The More Top Managers of Financial Background, the Better? Evidence from the Comparison of Accrual-based and Real Earnings Management

This paper investigates the effect of finance-experienced managers on the choice of different earnings management. Evidence shows that firms with more finance-experienced managers are more likely to manipulate earnings with real activities. Compared with state-owned firms, non-state-owned firms have a stronger incentive to manipulate earnings by altering real activities. Further study provides evidence that audit opinion is one of the main reasons that firms will consider when deciding how to manipulate earnings. Our study may make some contributions to the role of finance-experienced managers, which will extend the studies about the upper-echelons theory.