How do Family and Managerial Ownership Structure Effect Real Earnings Management?

Despite several works on corporate governance examine the ownership structure on earnings management, the empirical research on Real Earnings Management (REM) is limited. Thus, the main purpose of the research is to examine the effect of family and managerial ownership on real earnings management of selected non-financial listed companies at Colombo Stock Exchange (CSE) in Sri Lanka. The researchers use quantitative approach to address this current issue, and the data were collected using a sample of 206 firms listed at the CSE during the highest market capitalization period from 2015/2016 to 2019/2020, and eliminated the companies listed in the industry of bank, finance and insurance because the companies are governing by rules and regulation. The study found that family and managerial ownership play a prominent role and negatively related with real earning management activity. The finding of the study contributes to knowledge in earnings management of agency theory literature in developing economies, and help the investors, supplier auditors and policy makers for their decision-making activities by detecting the real earning management in different ownership structure.