The practice and praxis of earnings management – views from practitioners in Vietnam

Lan Anh Nguyen, Steven Dellaportas, Sarath Lal Ukwatte Jalathge, Hoa Luong, Thuy Pham and Brendan O’Connell

Qualitative Research in Accounting & Management, 2025, vol. 23, issue 1, 1-26

Abstract: PurposeThe purpose of this study is to analyze how practitioners in Vietnam understand and engage in earnings management, through the lens of practice theory.Design/methodology/approachThis study relies on data collected from interviews with 30 accountants, auditors and regulators in Vietnam. The data were analyzed using thematic analysis, resulting in three key themes: practitioners’ understanding of earnings management; the relationship between accounting standards and earnings management; and the praxis of earnings management.FindingsThis study examines why practitioners in Vietnam engage in earnings management, often as a response to the pressures received from organizational superiors. The lack of consistent and comprehensive regulation, alongside the discretion permitted within Vietnamese accounting standards, are enablers of earnings management.Originality/valueThis study demonstrates that an assessment of earnings management should not occur without considering the context and/or motivations of practitioners. It also shows the limitations inherent in Vietnamese accounting standards and their lack of enforcement as factors contributing to earnings management activity.

Keywords: Earnings management; Enforcement; Institutional environment; Practice theory; Vietnam (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.emerald.com/qram/article/23/1/1/130059 ... -earnings-management (text/html)
https://www.emerald.com/qram/article-pdf/23/1/1/10321584/qram-01-2023-0004en.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eme:qrampp:qram-01-2023-0004

DOI: 10.1108/QRAM-01-2023-0004

Access Statistics for this article

Qualitative Research in Accounting & Management is currently edited by Lukas Goretzki and Thomas Ahrens

More articles in Qualitative Research in Accounting & Management from Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Emerald Support ().