Corporate Competitive Strategy and Earnings Management: The Mediating Effect of Risk Taking

Earnings management do not only affect the sustainable development of the enterprise itself but also impacts the healthy development of the capital market, which has received widespread attention from relevant regulatory departments and the academic community. Based on the data of the Ashare listed companies in Shanghai and Shenzhen stock exchanges from 2012 to 2020, this paper examines the impact of different corporate strategic choices on the implementation of earnings management, with a focus on analyzing the mediating effect of the level of risk undertaken by enterprises, and exploring the moderating role of audit quality on the relationship between corporate strategy and earnings management from the perspective of external environment. The empirical results show that, compared with enterprises implementing defensive strategies, those with offensive strategies are more inclined to take earnings management behaviors; The level of risk undertaken is the main transmission path of the impact relationship between competitive strategy and earnings management, and the external audit quality can inhibit the impact of competitive strategy on earnings management.