The impact of corporate governance on secrecy and earnings management relationships

This study investigates the effect of secrecy on earnings management and examines the impact of corporate governance on the relationship between secrecy and earnings management. The research samples are eleven Asia Pacific countries from 2010 to 2019. The research data resources are the Bloomberg and Thomson Reuters databases. Hypothesis testing employs Multiple Linear Regression. The results provided empirical evidence that: 1) secrecy had a positive effect on accrual (real) earnings management; and (2) corporate governance strengthened the positive relationship between secrecy and accrual (real) earnings management practices. Therefore, these test results confirmed consistency-built hypotheses.