The nature, incidence and ethical issues of creative accounting
The nature, incidence and ethical issues of creative accounting
1.1 Introduction
Creative accounting is also called “Earnings management” which is known as the manipulation of financial information. The term can be defined in many ways. Initially we define it as 'a process whereby accountants use their knowledge of accounting rules to manipulate the figures reported in the accounts of a business ' (Naser, 1993, p.59).
Creative accounting, at root, is the origin of numerous accounting frauds. Many accounting scandal cases (like the scandals in Enron, WorldCom, and other firms) in the past few years had happened with the result of collapse. Most of these scandals were conducted by the senior management of organisations and many victims include the employees, shareholders as well as the society had been suffered from these fraudulent cases. Therefore, it draws our attention to why and how a company may use the creative accounting to commit its so-called “window dressing” (Ghosh, 2010, p.2). This research will explore the nature, incidence and techniques of creative accounting as well as how it works.
This research will first review the previous literatures to find out the certain definitions of creative accounting by various authors. Then it will look into what motivate people to commit creative accounting and techniques applied to commit creative accounting. The next is looking into the measures and responsibilities of detecting and combat creative accounting. In the rest we will discuss the key findings, recommendations and conclusion of this research.
1.2 Literature Review
There are various views of the definition of creative accounting by different scholars.
Copeland (1968) defines it ‘Involves the repetitive selection of accounting measurement or reporting rules in a particular pattern, the effect of which is to report a stream of income with a smaller variation from trend than would otherwise have appeared '.
Griffiths (1986:1) presents his point
1.1 Introduction
Creative accounting is also called “Earnings management” which is known as the manipulation of financial information. The term can be defined in many ways. Initially we define it as 'a process whereby accountants use their knowledge of accounting rules to manipulate the figures reported in the accounts of a business ' (Naser, 1993, p.59).
Creative accounting, at root, is the origin of numerous accounting frauds. Many accounting scandal cases (like the scandals in Enron, WorldCom, and other firms) in the past few years had happened with the result of collapse. Most of these scandals were conducted by the senior management of organisations and many victims include the employees, shareholders as well as the society had been suffered from these fraudulent cases. Therefore, it draws our attention to why and how a company may use the creative accounting to commit its so-called “window dressing” (Ghosh, 2010, p.2). This research will explore the nature, incidence and techniques of creative accounting as well as how it works.
This research will first review the previous literatures to find out the certain definitions of creative accounting by various authors. Then it will look into what motivate people to commit creative accounting and techniques applied to commit creative accounting. The next is looking into the measures and responsibilities of detecting and combat creative accounting. In the rest we will discuss the key findings, recommendations and conclusion of this research.
1.2 Literature Review
There are various views of the definition of creative accounting by different scholars.
Copeland (1968) defines it ‘Involves the repetitive selection of accounting measurement or reporting rules in a particular pattern, the effect of which is to report a stream of income with a smaller variation from trend than would otherwise have appeared '.
Griffiths (1986:1) presents his point