Firm Life Cycle and Earnings Management Behaviour of Nigerian Manufacturing Companies

This study examined the relationship between the life cycle and earnings management behaviour of manufacturing firms in Nigeria.The Longitudinal research design, which is a combination of both cross-sectional and time-series design properties was used. The study sample consists of 31 manufacturing companies listed on the Nigerian Stock Exchange, with data spanning the years 2016 to 2025. Sample selection was performed using a basic random sampling approach. The study used secondary data generated from the annual reports and accounts of the sampled manufacturing companies in Nigeria. Data analysis adopted the technique of Moment Panel Quantile Regression using Stata version 17 and E-views version 10 packages. The study revealed that the introductory and decline life cycle stages have a positive but insignificant effect on Nigeria’s earnings management behavior. The MLC stage was found to have a negative but significant effect on earnings management behavior of manufacturing companies in Nigeria. Consequently, we conclude that the firm life cycle has a statistically significant relationship with manufacturing companies’ earnings management behavior in Nigeria, although the significance, direction, and magnitude of this relationship vary across the different stages of the firm life cycle. On the basis of the findings, we recommended, among others, that to address the challenge of managerial opportunism and earnings management, effective corporate monitoring of manufacturing companies, particularly those at the growth life cycle stage, should be implemented.