Preparers of accounting information are in a position to manipulate the view of economic reality presented in this information to interested parties. These manipulations can be regarded as morally reprehensible because they are not fair to users, they involve an unjust exercise of power, and they tend to weaken the authority of accounting regulators. This paper develops a model for detecting earning manipulators using financial statements ratios in a sample of Spanish listed companies. Our results provide evidence that accounting data can be extremely useful in detecting manipulators. This approach can be used by a large category of users of accounting information among them we can cite the stock exchange supervisors or investing professionals.

Corporate governance is concerned with the relationships between a business's management and its board of directors, shareholders and lenders and its other stakeholders such as employees, customers, suppliers, and the community in which activates. The connection between this topic and creative accounting was debated in the literature since the latter occurrence is related to the weakness of the first. Our study offers interesting insights into this strong connection by examining the relevant ideas developed previously in the literature with the scope of understanding, reinterpreting and rediscovering from interesting points of view this association in our search for responsibility in the economic environment. By conducting this study we wanted to reinforce the role of literature analyst as an interpreter who contributes meaning to the present state of the art.

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The main goal of this particular research was to assess whether the listed companies in Spain behave differently in bad economic times versus good economic times. In this regard, the smoothing behavior of Spanish listed firms was examined. The results obtained document for the 2008-2009 financial crisis period a decrease in income smoothing activities. Results, implications and scope for future research are discussed.