การกำกับดูแลกิจการ คุณลักษณะของคณะกรรมการตรวจสอบ และการตกแต่งกำไร: หลักฐานจากบริษัทจดทะเบียนในตลาดหลักทรัพย์ของประเทศสมาชิกอาเซียน

Araya Eakpisankit; Jinnapat jirakamonsuntikun

Authors

Araya Eakpisankit Faculty of Business Administration, Kasetsart University
Jinnapat jirakamonsuntikun Faculty of Business Administration, Kasetsart University

Keywords:

Earnings Management, Corporate Governance Score, Audit Committee, ASEAN

Abstract

This study aims to examine the relationship between corporate governance, measured by corporate governance scores, and audit committee characteristics (size, accounting or financial expertise, meeting frequency, and independence) and earnings management among listed companies in six ASEAN member countries: Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam, and Singapore. In addition, the study investigates the moderating effects of audit committee characteristics on the relationship between corporate governance and earnings management. A total of 1,943 firm-year observations were analyzed. Earnings management was measured using the Modified Jones Model (1995), and data were collected from financial statements, annual reports, and the Refinitiv Workspace database during the period 2019–2023. Descriptive statistics were employed to explain the characteristics of the sample, while inferential statistics, namely the Pearson correlation coefficient and multiple regression analysis, were used to test the relationships among variables. The results revealed no statistically significant association between corporate governance scores and earnings management at the ASEAN regional level. Furthermore, audit committee characteristics, including size, expertise, meeting frequency, and independence, were not significantly associated with overall earnings management. The interaction effects between corporate governance and audit committee characteristics also showed no significant influence on earnings management. As a result, all main hypotheses were rejected in the regional analysis. However, to fulfill the study’s objective of understanding the contextual roles of governance and audit committee characteristics across ASEAN, additional country-level analyses were conducted. These revealed significant variations in specific cases. For instance, in Thailand, corporate governance scores were significantly and negatively associated with earnings management, suggesting that effective governance mechanisms deter earnings manipulation. In contrast, the Philippines showed a significantly positive relationship, reflecting possible limitations in symbolic governance practices. These findings suggest that governance mechanisms should be tailored to fit the administrative structures and economic contexts of individual countries, while concurrently promoting harmonized regional standards through cooperative frameworks to ensure more effective and sustainable corporate governance across ASEAN.

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