Earnings management: A bibliometric analysis

DOI: 10.14254/2071789X.2021/14-1/16 ABSTRACT. This research paper aims to analyse the keywords related to earnings management issues and then to focus on their evolution and changes in decades – from 1988, when the first publication about this issue appeared in the Web of Science, to the present. When examining literature concerning the analysis of keywords and their development using bibliometric analysis, a similar publication was not found. Therefore, it is an original and exciting publication that clarifies the work with the keywords on the selected topic and strictly within the articles available in the Web of Science database. In total, 1.547 articles on earnings management were analysed. The authors used analysis to assess individual articles, synthesis – to link context, statistical procedures – to select the keywords using the functions available in Excel, and VOS viewer to present visually the results of the analysed keywords. At the same time, this division allowed monitoring changes before and after the global financial crisis. The changes were most influenced by global trends and overall publication growth in the world. The only term most commonly associated with earnings management in all the periods is accruals. By demonstrating the formation of the terms used, the determined goal – to find out a significant change in the development of the keywords within the earnings management in the time horizon – was met. In the future, it would be interesting to follow developments in the coming years of the decade and to see changes in the use of earnings management influenced by the recent global events.