Research On The Influence Of Online Media Coverage On Earnings Management

The media,as an external governance role,can effectively constrain and regulate the behavior of corporate managers in the capital market.Existing studies show that traditional newspaper media can influence the earnings management behavior of listed companies by drawing the attention of regulators,individuals or institutional investors,and then effectively alleviate information asymmetry in the capital market and reduce the cost of information acquisition for stakeholders.However,academic circles are still in disagreement as to whether media coverage can stimulate listed companies to generate more earnings management to meet market demand through market pressure mechanisms or whether they can play their effective monitoring role to curb listed companies’ earnings management to regulate corporate governance behaviors.Compared with traditional media,online media,which uses the Internet as a communication platform,has stronger communication power and influence,and can exert stronger media effects and produce more corporate governance effects in a shorter period of time.Therefore,with the rapid development of online media,can online media coverage inherit the governance function of traditional media on earnings management? Based on that,this dissertation constructs a theoretical analysis framework on the influence of online media coverage on earnings management,reveals the mechanism of online media coverage on earnings management,expands the research ideas on the influence of online media coverage on earnings management,and provides practical references for the development of listed companies,investors’ decision making and regulators.The main contents are as follows.Supported by principal-agent theory,information asymmetry theory,signaling transmission theory,a theoretical analysis framework for the influence of online media coverage on earnings management was established by using literature analysis and normative analysis.Based on the corporate governance mechanism of media,a description of the dynamic process and path mechanism of online media coverage influencing earnings management is presented from both external and internal aspects of listed companies.And it is determined that both investors and managers are the key path carriers of online media coverage influencing earnings management,which lays the theoretical foundation of the whole dissertation and also constructs a logical route for the research process of the whole dissertation.To address the question of whether online media coverage affects earnings management,this dissertation empirically investigates the relationship between online media coverage and earnings management by constructing a precondition model for listed companies to engage in earnings management activities and using multiple regression analysis.The findings suggest that after control for factors such as firm characteristics and institutional environment,online media coverage can force more earnings management behavior to meet market expectations through the market pressure they exert on managers of listed companies.To address the differences in the impact of heterogeneous online media coverage on earnings management,this dissertation distinguishes the heterogeneity of online media coverage according to three classification criteria: the degree of relevance of the coverage,the emotional color of the coverage and the originality of the coverage.It also analyzes the impact of different online media coverage on earnings management separately,and reveals the impact of heterogeneous online media coverage on earnings management.The findings show that there are significant differences in the impact of different types of online media coverage on earnings management.The more targeted the coverage,the more negative the emotions in the coverage,and the more original coverage will be reported,the stronger the impact of online media coverage on earnings management.To address the question of how online media coverage affects earnings management,this dissertation explores the impact of online media coverage on earnings management based on investor attention.It reveals that unusual investor attention triggered by news coverage is an external critical path for online media coverage to affect earnings management.The results of the study show that,firstly,online media coverage can influence the accrual earnings management behavior of listed companies by triggering investors’ abnormal attention to listed companies,but not through investor daily attention.Secondly,the passive guided abnormal attention induced by news is the path mechanism by which online media coverage affects earnings management.While active spontaneous abnormal attention does not play a conduction role in this influence path.To address the question of the key factors of online media coverage affecting earnings management,this dissertation analyzes the impact of online media coverage on earnings management based on moderating factors.This dissertation constructs empirical models to test the moderating effects of manager overconfidence,ownership concentration,and property right on the influence of online media coverage on earnings management from three aspects,namely manager overconfidence,ownership concentration,and property right respectively.The findings suggest that manager overconfidence,ownership concentration,and property right all play a moderating role in the relationship between online media coverage and earnings management.Most domestic and foreign scholars have conducted studies on the influence of media coverage on earnings management based on a single perspective of traditional media.There is no research on online media coverage,and few studies have conducted in-depth analysis on the mechanism of its influence.Therefore,this study is of great theoretical and practical significance.Theoretically,the research in this dissertation refines and enriches the theoretical understanding of the mechanism of the impact of media coverage on earnings management and fills the theoretical gap in the detailed study of the economic consequences of media coverage from the perspective of different types of investor attention.It fills the theoretical gap in the analysis of the mechanism of the generation of the economic consequences of media coverage from the perspective of managers’ psychological behavior.It fills the theoretical gap of analyzing the mechanism of generating economic consequences of media coverage from the perspective of managers’ psychological behavior.It reveals the mechanism of influence of online media coverage on earnings management.From a practical point of view,the research in this dissertation provides guidance for managers of listed companies to make accurate decisions in the face of media pressure,and helps to improve the quality of accounting information of enterprises.It provides evidence to support investors to correctly assess the quality of information on the earnings of listed companies and to guide them to invest rationally.It provides direction for regulators to review and supervise listed companies and helps strengthen regulators to precisely target regulatory priorities.