos segmentos especiais da Bovespa, não apresentava programas de ADR, não tinha plano de opções, foi auditada por Big Four e obteve parecer sem ressalva do auditor. / Earnings management, as the brazilian capital market regulator defines, is the arbitrary judgement in the financial statements reporting, with the goal to influence or manipulate the accounting numbers, even if it remains between the limits of tax and accounting legislation. The main goal of this work was to investigate the profile of the brazilian firms with more incentives to practice the earnings management. With this goal, it was investigated if there is a pattern of discretionary accruals between categories of quantitative and qualitative variables that represent the incentives to practice earnings management. It was investigated if there is relation between earnings mangament and levels of accounting and market based measures, ownership concentration and size. Aditionally it was investigated if the governance quality, the relationship with auditors, the executive compensation, the existence of ADR programs and restated financial statements influences the earnings management practice. The sample analised was non-financial brazilian public traded companies, with stocks traded in the São Paulo Stock Exchange (Bovespa). The investigation period was from 1997 to 2006. Univariate and multivariate analysis was applied to the data. It was found that higher accruals levels can be associated to companies with higher growth expectation, higher risk exposure and lower ownership concentration. It was found that companies with both higher and lower levels of operating profitability, equity profitability, stockholder profitability and debt have higher accruals levels. Companies not listed in the governance levels of Bovespa, without ADR programs, with option plans, with non-relating auditing contracts with their auditors and with qualifed opinion have more probability to practice the earnings management. It was also investigated the restated brazilian firms profile. This companies, according to earnings management research, are intentionally involved in manipulation. It was found that this companies, related to the not restated firms, have higher debt levels, lower liquidity, lower equity profitability, higher and lower operating profitability, lower stockholder profitability, lower risk exposure, lower growth expectation, higher ownership concentration and lower discretionary accruals. The most of them wasn´t listed in the Bovespa governance levels, don’t have ADR programs, option plans, was audited by Big Four and had unqualified opinion in the time of the restated.

Ce travail de recherche vise à identifier, d'une part le comportement comptable des dirigeants de la société initiatrice d'une opération de fusion acquisition et d'autre part les déterminants de ce comportement comptable. Les contributions de cette thèse sont d'ordre théorique, méthodologique et managérial. Sur le plan théorique, cette thèse permet de compléter les travaux antérieurs s'inscrivant dans le cadre des prolongements de la théorie politico contractuelle dans un contexte spécifique à savoir les fusions-acquisitions. Outre la détection de la gestion des résultats, ce travail s'intéresse à l'étude de ses déterminants notamment les déterminants contextuels qui sont rarement testés. Sur le plan méthodologique, cette recherche présente un double intérêt. Premièrement, elle commence par une étude du cas clinique, Sagem-Snecma, pour tester l'existence de la gestion de résultat dans ce contexte particulier, puis la généraliser sur l'échantillon d'entreprises françaises sur la période 2001-2007. Deuxièmement, cette thèse, utilise un modèle de mesure de gestion des résultats, qui n'a pas été utilisé dans le contexte du fusion-absorption (modèle du Dechow et al (2003)) et le compare avec le modèle de Jones modifié. Sur le plan managérial, cette recherche permet aux utilisateurs de l'information comptable lors d'une opération de fusion-acquisition de mieux interpréter les états financiers des sociétés participantes à l'opération. Elle peut contribuer aussi à faire avancer les réflexions des normalisateurs quant aux dispositions réglementant ces opérations en révélant l'ampleur des choix comptables. / This research aims to identify the accounting behaviour of managers of acquiring firms, on the one hand and the determinantes of that accounting behaviour on the other hand. The contributions of this research are theoretical, methodological and managerial. Theoretically, this research permits the completion of anterior tasks involved in the framework extensions of the political theory of contract in a specific context namely mergers and acquisitions. In addition to detection of earnings management, this research focuses on the study of the determinants of performance management including contextual determinants that are rarely tested. Methodologically, this research presents a double interest. First, it begins with a clinical case, Sagem -Snecma, to test the existence of earning management in this specific context and then generalize about the entire sample of French firms over the period 2001-2007. Second, it uses a recent measurement model of earning management, which has not been used in the context of the merger and acquisition, (model of Dechow et al (2003)) then it compares it with modified Jones model. At last, this research allows users of accounting information during a merger or acquisition to interpret better the financial statements of companies participating in the operation of mergers and acquisitions It may also help advance thinking about the normalizers provisions regulating these operations by revealing the extent of accounting choices.

O gerenciamento de resultados, conforme definição da Comissão de Valores Mobiliários (CVM), órgão regulador do mercado de capitais brasileiro, é o julgamento arbitrário no processo de reportar as demonstrações financeiras, com o objetivo de influenciar ou manipular os números apresentados, ainda que dentro dos limites prescritos pela legislação contábil e fiscal. Esta tese teve como objetivo principal delinear o perfil das empresas brasileiras com maior propensão ao gerenciamento de resultados. Com este objetivo, foi investigado se existe um padrão de accruals discricionárias (proxy de gerenciamento adotada) entre categorias de variáveis qualitativas e quantitativas que representam os incentivos das empresas a praticar o gerenciamento. As variáveis analisadas incluíram indicadores econômicos, de mercado, medidas de concentração acionária e tamanho, características relacionadas à qualidade da governança, relacionamento com a auditoria, remuneração de executivos, captação de recursos em bolsa estrangeira e sanção do órgão regulador. A amostra analisada abrangeu empresas brasileiras de capital aberto, não financeiras, com ações negociadas na Bolsa de Valores de São Paulo (BOVESPA). O período de estudo foi 1997 a 2006. Os dados foram analisados através de técnicas univariadas e multivariadas. Verificou-se que maiores níveis de accruals podem ser associados a empresas com maior expectativa de crescimento, maior exposição ao risco e menor concentração acionária. Para as variáveis rentabilidade patrimonial, operacional, endividamento e rentabilidade do acionista, maiores valores de accruals foram associados tanto a menores como a maiores níveis destas variáveis. Encontrou-se que são mais propensas a praticar o gerenciamento as empresas não listadas nos segmentos especiais da Bovespa, que não apresentam programa de ADR, que têm plano de opções, que apresentam contratação de serviços não relacionados à auditoria junto ao auditor independente, com valor superior a 5% dos serviços de auditoria e que têm parecer de auditoria com ressalva. Adicionalmente, foi investigado o perfil das empresas brasileiras solicitadas a republicar suas demonstrações financeiras (DF) pela CVM. Estas empresas, de acordo com pesquisas em gerenciamento, podem ser tomadas como intencionalmente envolvidas em manipulação. Observou-se que, em relação às empresas não solicitadas a republicar suas DF, as empresas que foram objeto desta solicitação apresentaram maior endividamento, menor liquidez contábil, menor rentabilidade patrimonial, maior (quando medida pela margem de ebitda) e menor (quando medida pelo retorno sobre as vendas) rentabilidade operacional, menor rentabilidade para o acionista, menor exposição ao risco, menor expectativa de crescimento, maior concentração acionária, menor volatilidade dos retornos das ações e menores accruals discricionárias. No exercício para o qual o refazimento foi solicitado, a maioria não era listada nos segmentos especiais da Bovespa, não apresentava programas de ADR, não tinha plano de opções, foi auditada por Big Four e obteve parecer sem ressalva do auditor. / Earnings management, as the brazilian capital market regulator defines, is the arbitrary judgement in the financial statements reporting, with the goal to influence or manipulate the accounting numbers, even if it remains between the limits of tax and accounting legislation. The main goal of this work was to investigate the profile of the brazilian firms with more incentives to practice the earnings management. With this goal, it was investigated if there is a pattern of discretionary accruals between categories of quantitative and qualitative variables that represent the incentives to practice earnings management. It was investigated if there is relation between earnings mangament and levels of accounting and market based measures, ownership concentration and size. Aditionally it was investigated if the governance quality, the relationship with auditors, the executive compensation, the existence of ADR programs and restated financial statements influences the earnings management practice. The sample analised was non-financial brazilian public traded companies, with stocks traded in the São Paulo Stock Exchange (Bovespa). The investigation period was from 1997 to 2006. Univariate and multivariate analysis was applied to the data. It was found that higher accruals levels can be associated to companies with higher growth expectation, higher risk exposure and lower ownership concentration. It was found that companies with both higher and lower levels of operating profitability, equity profitability, stockholder profitability and debt have higher accruals levels. Companies not listed in the governance levels of Bovespa, without ADR programs, with option plans, with non-relating auditing contracts with their auditors and with qualifed opinion have more probability to practice the earnings management. It was also investigated the restated brazilian firms profile. This companies, according to earnings management research, are intentionally involved in manipulation. It was found that this companies, related to the not restated firms, have higher debt levels, lower liquidity, lower equity profitability, higher and lower operating profitability, lower stockholder profitability, lower risk exposure, lower growth expectation, higher ownership concentration and lower discretionary accruals. The most of them wasn´t listed in the Bovespa governance levels, don’t have ADR programs, option plans, was audited by Big Four and had unqualified opinion in the time of the restated.

Esta tese tem o objetivo principal de demonstrar empiricamente que as companhias abertas brasileiras "gerenciam" os seus resultados contábeis como resposta a estímulos do mercado de capitais. Inicialmente, é elucidado o significado de alguns conceitos, tais como "gerenciamento" dos resultados contábeis e acumulações discricionárias. Discute-se o perfil do mercado de capitais brasileiro e as circunstâncias ambientais nas quais são gerados os relatórios contábeis financeiros das companhias abertas brasileiras, enfatizando-se o papel dos órgãos reguladores e da legislação comercial e tributária. A seguir, depois da revisão da literatura brasileira e estrangeira na área de "gerenciamento" dos resultados contábeis, documentaram-se evidências para as companhias abertas brasileiras do "gerenciamento" dos resultados contábeis para: a) Evitar reportar perdas, b) Sustentar o desempenho recente e c) Reduzir a variabilidade dos resultados. O período de estudo foi os anos entre 1995 e 1999, tendo como base de dados principal a Economática. Empiricamente, foi implementado um modelo de regressão múltipla para estimar as Acumulações Discricionárias, que são proxy do valor discricionariamente alterado dos resultados contábeis. Com base na pesquisa, verificou-se que as empresas brasileiras com resultados muito ruins os manejam de maneira a piorá-los ainda mais, visando melhores resultados no futuro. Em termos de desempenho no mercado, constatou-se que empresas que manejam "artificialmente" os resultados conseguem no curto prazo seduzir os investidores; entretanto, no longo prazo, o mercado identifica o procedimento e essas ações são penalizadas com os piores desempenhos acumulados. Nos apêndices, é estudada a influência da Governança Corporativa e da Auditoria Independente na propensão à prática do "gerenciamento" dos resultados contábeis, bem como é estimado o coeficiente de resposta dos retornos das companhias abertas brasileiras aos resultados contábeis. / This thesis has the main purpose to present empirical evidence that Brazilian public companies practice earnings management as a response to capital market incentives. Initially, some important concepts are elucidated, such as earnings management and discretionary accruals. In addition, specific aspects of Brazilian capital market, as well as its financial reporting environment are briefly discussed. After a literature review in this area of Earnings management, it will be documented evidences that Brazilian public companies manage their earnings to: a) Avoid reporting losses; b) Sustain recent performance and c) Income smoothing. The study period of the empirical analysis is between 1995 and 1999, and the most important source of information is Economática. As part of the research, It was implemented a multiple regression model to estimate discretionary accruals, that are used as proxies for the amount of earnings management. Among several observations, it was verified that Brazilian companies practice big bath accounting, so in case of bad results, the companies manage their earnings to report even worse losses, in order to have better future earnings. In terms of performance in the stock market, it was documented that companies that artificially manage their results, towards income decreasing or income increasing, can fool the market in the short run, but in the long run the investors realize the procedure, and their stocks will underperform the market. In the appendixes of this thesis some factors that can reduce earnings management are discussed, such as Corporate Governance and Independent Auditing. Other short analysis is the estimation of the earnings response coefficient for Brazilian public companies.

En gestion des entreprises, l’audit est un mécanisme clé de gouvernance en contribuant notamment à améliorer la qualité du reporting financier et réduisant, par là-même, l’asymétrie d’information entre les parties prenantes. Pour assurer un tel dessein, l’audit doit être de bonne qualité, c’est-à-dire, diligenté par des auditeurs à la fois compétents et indépendants. Au plan académique, depuis les travaux fondateurs de Watts et Zimmerman (1979), et DeAngelo (1981), la difficulté d’opérationnalisation de la qualité de l’audit reste présente, compte tenu du caractère inobservable de cette procédure. Fort de ce constat, cette recherche doctorale propose un cadre analytique de l’audit utile à l’étude empirique de ses conséquences économiques pour les parties prenantes de l’entreprise. En premier lieu, dans un contexte institutionnel dit d’audit implicite – l’UEMOA – et à partir d’un échantillon constitué de banques, au cours de la période 2006-2010, nous montrons qu’un audit de qualité s’avère complémentaire aux mécanismes de gouvernance traditionnels. Dans un second temps, dans un contexte institutionnel dit d’audit explicite – la France –, nous proposons une mesure originale de l’indépendance de l’auditeur afin d’étudier ses conséquences économiques pour les sociétés cotées. A partir d’un échantillon constitué de sociétés cotées au CAC All-Tradable, pour la période allant de 2006 à 2013, nous concluons que le renforcement de l’indépendance des auditeurs, aussi bien individuelle que collective, impacte significativement (1) la qualité des états financiers divulgués à travers une amélioration de la qualité des résultats, (2) le comportement des investisseurs à travers le coût du capital et (3) les prévisions des analystes financiers dans le contexte particulier des tests de dépréciation du goodwill. / In business management, audit seems to be a key element of corporate governance which contributes to improve the quality of financial reporting. For this purpose, it plays an essential role in reducing the information asymmetry between stakeholders and in ensuring the credibility of accounting numbers disclosed. Firms must be audited by competent and independent auditors. In this academic area, since the seminal studies of Watts and Zimmerman (1979), and DeAngelo (1981), the operationalization of audit quality remains critical for researchers, because of its unobservable character. This thesis, hereby, proposes an analytical framework for audit and empirically examines the economic consequences of this procedure for stakeholders. On the one hand, focusing on an institutional context of implied audit (i.e. WAEMU), and based on a sample made of commercial banks over 2006-2010, we find that audit quality through mandatory joint audit is complementary to traditional corporate governance mechanisms. On the other hand, under an explicit audit context, we test an original proxy for audit quality and study its economic consequences for French listed companies over the period 2006-2013. Our results suggest that the higher single and joint auditor independence are, (1) the better earnings quality is, (2) the less implied cost of equity is, (3) the higher disclosure on goodwill impairment testing is, which leads financial analysts to greater earnings forecast revisions.

本研究以中國大陸2013年至2015年的A股上市公司為研究對象，探討總、分所審計對審計品質之影響。審計品質則以審計意見與可操縱應計盈餘衡量。研究結果發現，本土八大會計師事務所總所比分所出具非標準無保留意見的概率更高，被審計公司的可操縱應計盈餘更小。本研究藉此結果推論，本土八大會計師會計師事務所總所比分所提供更好的審計品質。另外本研究也用Heckman 模型和PSM 模型來克服回歸式的自選擇問題。另外研究進行了的敏感性測試和增額測試，實證結果是穩健的。 / The objective of this thesis is to examine the association between headquarter office auditors and audit quality. This paper uses audit opinion and discretionary accruals to proxy for audit quality. Using a sample of firm-year observations in China during 2013-2015, I find that headquarter office auditors of local “Big 8” is positively associated with higher audit quality. More specifically, the empirical results indicate that firms audited by headquarter office auditors of local “Big 8” experience lower discretionary accruals and are more likely to issue modified audit opinion than branch offices of local “Big 8”. The results are robust after controlling for self-selection bias issue, alternative measures of headquarter office auditors and alternative proxies for audit quality. In sum, this paper provide strong evidence on the notion that head office of local Big8 audit firms have better audit quality than branch office.

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Titel: Earnings management i svenska kommuner Nivå: Examensarbete på Grundnivå (kandidatexamen) i ämnet företagsekonomi Författare: Frida Johansson och Jonas Magnusson Handledare: Jan Svanberg Datum: 2022 – januari Syfte: Syftet med studien var att undersöka och kartlägga huruvida earnings management i form av diskretionära periodiseringar förekommer i svenska kommuner. Metod: I studien har en kvantitativ forskningsstrategi tillämpats, med en longitudinell forskningsdesign. Finansiell information rapporterad från de 289 svenska kommunerna inhämtades från Statistiska Centralbyråns databas för räkenskapsåren 2017–2020. Insamlad data har testats med hjälp av multipla regressionsanalyser och har analyserats via statistikprogrammet SPSS. Resultat & slutsats: Resultatet relaterat till studiens första hypotes påvisade ett starkt signifikant, negativt samband mellan den relativa förändringen i periodiseringskostnader och större underliggande underskott innan dessa periodiseringskostnader. Det negativa sambandet kan tolkas som att de svenska kommunerna inte är benägna att belasta större underskott med ytterligare periodiseringskostnader enligt teorin om reningsbad. Utifrån resultatet falsifieras studiens första hypotes. Resultatet kopplat till studiens andra hypotes påvisade ett mindre signifikant samband, vilket ger, om än icke signifikant, visst stöd till antagandet om att de svenska kommunerna strävar efter att rapportera moderata överskott. Utifrån resultatet falsifieras dock även studiens andra hypotes. Uppsatsens bidrag till ämnet: Studien bidrar till att fylla forskningsgapet gällande earnings management i de svenska kommunerna genom förekomsten av diskretionära periodiseringar. Studien bidrar även till ett nytt teoretiskt perspektiv genom att föra in resultatutjämningsreserven i förklaringsmodellen till varför graden av earnings management i de svenska kommunerna minskat i omfattning. Förslag till fortsatt forskning: Ett förslag till vidare forskning vore att undersöka om förekomsten av reningsbad och resultatutjämning som metod skiljer sig åt mellan kommuner de år ett val äger rum eller när en revision har skett. En annan synvinkel hade varit att genomföra studien med en kvalitativ inriktning. Detta då det endast finns ett fåtal tidigare studier gällande earnings management inom kommunsektorn som har använt sig av en kvalitativ metod. / Title: Earnings management in Swedish municipalities Level: Student thesis, final assignment for Bachelor Degree in Business Administration Author: Frida Johansson and Jonas Magnusson Supervisor: Jan Svanberg Date: 2022 – January Aim: The aim of the study was to investigate and identify whether earnings management in terms of discretionary accruals occur in Swedish municipalities. Method: In this study, a quantitative research strategy has been applied, with a longitudinal research design. Financial information reported from the 289 Swedish municipalities was obtained from Statistics Sweden database for the financial years 2017-2020. The collected data was tested using multiple regression analyses and is analyzed through the statistical program SPSS. Result & Conclusions: The results related to the first hypothesis of the study demonstrated a strongly significant, negative relationship between the relative change in accrual costs and larger underlying deficits before these accruals. The negative relationship was interpreted as if Swedish municipalities are not likely to burden larger deficits with additional accruals, according to the theory of big bath accounting. Based on the results, the first hypothesis of the study was falsified. The results related to the second hypothesis of the study, indicated a smaller significant correlation which provides, although non-significant, support for the assumption that the Swedish municipalities strive to report moderate surpluses. Based on these results, the second hypothesis of the study is also falsified. Contribution of the thesis: The study contributes to filling the gap of research for the Swedish municipalities on whether earnings management occurs in terms of discretionary accruals. The study also contributes to a new theoretical perspective by introducing RUR (profit equalization reserve) into the explanatory model of why earnings management has decreased in Swedish municipalities. Suggestions for future research: A suggestion for further research would be to investigate whether big bath or income smoothing as a method differs between municipalities in the years when an election takes place or when an audit has taken place. Another point of view would have been to conduct the study with a qualitative focus, as there are only a few previous studies for earnings management in the municipal sector that have used a qualitative method.

Resultatjustering är ett hot mot trovärdigheten i den finansiella rapporteringen, och är ett ämne som erhållit mycket uppmärksamhet i tidigare forskning. Dock domineras den tidigare forskningen av studier på publika bolag, trots att det givits indikationer på att resultatjustering förekommer mer i en privat kontext. Under senare år har det dessutom framkommit att redovisningsval kan förklaras utifrån ledande befattningshavares individuella karaktärsdrag, förenligt med upper echelons theory. En förutsättning för resultatjustering är således att upprättaren av redovisningen är benägen till det. Förekommandet av resultatjustering i de finansiella rapporterna är utöver en benägenhet från upprättaren även beroende av revisorns förmåga att förhindra det. Eftersom forskning saknas i en svensk privat kontext, finns ett behov av en ökad förståelse om situationer utsatta för resultatjustering både från upprättarens och revisorns perspektiv. Studiens resultat indikerar att resultatjustering förekommer mindre i de svenska privata bolag som drivs av en gift VD. Därtill antyder resultatet att resultatjustering förekommer mindre i de svenska privata bolag som revideras av en kvinnlig revisor, samt i de svenska privata bolag som betalar ett högre revisionsarvode. / Earnings management is a reliability threat in financial reporting, and is a subject which has gained considerable attention in previous research. However, most previous research has focused on public companies, even though indications has been given that earnings management is more prominent in private companies. In recent studies, choices of accounting methods have also showed to be explained by characteristics of the top management, consistent with upper echelons theory. Hence, a precondition for earnings management to occur is a willingness by the accountor to implement it. Besides this willingness, earnings management is affected by the auditor’s ability to prevent it. Due to the empirical gap in a Swedish private context, there is a need for increased understanding of conditions where earnings management tends to occur, both from the perspective of the accountor and the auditor. The study ́s result indicates that earnings management is less present in Swedish private companies with a married CEO. The result further suggests that earnings management is less present in Swedish private companies audited by a female auditor, and in Swedish private companies paying a higher audit fee.