The key objective of this paper is to propose a model for limiting earning management practices among manufacturing firms in Jordan. In order to do so, two independent variables are examined in this paper, namely, political influence and CEO Duality. Discretionary total accruals according to the modified Jones model (1991) was used in order to estimate the level of earnings management, which is the dependent variable. The sample comprised 64 companies for the financial year 2013. The results suggest that a positive and significant association existed among both political influence and CEO duality and earning management. This means that both independent variables exacerbated earnings management. Further research is required to determine what urgent legislation should be developed to restrict the presence of members who have political connections on the board of directors. Also, the need exists for the separation of roles of Chairman and CEO to ensure the independence and complying with the requirements of corporate governance.

The problem in accounting conservatism practice has been the focus of everyone. In our view, it was attributed amongst other factors to the weak of corporate governance practices. Such study develops an empirical model on the association between some mechanisms of corporate governance and accounting conservatism in terms of foreign ownership, board independence, board size and audit committee, through choosing Jordanian listed companies as research sample. The data were collected through using the annual reports of 113 Jordanian companies for year 2011. Four hypotheses were developed in this study. Upon using the multiple regression analysis, three of them were significant while one was not. This study concludes that there is a positive and significant association between each of foreign ownership, board independence and audit committee and accounting conservatism. While a negative and insignificant relationship between board size and conservatism. In addition, this study opens up opportunities and provides avenues for more in-depth research related to the accounting conservatism.

The purpose of the current study is to examine the influence of ownership structure and board members' skills in the practice of accounting conservatism of Jordanian listed firms. The data were obtained from the annual reports of 116 Jordanian listed firms for year 2011. By using the multiple regression analysis, the results show that the influence of corporate ownership structure and board skills on accounting conservatism were somewhat varied. All variables were a positive relationship with the conservatism with the exception of the board multiple ISSN 2162-3082 2014 www.macrothink.org/ijafr 178 directorship which has negative relationship with conservatism. Five hypotheses were developed and offered in this paper, institutional ownership and board financial expertise were supported, while family ownership, board tenure and board multiple directorships were not supported due to the higher level of P-value compared to 0.05. These results refer that corporate governance plays a vital role in enhancing the level of conservatism and reducing the agency conflict. Further, regulators bodies in Jordan should increase the effectiveness role of corporate governance in Jordanian companies in order to enhance the quality of financial reports. In addition, this study opens up avenues for more studies on accounting conservatism not only in Jordan, but also in other countries where this area of study is lacking. International Journal of Accounting and Financial Reporting

While often criticized, the independence of directors remains a crucial criterion for evaluating the effectiveness of the monitoring role of boards. This study examines the relationship between board independence and earnings management, paying attention to moderation role of family ownership concentration on this relationship using a sample of services companies listed on Amman Stock Exchange ASE. This study documented a significant and negative association between board independence and earnings management. In addition, the moderating role of family ownership concentration on this relationship was also negative. Thus, the board’s monitoring function was inefficient due to the concentration of ownership. These results were obtained through using multiple and sequential regression analysis for the research data from 2013 to 2016. This study provides new ideas for future research such as examining the impacts of the migration of capitals and investors from neighbouring countries such as Syria and Iraq.

This paper mainly aims to explore the role of monitoring mechanisms in limiting the earnings management practices among service firms in Jordan. The data used in this study were from the financial annual reports of 59 ASE listed service firms in 2015. The results of multiple regression analysis demonstrate the fairly varied influence of board of directors' variables. This paper presented three hypotheses covering board independency, CEO duality and audit committee. According to the results, internal monitoring mechanisms significantly impact the level of the practices of earnings management and the reduction of the agency conflict. Additionally, the regulatory bodies in Jordan should focus more on the role of internal monitoring mechanisms in Jordanian companies in terms of effectiveness in order to improve the quality of financial reports can be improved via the assurance of high quality of earnings. Finally, this study becomes a catalyst for more research on quality of financial reports and earnings quality in Jordan and other countries where there is still lack of studies in this domain.