Financial transparency, including transparency of transactions, is one of the pillars of sustainability. This study investigates whether a company’s ownership structure, including ownership concentration, managerial ownership, and the presence of institutional investors, affects upward real earnings management practices. The research is based on companies listed on the Warsaw Stock Exchange in Poland adapting panel data regression models. The significance and contribution to literature of the paper lies in the fact that we provide evidence that the association between the magnitude of total upward real earnings management and shareholder concentration is U-shaped, thereby indicating that there is an optimal level of ownership concentration, minimizing the magnitude of upward real earnings management and thus increasing financial transparency. Our results show the negative relationship between total upward real earnings management and managerial ownership, thereby we confirm the alignment of interest hypothesis, in terms of real earnings management. We also confirm that individual instruments of real earnings management are linked to ownership concentration and managerial ownership in specific ways. The presence of institutional investors reduces the magnitude of total upward real earnings management.

One of the aspects of sustainable social and economic development is providing the public with the opportunity to conduct economic activity. This requires the proper development of information systems, identification of the determinants of performance, and development of the accounting profession. The aim of our study was to assess the sense of job satisfaction and prestige of the accounting profession in Poland, as seen by accountants themselves, depending on factors such as gender, age, and others. The background for the research was a country located in Central and Eastern Europe, which had just been through a political and economic transition. The study used questionnaire surveys and was based on nonparametric statistical methods: Chi-square, U Mann–Whitney, and the Kruskal–Wallis test. Herein, we provided evidence that strong feminization of the profession can be observed in Poland, and that women’s financial satisfaction with their profession was lower than that of men, in small companies as well as in companies without any foreign equity investment. We confirmed that age is more important than gender in differentiating perceived job satisfaction. The findings indicated that the assessment of the accounting profession should be considered when creating legislative solutions for sustainable social and economic development.

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The study contains an overview of earnings management tools of reporting entities and capital groups in Poland. Relations between the phenomenon of earnings management and financial reporting policy have been analysed. A research problem related to the significance and application of particular earnings management tools as perceived by practitioners (accountants, executive board members, specialists) has been discussed. Selected tools of earnings management, usually linked with operations, are perceived to be used more intensively. The conducted analysis shows that in the opinion of the surveyed respondents the most effective instrument influencing the desired level of results presented in a financial statement is carrying out transactions under conditions which ensure the achievement of a reported goal. This applies also to capital groups, in which transactions effected between group units were indicated as the ones used to the greatest extent.