Factors influencing the association between CEO change and creative accounting practices in Bangladesh

Objective: The article’s objective is to identify potential factors influencing the association between CEO change and creative accounting practices in Bangladesh, based on opinions of experts. Methodology: We collected data in 2025 from 102 respondents who are academicians, chartered accountants, and top managers in Bangladesh using Google Forms. Findings: We identified approximately 43 factors from our survey that may influence the association between CEO change and creative accounting practices. Proving new CEO ability, job security concerns, board characteristics, the financial status of the company, the opportunity of not being held accountable for prior actions, and the compensation contract are the most influencing factors that we identified based on the frequency of respondents’ mentions. Additionally, co-occurrence analysis demonstrated the most frequent factors were correlated strongly, especially between “proving new CEO ability” and “opportunity of not being held accountable for prior actions.” The results also indicate that the association between CEO change and creative accounting is influenced by a combination of psychological and CEO personal factors, incentive-driven and financial performance factors, corporate governance factors, risk and external factors, ethical and cultural factors, organizational structure and strategic decision factors, and institutional and regulatory factors. Contribution: While previous papers concentrated on the association between CEO change and creative accounting practice, this research empirically identifies the probable factors influencing the association between the CEO change and the creative accounting. Scholars, researchers, and policymakers can better grasp the causes of the correlation between CEO change and creative accounting by reading this paper.