Creative accounting, fraud and international accounting scandals, edited by Michael John Jones, Chichester, John Wiley & Sons, 2011, xxv + 550 pp., £50.00 (hardback), ISBN 978-0-470-05765-0 The ter...

Creative accounting, fraud and international accounting scandals

The corona crisis has affected not only the economic sphere, but also the sphere of health, health care, employment, safety, and health protection in the workplace, shopping habits, and future expectations, to which people adapt their decisions in various areas of daily life. The COVID-19 pandemic, called a global health crisis, was an unpredictable risk of global proportions that paralyzed the entire world. The main aim of this paper is to quantify the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on the construction sector, which is considered a crucial sector of the Slovak economy, to evaluate changes in the development of key indicators using adequate quantitative methods. First, a sample of 2000 businesses were analyzed using the 12 financial indicators that were chosen. Second, using the non-parametric Friedman test, a more thorough study was carried out with a focus on analyzing the existence of statistically significant variations in the values of computed indicators as a result of changes in the development of key financial ratios. The Bonferroni adjustments were employed to pinpoint the areas of stochastic dominance at the conclusion of the study. A detailed analysis of the calculated financial indicators showed that the arrival of the pandemic had a negative impact on many aspects of business in the construction sector and affected the financial and economic situation of companies in the construction sector of the Slovak Republic. However, due to the fact that this sector is characterized by slower reactions to changes in the economy, the most significant impacts will be even more noticeable in the future.

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COVID-19 Pandemic and Its Impact on Challenges in the Construction Sector: A Case Study of Slovak Enterprises

Research background: Business profit and its stable development are key performance indicators. Many enterprises performed earnings manipulation, either upward or downward, according to the current business and macroeconomic situation, as well as time. These activities may interrupt the stationarity of time series. This article focuses on the transport enterprises, and the assessment of bonds in their earnings.
Purpose of the article: The target of the article was to identify the occurrence of non-stationary and its unit root in the EBITDA of transport enterprises for each country in V4 during the period of 2010?2019.
Methods: The stationarity and unit roots in time series were tested by the Kwiatkowski, Phillips, Schmidt, and Shin tests and the Augmented Dickey-Fuller based on the samples of 470 Slovak, 405 Czech, 774 Polish, and 1,056 Hungarian. The behavior of earnings manipulation (the first cause of non-stationarity) was indicated by the Modified Jones model. Additional causes for non-stationarity were confirmed by the regression analysis, including factors such as the GDP, unemployment rate, average monthly gross wage, and the Ease of doing business index.
Findings & value added: The non-stationarity in the time series of EBITDA was disclosed for each country in the V4 region. Earnings management was discovered to be the cause of this erratic development. Thus, the value-added for the authorities and auditors is to show the association between non-stationary and creative accounting. In addition, purposeful downward manipulation in the transport sector occurs, not upward, which is typical in general. The methodology used in the study may be applied cross-sectorally in emerging countries. The labelling of specific macroeconomic variables depending on the country offers enterprises the opportunity to focus on factors with a crucial influence on their existence and activities.

http://economic-research.pl/Journals/index.php/oc/article/download/2045/1925

Stability of profits and earnings management in the transport sector of Visegrad countries

Purpose—The study on the relationship between accounting conservatism and earnings quality is not new. However, the results are inconsistent and mixed, and to some degree, even contradictory, which represents a gap in the literature. The purpose of this study is to provide some explanations for these mixed results in the literature by investigating the effect of corporate governance mechanisms, as a moderator variable (which has not been considered in the literature before), on the relationship between accounting conservatism and earnings quality based on the Dechow and Dichev model and the modified Jones model. Design/methodology/approach—The statistical model used in this study is a multivariate regression model; furthermore, the statistical technique used to test the hypotheses is panel data. Findings—The findings reveal that the adopted models (Dechow and Dichev) and the corporate governance mechanisms (such as board independence, large shareholders, and institutional ownership) can have a moderating effect on the relationship between accounting conservatism and earnings quality. These findings are exciting, contribute to the current literature, and explain some of the reasons for mixed results. Practical implications—The findings of the current study provide an important guideline for firms to consider the impact of adopted models (Dechow and Dichev), as well as the corporate governance mechanisms (such as board independence, large shareholders, and institutional ownership) on the relationship between accounting conservatism and earnings quality. Originality/value—Examining the impact of Dechow and Dichev models as well as the corporate governance mechanisms on the relationship between accounting conservatism and earnings quality is new in this paper. It can explain part of the reasons for the mixed and inconsistent results in the literature. 

https://www.mdpi.com/1911-8074/15/9/413/pdf?version=1663747147

Accounting Conservatism and Earnings Quality

To expand the applicability in practice of the modern theory of cost and capital structure, the theory of Brusov–Filatova–Orekhova (BFO), which is valid for companies of arbitrary age, is generalized for the case of variable income. The generalized theory of capital structure can be successfully applied in corporate finance, business valuation, banking, investments, ratings, etc. income. A generalized Brusov–Filatova–Orekhova formula for the weighted average cost of capital, WACC, is derived using a formula in MS Excel, where the role of the discount rate shifts from WACC to WACC–g (here g is the growth rate) for financially dependent companies and k0–g for financially independent companies is shown. A decrease in the real discount rates of WACC–g and k0–g with g ensures an increase in the company’s capitalization with g. The tilt of the equity cost curve, ke(L), increases with g. Since the cost of equity justifies the amount of dividends, this should change the dividend policy of the company. It turns out that for the growth rate g < g*, the tilt of the curve ke(L) becomes negative. This qualitatively new effect, discovered here for the first time, can significantly change the principles of the dividend policy of the company. The obtained results are compared with the results of the MM theory with variable income.

https://www.mdpi.com/2227-7390/10/19/3661/pdf?version=1665550466

Generalization of the Brusov–Filatova–Orekhova Theory for the Case of Variable Income

The economic results of a company are an important tool for many entities, e.g., for internal entities as well as for external entities. As the economic results of a company are often the only source of information that informs the company’s partners about the managerial activities of their company, it is necessary to present these economic results using real numbers. However, companies prefer to achieve better results by applying the principles of creative accounting, which leads to improved economic values being shown to be achieved during an accounting period. The purpose of this article is to apply models that have been developed to detect creative accounting, which occurs under conditions that help enterprises to adjust their financial statements and tax bases and involves using creative accounting techniques to become competitive or to be able to take advantage of deductions. These models were applied to the Slovak Republic’s agriculture, forestry, and fishing sector (sector A), which is highly affected by earnings manipulation. This article provides a numerical expression of companies, which were previously, with some probability level, involved in conducting financial statement manipulation. Subsequently, the results that were obtained have been displayed using receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves. The outputs of the analysis show that a large proportion of the companies in this sector tend to use creative accounting, which is not only harmful for entrepreneurs and their business partners in sector A, but also for the Slovak Republic at large, as the Slovak government cannot determine whether the reported accounting results reflect a company’s real financial situation.

https://www.mdpi.com/1911-8074/13/11/261/pdf

Creative accounting as an apparatus for reporting profits in agribusiness

The transportation sector is a crucial sector of the sustainability of every national economy. Previous studies highlighted the core significance of transport enterprises in European countries over the past 60 years. The long-term sustainability of enterprises is determined by their ability to gain earnings. Thus, earnings are the synonym of significance in corporate life. The purpose of this study was to capture the lever year, the trend, and the slope of the development of earnings in the transport sector before the COVID-19 pandemic. Time series of the annual earnings of the enterprises from the close countries of the V4 region were used during a 10-year period. Buishand’s test sets the change-points of the development and indicated the values of specific central lines. The year 2013 was the lever date for the earnings of 830 Slovak and 1042 Hungarian enterprises. The year 2015 was the year of momentum for 757 Polish enterprises. The development of 397 Czech enterprises was mainly influenced by the year 2014. The results of the Mann–Kendall test detected a positive trend in the series of business finance in all countries. In addition, the Sen’s slope was estimated in the transport sector for the analyzed period 2010–2019.

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Metamorphoses of Earnings in the Transport Sector of the V4 Region

Capital structure is one of the most frequently discussed issues within Corporate Finance Theory. Optimizing the capital structure and value of the tax shield through the evaluation of its interests can lead to the increasing value of the enterprise, followed by the rising competitiveness and flexibility. The aim of this study is to provide a novel look at the value of the interest tax shield and its determinants in the emerging economies of the Visegrad Four. The model was created on a net sample of nearly 7,000 profitable enterprises between 2015 and 2019 using a one-way fixed effects model of panel data. Regional model results show five main determinants of the debt tax shield (Tangibility, Current Ratio, Gearing, Cost of debt and Size). Others, such as non-debt tax shield, business growth or profitability, are regional, and their impact varies depending on the economic conditions of the countries. The direction of influence of the main determinants indicates that, contrary to the assumed trade-off theory, profitable companies manage the capital structure and the value of tax shield according to the pecking order or modified pecking order theory. The tax shield is made up mostly of interest on short-term loans, which increases the risk of financial distress. There is a hierarchy of funding sources, from trade credit, through shortterm loans, to long-term loans, which are used in the analysed firms to the smallest extent. The structure of liabilities may be considered another determinant of the debt tax shield.

/pdf/valuing-the-interest-tax-shield-in-the-central-european-eo6r65bm.pdf

Valuing the Interest Tax Shield in the Central European Economies: Panel Data Approach

Research background: In creative accounting, the primary goal of every enterprise is to increase and strengthen its market position. Over the years, manipulation of financial statements has also reached the territory of Central European countries, including the Slovak Republic. Therefore, an analysis was conducted to identify enterprises that handle accounting. This article focuses specifically on Sector A: agriculture, forestry, and fisheries.
Purpose of the article: The aim of the article was to reveal the creative accounting practices of a sample of enterprises operating in the Slovak business environment in a sector using the Beneish model.
Methods: The Beneish model was used to calculate the manipulation of enterprises? financial statements. Both variants, that is, the 5-parameter model and 8-parameter model, were used for the calculation. The results of these models were plotted using graphs and receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves.
Findings & value added: Based on the use of both variants of the Beneish model, it was proven that enterprises in the analyzed sector use the possibility of manipulating financial statements. The added value of the article is the detection of the use of creative accounting in a specific sector, which makes the study original in its application and space-time orientation.

http://economic-research.pl/Journals/index.php/eq/article/download/2016/1915

The use of Beneish M-scores to reveal creative accounting: evidence from Slovakia

Businesses should come up with a strategy, plans, and goals so that their total assets can make a profit during the transformation process. Utilizing various features of a property can generate this income. This comparison provides evidence of profitability. During the global economic downturn, a number of businesses encountered issues that caused their payment situations and profitability to deteriorate. The goal of this article is to ascertain whether particular profitability indicators also revealed the pandemic-related global crisis, particularly in the Visegrad Group countries. This analysis was conducted based on categories of business size. Specifically, 8671 enterprises were analyzed. The evaluation of indicators revealed whether there was a significant change in a negative direction, a significant change in a positive direction, or no significant change. It was possible to make a clear diagram of the companies that took part in the study and to figure out the median values in order to compare the results of the chosen profitability indicators. Correspondence analysis was conducted so that conclusions could be more accurate. According to the findings of this study, indicators of ROA, ROE, and ROS did not change significantly across enterprise size categories in the years preceding, during, and after the pandemic. Since the government regulations of the V4 countries had a significant impact on these businesses, the change was most obvious in the case of small businesses within the ROS indicator. The added value of the article is derived from its analysis of selected profitability indicators in the largest group of Central European nations and its relevance.

/pdf/does-the-size-of-the-business-still-matter-or-is-u246e8dv.pdf

Roman Blazek

Papers

Creative accounting as an apparatus for reporting profits in agribusiness

Metamorphoses of Earnings in the Transport Sector of the V4 Region

Valuing the Interest Tax Shield in the Central European Economies: Panel Data Approach

The use of Beneish M-scores to reveal creative accounting: evidence from Slovakia

Does the Size of the Business Still Matter, or Is Profitability under New Management, by Order of the COVID-19?