Corporate social responsibility disclosure, CEO integrity and earnings management: Evidence from the Vietnam stock market

Abstract

This paper investigates the impact of CSR disclosure and CEO integrity on earnings management. Analyzing a dataset of 750 firm-year observations of 150 Vietnam listed firms during the period from 2014 to 2018, the paper shows a significant positive effect of CSR disclosure on earnings management and a significantly negative impact on the CEO integrity on earnings management. The result confirms the previous studies that companies with more CSR disclosure are likely to engage in earnings management through increasing discretionary accruals. This suggests that managers may use CSR reporting to camouflage their earnings-management activities. Furthermore, the findings add to the literature of determinants of earnings management by offering an insight into CEO integrity and come to the proposal of enhancing the CEO role to control the earnings activities.