A Retrospective of Earnings Management: Bibliometric Analysis

Abstract

Purpose: The purpose of this study presented bibliometric analysis of earnings management (EM) research and provides information on main results and new developments in this field of study. Deliberate manipulation of financial reports, known as earnings management (EM), has received widespread attention from the academic community in recent decades. Methodology/ Design/ Approach: This study utilizes VOS viewer software for bibliometric analysis of 1975 articles archived in the Scopus database between 2001and 2023. Findings: The results show significant relationships between EM with corporate governance, performance metrics, and information quality. The study serves to trace publications and categories as a kind of context for understanding development and EM research emphasis. It also indicates the most productive authors, countries, Institutions and journals on the topic. An analysis of clusters using keywords highlighted new trends in EM research. Notably, this study identified a possible class of real activities that had never been studied in EM before, warranting future work. Research Limitations/Implications: The major limitations of this research are that it uses a single database Scopus and only one search term (“earnings management”), and the selection of journal articles, excluding other publication types, is another limitation. Originality/ value: This study identified a global perspective that is unique in the existing EM literature, and other similar bibliometric studies were limited in their focus on specific subtopics of EM. It discusses the demand for arranging this unorganized domain of study. Additionally, it is an important contribution to the scientific literature on EM research and an excellent source for studies based on the current state of knowledge.

Keywords

• Bibliometric analysis
• Earnings management
• VOS viewer
• R