The purpose of this study is to examine the effect of financial factors on earnings management and earnings quality. Moreover, the study examines the role of earnings management as a mediator in the effect of the financial factors on earnings quality. It provides some empirical evidences from an emerging market, especially from the Jordanian market. The study uses a panel data analysis method over a ten-year period (2009-2018). The study population includes all Jordanian insurance companies listed in Jordanian market at the end of the year 2019, and the study sample consists of 20 Jordanian insurance companies (a complete population), giving a total of 200 observations for each variable. The results indicate that all financial factors in the model combined affect the earnings management and earnings quality. In addition, earnings management negatively affects earnings quality, and earnings management fully mediates the effect of financial factors on earnings quality. The study advises that policy makers ought to follow good legislation to curb the company's earnings management activities. Hence, the policy makers need to apply regulations which enrich the company’s effectiveness and efficiency whilst protecting the investors and other interested parties from risk.

Purpose The purpose of this study is to look at the direct relationship between audit quality, earnings management (EM) practices and company performance, as well as the indirect influence (mediation) of EM practices in the relationship between audit quality and company performance. It offers empirical evidence from the Jordanian market, which is considered an emerging market. Design/methodology/approach The population of this study is represented in Jordanian service companies listed on the Amman Stock Exchange (ASE), with a total of 344 company-year observations. Furthermore, panel data analysis was used in this study, and data for the study were acquired from yearly reports as well as the ASE’s database. Findings Based on generalized method of moments model, the present findings demonstrate that the size of the audit firm and the tenure of the audit firm have a positive and negative influence on EM practices, respectively, but that industry-specialist audit firm has a negative and insignificant effect. EM practices have a negative impact on two company performance proxies (ROA and ROE), but have no effect on earnings per share (EPS). Furthermore, the size of the audit firm has a positive and significant influence on the performance proxies of the company [i.e. return on assets (ROA) and return on equity (ROE)]. The presence of an industry-specialist audit firm has a positive and significant influence on two proxies of company performance (ROE and EPS), but a negative and significant impact on ROA. An audit firm’s tenure has a negative and significant impact on two performance proxies (ROA and EPS), but a positive and significant impact on ROE. Then, EM practices either fully or partially mediate the relationship between audit quality proxies and company performance as assessed by ROA, ROE and EPS. Research limitations/implications The current study’s limitation is that it only searched in Jordanian service companies listed on ASE from 2012 to 2019 to meet the study’s objectives; thus, the authors recommend that future work investigate the study model for other sectors, whether in Jordan or other emerging markets such as the Middle East and North Africa. Another limitation of this study is that the study models lack important variables, which may affect EM and company performance, such as corporate governance and ownership structure characteristics; as a result, the authors recommend that future work includes such variables in future research models to have more explanations in this context. Practical implications Analysts, investors and other strategic decision makers may use the findings of this study to improve the efficiency and efficacy of Jordan’s financial market. These findings will enhance policymakers’ willingness to establish appropriate regulations, which might improve Jordan’s financial market performance and efficacy. These findings may help investors make better judgments by using audit quality proxies and EM indicators, which can forecast business success. Originality/value First, this study distinguishes itself from prior studies through establishing a new research model, by investigating the mediating effect of EM in the relationship between audit quality and company performance. It provides empirical evidence from the Jordanian market; hence, it increases the body of the knowledge in this context. Second, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study to look into the link between audit quality, EM and company performance together; hence, the model of this study is developed using agency theory and information asymmetry theory. Third, the current study adds new evidence to the role of audit quality and EM in companies, as well as how audit quality and EM practices affect company performance in emerging markets such as Jordan.

This study aims to investigate the direct relationship between ownership structure, earnings manipulation, and organizational performance, and then examine the mediating effect of earnings manipulation in the relationship between ownership structure and organizational performance. This study collected and analyzed secondary data published in financial reports related to all insurance organizations listed in the Jordanian market during the study period (from 2009 until 2018). A panel data analysis was conducted, giving a total of 200 observations. The findings of this study concluded that ownership concentration, foreign ownership, and organization size affect organizational performance proxied by ROA, ROE, and EPS, more specifically, ownership concentration and organization size have a positive effect, whereas foreign ownership has a negative effect. At the same time, board of director ownership, organizational ownership, and CEO compensation did not affect organizational performance. Next, the board of director ownership, ownership concentration, foreign ownership, and CEO compensation affect earnings manipulation separately. In addition, earnings manipulation positively affects organizational performance proxied by ROA, ROE and EPS. This means that the higher the earnings manipulation is, the higher the organizational performance is. Finally, earnings manipulation mediates the relationship between ownership concentration and foreign ownership of ownership structure, and organizational performance.

This study aims to investigate the direct and mediated associations among ownership structure (OS), cash holdings (CHs) and firm value (FV). It provides empirical evidence from insurance firms listed in Jordan over the period from 2009 to 2018 using panel data analysis method. The findings conclude that ownership concentration positively affects CHs, whilst the board of directors’ ownership, organizational ownership and foreign ownership do not. Additionally, the CHs negatively affect FV. At the same time, the board of directors’ ownership, organizational ownership and foreign ownership as proxies for OS directly affect FV, and these proxies also have an indirect effect on FV by the mediation of CHs. Finally, this study recommends future research to study more determinants of FV, especially in different countries, such as MENA countries.