Real and Accrual Earnings Management around Initial Public Offerings in Jordan

This study examines whether Initial Public Offering (IPO) firms in Jordan utilize real activities and accruals accounting during the offering year to manipulate income. To date the current study is the first to examine real activities and accrual earnings management that undertaken by IPO firms in Jordan. Using a Jordanian sample of 41 IPO firms over the period between 2000 and 2011, this study provides new evidence to the literature that IPO firms in Jordan utilize real activities and accruals accounting to inflate net income that is reported during the offering year. In particular, the findings of current study show that IPO firms report a higher level of earnings manipulation during the offering year that conducted via accrual-based earnings management, sales-based, discretionary expenses-based, and the aggregated measure-based of real activities.