Research On Relationship Between Executive Background Characteristics,Corporate Environmental Information Disclosure And Earnings Management

The theory of upper echclon points out that the human capital characteristics of executives such as team size,age,education level,and tenure are closely related to their values and cognitive abilities.Environmental information and earnings information are important channels for stakeholders to understand the company.Executives have great discretion over the extent of these two types of information disclosure.Previous studies shows that executive’s characteristic affect environmental information disclosure,and there is a significant relationship between environmental information disclosure and earnings management.Therefore,starting from the charact-eristics of executives’ human capital,it is of great significance to explore the influence of executive characteristics on corporate environmental information disclosure and earnings management.This paper selects the data of 175 heavily polluting listed companies in Shenzhen Stock Market from 2008 to 2016 as a sample.Firstly,it discusses the relationship between corporate environmental inform disclosure and earnings management,and considers the impact of property rights on the relationship.Based on this discussion,exploring the relationship between executive background characteristics,corporate environmental information disclosure and earnings management.The study found that:(1)The higher level of corporate environmental information disclosure,the lower degree of accrued earnings management,and the higher degree of real earnings management.(2)Average age of executive teams is significantly positive with real earnings management,the number of executives receiving salary is significantly negatively correlated with real earnings management.(3)The size of the executive team,average age,level of education and the number of executives receiving salary are significantly positively correlated with corporate environmental information disclosure.(4)Corporate environmental information disclosure plays a mediating role in the relationship between executive background characteristics and earnings management.Therefore,it is recommended that government regulatory authorities should improve the environmental disclosure system and standardize the content and methods of disclosure;Enterprises shouldrationally equip senior management teams to optimize human capital structure;Improve executive promotion mechanism and raise awareness of environmental protection among executives;The regulation of earnings manipulation should focus on real earnings management.