In emerging economies, where the legislative and economic landscapes may significantly differ from those of advanced economies, accrual-based earnings management (AEM) is especially problematic for financial disclosure and investor trust. This paper conducts a systematic literature review and a bibliometric analysis to evaluate the incentives for AEM in developing countries and to understand the evolution of the AEM domain within emerging countries. For this purpose, 312 journal articles from ResearchGate, Google Scholar, ScienceDirect, Google, and Scopus, covering the period from 2000 to 2024, were reviewed under various thematic areas. The findings highlighted multiple significant motivators for AEM within developing markets, encompassing financial distress, loss avoidance, profitability pressures, high leverage, weak corporate governance structures and processes, diverse ownership structures (such as concentrated ownership, family ownership, institutional ownership, government ownership, and insider ownership), market performance indicators, political ties, weak regulatory systems, as well as factors such as executive compensation, tenure, career retention, agency issues, investor expectations, audit quality, economic crises, and firm-specific characteristics like size, reputation, and age. This research contributes to existing knowledge by examining the motivations behind AEM in emerging economies, underscoring the need for tailored regulatory frameworks and strong governance structures and processes to address the unique challenges developing nations face. For regulators and policymakers, these findings emphasize the need for robust regulatory frameworks, more stringent auditing protocols, and improved corporate governance structures to discourage business executives from engaging in AEM practices.

The purpose of this study was to analyze the impact of financial performance on the tone used in the chief executive officer (CEO) statements of South Africa’s (SA) top 40 JSE-listed companies in the 2021 financial year. This study implements the quantile regression analysis and the generalized linear regression model. To perform this assessment, the integrated annual reports (IARs) containing the CEO and annual financial statements for the top 40 JSE-listed companies were extracted from their official websites. The tone level in CEO statements was determined using Azure Machine Learning (AML). This study’s findings reveal that financial performance has a positive impact on the tone of CEO statements of the top 40 JSE-listed companies, i.e., as financial performance improves, the positive tone in CEO statements also increases. Additionally, results revealed that moderately and extremely profitable companies use a more positive tone. It is recommended that users of financial statements should carefully scrutinize the tone used in CEO statements, to identify whether or not it is aimed at concealing poor performance or motivated by good performance. The study contributes to the limited tone-management literature in developing countries and in SA in particular. The computerized techniques offered by both the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) and AML secures the validity and reliability of the content analysis, therefore, the study’s shortcomings do not compromise the generalizability of the results. The study’s sample truly represents all of the JSE’s listed companies.

Covid-19 has presented many challenges within various sectors. The education sector, for instance, was forced to re-evaluate learning, moving from interactive face-to-face learning to remote learning. The selected Higher Education Institution (HEI) students appeared unprepared for the sudden move to Emergency Remote Learning. The aim of this paper is to examine students’ perceptions and experiences of engaging remotely to provide academics with insight into the management of remote learning from now on. Connectivity issues were a serious concern. These logistical constraints had a huge part to play in student engagement when connectivity was lost during online sessions. Whilst under the restraint of the pandemic and remote learning, examining the level of student engagement under the social constructivism framework would prove valuable in determining the extent to which the students engage in learning accounting-related subjects that are practiced under the ERL. A qualitative approach was employed to conduct the study. A sample of 20 students was randomly selected for the interviews. Some participants found that ERL was convenient and that they engaged more with their learning while other students felt that because of the practical nature of accounting-related subjects, face-to-face learning was a more suitable approach. The study recommends that the institution has to carry on providing the students with the learning tools. Full utilisation of the LMS is used to close the gap encountered by those who prefer face-to-face learning. The study was limited to Level 2 students within the Accounting and Finance Department of the selected HEI.

The aim of this study is to examine the effect of abnormal accruals on abnormal tone in the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) statements of South Africa’s (SA) top 40 Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) listed businesses in the 2021 financial year. This study employs the quantile regression analysis and the generalised linear regression model. For this evaluation, the Top 40 JSE-listed firms' integrated annual reports (IARs), which include the annual financial statements and CEO statements, were extracted from the companies' official web pages. Findings revealed that abnormal accruals have a negative relationship with the abnormal tone used in the CEO statements of the top 40 JSE-listed companies. i.e., anomalous accruals and irregular tone move in different directions, as abnormal accruals increase, the abnormal tone in CEO statements decreases. This suggests that abnormal accruals and abnormal tone do not co-occur and that companies with abnormal accruals do not conceal them using abnormal tone in their CEO statements. We recommend that the amount of flexibility and judgment given to preparers of annual financial statements be reduced to lessen the use of earnings management practices. The research adds to the sparse literature on tone management and earnings management in developing nations, particularly SA.

This study evaluates whether investors on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) incorporate accrual earnings management (AEM) into firm valuation decisions. Using a panel dataset of 171 non-financial firms and 1,881 firm-year observations over the period 2015-2025, discretionary accruals are estimated using the performance-matched Kothari (2005) model, while firm value is proxied by the natural logarithm of Tobin’s Q. The analysis employs both ordinary least squares (OLS) and quantile regression to capture average and distributional effects. The OLS results indicate a weak positive association between AEM and firm value. However, quantile regression reveals that this relationship is not uniform across the distribution of firm value. AEM is positively and significantly associated with firm value at the median (Q50) quantile, while remaining insignificant at the lower (Q25) and upper (Q75) quantiles. Wald tests provide evidence of differences between the lower and median quantiles, indicating conditional value relevance. Robustness analysis using the Modified Jones (Dechow) model yields no significant relationship, suggesting that AEM pricing is sensitive to measurement and driven by performance-adjusted accruals. The study contributes to the earnings management literature by demonstrating that the value relevance of AEM in emerging markets is distribution-dependent and sensitive to model specification. Methodologically, it highlights the importance of quantile regression in uncovering heterogeneity masked by mean-based estimators. From a policy perspective, the findings suggest that regulators and standard setters should strengthen monitoring and disclosure frameworks, as investors appear to respond selectively to higher-quality, performance-adjusted earnings signals.