Author(s): Laith Fouad Alshouha, Wan Nur Syahida Wan Ismail, Mohd Zulkifli Mokhtar, Nik Mohd Norfadzilah Nik Mohd Rashid, Ahmad A. AL-Naimi
Investors and capital providers are interested in the financial information issued by companies to make investment decisions. Meanwhile, managers may adopt accrual earnings management to improve the company's image. Thus, it is important to examine the factors that affect earnings management. Therefore, the motivation for this study was the investigations in Jordan related to the impact of financial structure on accrual earnings management were few and rare. The current investigation depends on panel data approach using the annual reports for 88 companies listed on ASE (industrial and services) sectors from 2009 to 2019. The independent variable, financial structure (FS), measured by financial structure ability (FSA), debt repaying ability (DRA) and cash flow from financing activities (CASHF). The independent variable, accrual-based earnings management (AEM), measured by performance approach. The results of multiple regression analysis of plate data showed a significant and negative impact of FSA and DRA on AEM, while CASHF has no impact on AEM.