• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.20 no.4
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• pp.95-100
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• 2022

Purpose: This study aimed to investigate whether distribution and service companies maintained their accounting information quality and provided reliable information despite the economic changes occurring after the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in Korea. The distribution industry has enjoyed increased demand as many companies expanded their untact distribution channels, including to online sales. However, as the pandemic drags on, their future prospects remain uncertain. Research design, data, and methodology: In this study, we define 2018-2019 as the "pre COVID-19 period" and 2020 as the "post COVID-19 period." An empirical analysis was performed using a regression model that includes POST, the independent variable, indicating the post COVID-19 period, and discretionary accruals(DA), a proxy for earnings management, as a dependent variable. Results: The analysis shows that the coefficient of POST is significantly positive (+) for the dependent variable DA. This finding suggests that distribution and service companies engaged in more earnings management during the post COVID-19 period than during the pre COVID-19 period, indicating their awareness of the uncertainty of future business performance as the pandemic persists. An additional analysis confirmed that smaller companies with fewer stakeholders and higher information asymmetry tend to engage more in earnings management than larger companies.

• Journal of Navigation and Port Research
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• v.45 no.3
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• pp.173-180
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• 2021

Although accounting is one of the core fields of corporate management, few studies have reported accounting phenomena involving shipping companies. In addition, although financial reporting is very important to shipping companies that use several financial tools such as ship finance and financial lease, it is difficult to identify studies investigating shipping companies' financial reporting, especially their earnings management. The purpose of this study is to analyze accrual earnings management behavior of shipping companies. Companies with high debt ratios and net losses are known to have incentives for earnings management. Due to the nature of the industry, shipping companies have a high debt ratio and often report net losses. Accordingly, shipping companies are expected to engage in substantial earnings management. Based on the analysis of KOSP I companies listed on the Korea Exchange from 2001 to 2020, it was found that shipping companies are engaged in higher levels of earnings management than non-shipping companies. Discretionary accrual was used as a proxy variable for earnings management. Discretionary accrual was measured using the modified Jones model of Dechow et al. (1995) and the performance matched model of Kothari et al.(2005). In this study, significant results were derived by comparatively analyzing the earnings management practices, which is one of the major accounting behaviors of shipping and non-shipping companies. Stakeholders such as external auditors, investors, financial institutions, analysts, and government authorities need to be aware of the earnings management behavior of listed shipping companies during their external audit, financial analysis, and supervision. Finally, listed shipping companies must conduct stricter accounting based on accounting principles.

• The Journal of Small Business Innovation
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• v.20 no.3
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• pp.1-17
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• 2017

There is a serious information asymmetry between internal managers and outside investors in the process during IPOs. One mechanism that mitigates this information asymmetry is a high quality auditor. Since prior research document auditors' effect on newly listed firms at the IPO year, what has not yet been revealed in previous studies is the behavior of firms and auditors after listing. In this study, we investigate (i) the firms tendency of contracting with Big N auditors, and (ii) the effect of Big N auditors on accounting quality after the years of IPOs. Using a sample of 7,678 (1,892 firm-years of after IPOs, and 5,786 control firm-years) KOSDAQ observations between 2002 and 2012, we find that the likelihood of contracting with Big N auditor lasts only for two years after IPO compare to that of non-IPO control years. Secondly, we find that the effect of Big N auditors on clients' earnings management lasts for a very short period after IPO. These findings suggest that although prior literature argue that Big N auditors reduce earnings management of their clients, at least the period right after IPO, it is not consistent. Our study contributes to the existing literature in several ways. First, we provide new evidences of firms' auditor selection decisions by investigating years after the listing. In second, as an evidence of accruals reversal, we document decrease in discretionary accruals after IPOs. Third, we find that there is not always a positive relation between Big N auditor and accounting quality by showing the insignificant Big N auditor effect after IPOs. Our results also suggest several implications to IPO related stakeholders. First, to IPO firms, we provide evidences that decisions of hiring auditors affect firms earnings. Also, lead IPO underwriters may consider how these decisions influence future performance. Second, investors may want to use information not only in the preofferings but also after public offerings. Our study insists that auditor hiring decisions affects their own welfare. Finally, accounting standard setters may find these results useful for evaluating how much discretion they should allow corporate managers to hire auditors. In addition, our result casts doubt on auditor designation.

• Journal of Korea Trade
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• v.23 no.6
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• pp.66-92
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• 2019

Purpose - Foreign Exchange Rates (FER) have been one of the most significant factors for both Korean exporters and the economy of Korea. The purpose of this study is to evaluate whether exporters with a high level of Exchange Rate Elasticity of Sales (ERES) make the use of earnings management for Income Smoothing (IS). Design/methodology - Income smoothing was obtained using the methodology suggested by Leuz, Nanda and Wysocki (2003). Accruals-based Earnings Management (AEM) was estimated using Discretionary Accruals (DA) calculated by the operant Jones Model developed by Dechow, Sloan and Sweeney (1995). Real Earnings Management (REM) was obtained using the methodologies suggested by Roychowdhury (2006) and Cohen and Zarowin (2010). Data were 2,402 firm years of public listed companies on the KRX, which were not in the financial industry and had a settlement of accounts in December for the period from 2013 to 2017. Findings - Results of the evaluation are as follows. First, companies with higher levels of ERES have relatively lower levels of smoothing of reported income. This might be because a fluctuation in sales caused by an exchange rate fluctuation has a direct impact on the volatility of the reported income. Second, companies with high levels of both ERES and IS have a positive correlation with both AEM and REM. This might be because companies with high levels of IS engage in earnings management to smooth reported income. Specifically, it is possible to assume that for smoothing the reported income, not only AEM but also REM is practiced. Third, companies with high levels of ERES but low levels of IS have a negative correlation with both AEM and REM. This could be interpreted as companies exhibiting low levels of IS due to higher levels of ERES tend to control IS. In addition, such results were supported by firms relying highly on exporting, and are consequently sensitive to exchange rate fluctuation. Therefore, it may conclude that companies with high levels of ERES make the use of earnings management as a means of IS. Originality/value - This study can find its significance from the fact that it is the first study, empirically verifying that companies of Korea, where exportation is a large part, use both AEM and REM as a means for smoothing reported income upon facing exchange rate fluctuations. In addition, it is highly expected that the results of this study could be useful for participants of financial markets when making IS-related decisions.

• Management & Information Systems Review
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• v.33 no.5
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• pp.71-84
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• 2014

We examine evidence on the relationship between firms that targeted by the Financial Supervisory Service for allegedly manipulating annual earnings and accounting quality measured by the discretionary accruals, an issue with important public policy implications. The main purpose of this paper is to empirically investigate the extent to which Korean WDS(Window Dressing Settlement) firms identified by the financial supervisory service in their audit review exhibit higher level of accounting quality in order to avoid any potential negative effects and to regain public confidence after audit review. In this study, we analyzed 51 WDS firms and 102 control firms which traded in the Korean Stock Exchange market during the period from 2000 to the 2010. The number of observations subject to various tests are 251 and 502 firm-years for WDS and control samples respectively across the 5 year sample period. The results of the study show that the accounting quality after auditor review be significantly improved. This result suggests that the FSS's audit review system would control the accounting quality and then improve the transparency of the accounting information. Thus it may be suggested that the current audit review system is efficient ways to lead listed firms to provide transparent financial statements.

• Journal of Digital Convergence
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• v.18 no.6
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• pp.237-244
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• 2020

The purpose of this study is to empirically analyze the effect of information related to the largest shareholder's change on the likelihood of reporting a loss for firms listed on the Korea Exchange. Specifically, this study conducts a logit regression analysis to examine the firm's loss reporting with frequent changes in the largest shareholder among the largest shareholder change types. So, it controls the impact of a firm's loss reporting, such as the previous year's loss reporting and discretionary accruals. As a result of the analysis, firms whose largest shareholder have changed more than 2 times in the accounting period are found to have higher firm risk in loss reporting than other firms. The results of this analysis confirm that frequent changes in the largest shareholder, which are disclosures of investment risks on the Korea Exchange, may result in investment risk situations such as loss reporting.

• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.99-108
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• 2020

Purpose: This paper investigated the relationship between market competition and firm valuation error. Furthermore, Additional analyses were made according to the quality of financial reports and the listed market. Through the process we confirm to the impact of competition on the capital market. The purpose of this study is to analyze the impact of competition on valuation errors. The preceding studies did not provide a consistent results of the effects of competing functions on the capital market. One view is that the competition could mitigate the information asymmetry, and the other is that monopolistic lessens the manager's involvement in financial reporting. This study is intended to expand the prior study by analyzing the impact of competition on the capital market and on the valuation of investors. Research design, data, and methodology: The analysis was conducted on 12,031 samples over 11 years from 2008 to 2018 using data from market in Korea. Here the valuation error was measured by the research methodology of Rhodes-Kropf, Robinson and Viswanathan (2005), and competition measured by Herfindahl-Hirschman Index multiplied by (-1), and Concentration Ratio by (-1). Results: We confirm that the positive relationship between competition and the valuation error. In addition, we also found that the positive relation between competition and valuation error was in cases of low discretionary accruals and the KOSDAQ market. This means that the net function of competition does not mitigate valuation errors. Conclusions. This study has the following contributions when compared to prior research. First, the relevance between the level of competition and the valuation of the entity was confirmed. The study by Haw, Hu and Lee (2015) suggested that monopolistic industry of analysts' forecast is more accurate due to lower the variability in earnings. This study magnified it to confirm that monopolistic lessen information uncertainty in valuation. Second, the study on valuation errors was expanded. While the study on the effect of valuation errors on the capital market is generally relatively active, it is different that competition degree has analyzed the effect on valuation errors amid the lack of research on the effect on valuation errors.

• Journal of Digital Convergence
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• v.14 no.12
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• pp.111-120
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• 2016

PCAOB conducts the direct supervision for the PCAOB registered accounting firm. Therefore, if an accounting firm is registered with the PCAOB, it will thoroughly manage for their quality management systems. The registered auditor can be expected to have better quality of the audit. This study carried out the analysis using the audit fee which proxies for audit quality. The results of analysis are as follows. After controlling for foreign accounting firms affiliated status, company size, risky assets, leverage, ROA, and market-related variables, PCAOB is a significant explanatory variable for the audit fees. The results of this study support the hypothesis that PCAOB-registered auditors will provide a good audit quality.

• Journal of Convergence for Information Technology
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• v.11 no.9
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• pp.75-83
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• 2021

This research is to analyze how an introduction of full-time quality control("QC") personnel system in audit firms influences on audit quality and verify how important it is to establish the quality control system for auditing quality. We measure audit quality as the level of discretionary accruals and compare the differences between audit firms with QC and without QC. In addition, we analyze the difference in audit qualities between before and after activating the full-time QC personnel system by comparing audit quality of before 2015 with that of after 2016. The results of this study are summarized as follows. First, the audit quality is higher when audit firms have QC personnel. Second, the audit quality is improved after the introduction of the full-time QC personnel system.

• Journal of Digital Convergence
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.51-60
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• 2021

In this study, Based on the analysis of the correlation between internal control quality and earnings management, this article discusses the correlation between internal control quality and real activity earnings management and accrued earnings management. For this study, by introducing the concept, classification, measurement method and model of internal control and earnings management, the research hypothesis of this article was proposed. In this analysis, Use the relevant measurement model to calculate the actual activity earnings management level and accrued earnings management level of the enterprise, as the explained variable, establish a model for regression and were analyzed. Also, this study could find the final results draws a conclusion through empirical research: there is a significant negative correlation between the internal control quality of listed companies, real activity earnings management, and accrued earnings management. On the basis of this conclusion, the analysis of possible causes provides a basis for the development of internal control theory and the supervision and control of earnings management behavior in the future.