This research examines the moderating effect of family ownership over the relationship between board independence and earnings management. Using information of industrial companies indexed on Amman Stock Exchange, this research provides evidence of negative relationship between board independence and earnings management, proposing that higher percentage of board independence is related with more effective monitoring to reduce earnings management. Moreover, the results document that the relationship between board independence and earnings management becomes weak when there is an interaction with family ownership control. These outcomes indicate that an increase in the percentage of independent directors to mitigate earnings management is less likely to be influential in the case of family controlled firms. The results of this research could be valuable to regulators in their efforts to restrict the incidence of earnings management and improve the quality of monitoring mechanisms, especially in an environment where the capital market is still evolving and the legal protection and law enforcement are weak.

This research aims to explore new evidence on the nature of the relationship between the effectiveness of audit committee and earnings management in one of the emerging economies, Jordan. In addition, it investigates how external auditor size might moderate this relationship. For this purpose, a panel data consisting of 64 industrial firms listed on Amman Stock Exchange (ASE) is used, covering the period between 2009 and 2014. An index consisting of four characteristics is developed to measure the effectiveness of audit committee, namely audit committee independence, size, meetings and financial expertise. Results show that audit committee effectiveness has a significant and negative impact on earnings management. Moreover, a positive interaction effect of external auditor size and audit committee effectiveness on earnings management is found, which is supportive of the substitute relationship between the external auditor size and effective audit committee in reducing earnings management. Policy makers and professional accounting bodies in Jordan might benefit from these results, as they show that legislative reforms can motivate firms to adopt good governance practices to mitigate earnings management.

The current study offers empirical evidence on the way the family ownership moderates the association that exists between the financial experience of the audit committee and earnings management based on a sample of 44 manufacturing firms that are registered with the Amman Stock Exchange (ASE) from 2012 to 2016. From the results of the study, there is a significant negative association between the financial experience of the audit committee and earnings management. In addition, the study shows a positive interaction of the financial experience of the audit committee and the family ownership on earnings management. This indicates that an increase in the percentage of audit committee members having financial expertise, in order to restrict earnings management, is less likely to be influential in the case of family controlled firms. These results have implications for policy makers and regulatory bodies in Jordan since they highlight the need to improve the good corporate governance practices and attempt to constrain the incidence of earnings management in Jordanian firms.

IAS 39 has been described as being the most difficult standard to be implemented and understand The main aims of this research were to examine the effect of the implementation of IAS 39 on the investment's decisions of individuals and institutions in Jordan; to evaluate the understanding of IAS 39 by Jordanian investors and the effect of their understanding upon their investment decisions; and to examine the effect of some factors such as the degree of knowledge and the nature (individual or institution) of the investor on the degree of understanding of this IAS because. In the current study, Firstly, the results supported the first hypothesis that the implementation of IAS 39 would affect the reported profits of companies and, consequently, Jordanian investors would decrease their investment in these companies. Secondly, no significant differences were found between different fields of education, different professional certificates, and different years of experience with regards to the understanding of the implementation of IAS 39 and its effect; but, statistical differences were found between different levels of education at the 5% level, and between individual and institutional investors at the 10% level.

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