External Institutional Environment?Media Attention And Earnings Management

Competition in the capital market is increasingly fierce,and earnings management phenomena exist in listed companies widely.Severe earnings management can lead to distortion of accounting information,damage to investors' interests and even disrupt the operation of the capital market.Therefore,it is of great significance to explore the governance of earnings management.Domestic and foreign scholars have explored the governance of earnings management from the aspects of internal corporate governance and legal system constraints,certain achievements have been made in practice,but earnings management behavior has been repeated.With the development of Internet information technology,the media has gradually become an important social supervision and governance mechanism.The Media Attention has supervision and governance on the earnings management behavior,which can effectively compensate the governance of earnings management in weak areas of the legal system,and promote the effect of legal system to manage enterprise earnings management.At the same time,the media's supervision and governance function of the media is influenced by the politics,law,customs,culture and other factors in the external institutional environment.Therefore,when we research the Media Attention on governance of earnings management,the external institutional environment can't be ignored.Based on principal-agent theory,information asymmetry theory,agenda setting theory and institutional theory,this paper relies on the existing research results and uses the empirical data of A-share listed companies in Shanghai and Shenzhen stock markets from 2015 to 2017 to research.The article distinguishes Negative Media Attention with Non-negative Media Attention,and studies the impact of Media Attention on Accrued Earnings Management and Real Earnings Management of listed companies in China.Taking the External Institutional Environment of the listed company as a moderator,this paper further explores the regulatory effect of the External Institutional Environment in the process of Media Attention influences two earnings management,and examines the heterogeneity of different Media Attention to the influence of two kinds of earnings management under different external institutional environments.The specific conclusions are as follows:(1)A large amount of Media Attention can effectively restrain the accrued earnings management behavior,but it will induce listedcompanies to adopt real earnings management behaviors.(2)Negative Media Attention and Non-negative Media Attention can inhibit the Accrued Earnings Management and induce the Real Earnings Management.However,compared with the Non-negative Media Attention,Negative Media Attention is better for the governance effect of the Accrued Earnings Management,and the inducement effect on the Real Earnings Management is also greater;(3)The regulatory effect of the External Institutional Environment in which listed companies operate is different in the process of Media Attention to influence two types of earnings management.The External Institutional Environment plays a negative adjustment in the governance of the Media Attention on the Accrued Earnings Management.The improvement of the External Institutional Environment will weaken the governance of the Media Attention on the Accrued Earnings Management;The External Institutional Environment plays a positive adjustment in the governance of the Media Attention on the Real Earnings Management.The improvement of the External Institutional Environment will strengthen the the Media Attention ' s induction of the Real Earnings Management.Based on the above conclusions,this paper puts forward policy recommendations from the media,government,law,and company levels.It hopes to provide useful guidance for constraining the company's earnings management behavior,improving the quality of accounting information,protecting investors' rights and interests,and ensuring the healthy operation of the capital market.