Anna Siekelova

Financial managers intentionally use the legal manipulation of earnings to the business development. Earnings management is a widespread business finance phenomenon. The approaches and the ways of this practice are marked by many parallels. The main target of the article is to show the clusters with the close approach of the enterprises to the earnings manipulation and demonstrate hidden relations of the earnings management between sectors in the Visegrad Group. The study estimates the earnings management by the Modified Jones model. 52,545 discretionary accruals are computed for Slovak, Czech, Hungarian, and Polish enterprises for 5-year horizon in 19 sectors classified by the NACE. The clusters of close practices of the earnings management are identified based on principal component analysis and cluster analysis in every country of Visegrad Four. Moreover, the results detect the dependences between sectors in the region and the specificity of the sectors.

Research background: In recent years, the world economy has changed. Earnings management, as a modern phenomenon, plays an important role within the financial world under the condition of globalization. The academic community deals with the issue of the informative value of the reported financial results. The informative value of these results becomes questionable when we realize that managers have not only the motivation but also the ability to use the earnings management techniques to influence these results. Purpose of the article: The aim of the contribution is earnings management detection by using a model with the highest explanatory power, as well as verifying hypotheses about the existence of a statistically significant relationship between earnings management practices and financial stability within a sample of companies. Methods: Based on the results of the explanatory power examination, the modified Jones model is recommended for earnings management detection within the sample of V4 companies. Data were obtained from the Amadeus database. The sample contains 1,480 financial reports of companies from 2019 to 2017. Research is focused on V4 companies that have the sum of total assets higher than 2,000,000 EUR, as well as the sum of operating revenue is higher than 100,000 EUR. Also, the Pearson correlation coefficient was used to test the hypotheses about the existing statistically significant relationship between financial stability and earnings management practices. Findings & Value added: The article provides an overview of the earnings management issue within V4 countries. It examines the earnings management practices and the impact of financial stability on the level and direction of earnings management practices.

Research background: Authors deal with the current issue of Earnings Management (hereafter „EM“). It can be said that the emphasis on this issue is constantly growing, especially abroad. Under the condition of Slovak economy, earnings management practices are considered to be a currently developing issue. Based on the globalization, EM practices, models and techniques created abroad are also reaching European countries. Mainly after the recent economic fluctuations caused by financial crisis or COVID-19, the application of earnings management principles in companies with an effort to achieve a balanced profit can be assumed. Within studies or researches, there are many earnings management models. Most of them were created abroad. It means in different economic conditions. There is therefore a question of their use in the conditions of the Slovak economy. Particular importance is their explanatory power, which they achieve in different economic conditions than those in which they arose. Purpose of the article: The aim of the paper is to test the explanatory power of selected foreign models in the Slovak Republic. Methods: Statistical methods used in selected EM models (regression, Mann-Whitney nonparametric test); adjusted R square predicted sign of a variable, standard deviation significance level of model to verify the explanatory power of selected models. Findings & Value added: The added value of the contribution is in the testing of the explanatory power of selected foreign models in other economic conditions in which they were created.

Research background:Contribution responds to the current issue of Earnings Management (hereafter „EM“) initiatives. Authors have been dealing with EM initiatives since at least the 1960s. Initial studies came from the USA. Due to the globalization, awareness of EM techniques and models created abroad is also reaching European countries. Especially after the recent economic fluctuations (financial crisis in 2009; COVID-19 in 2020), the application of EM principles in companies with an effort to achieve a balanced profit can be assumed. The issue of earnings management has begun to be associated with the issue of its measurement. The problem is a large number of models, so choosing one is not easy. Although earnings management issue has been investigated under various hypotheses, there is no agreement on a uniform detection or measurement of earnings management practices. A number of earnings management models can be found in studies. Many of them were created recently, others are older. Most originated abroad.Purpose of the article:The aim of the paper is to clarify the historical development of earnings management models.Methods:Bibliometric analysis for historical development of EM models.Findings & Value added:The added value of the contribution is in the clarification of the historical development of the EM model as well as clarify the development of profit models.

Managers have to make decisions several times a day. The decision-making process can be defined as an essential activity realized by managers every day. Decisions can be implemented intuitively, or by using relevant decision-making methods. This depends on the nature of the decision, as well as the intensity of its possible future effects. The theory of decision-making can be defined as a relatively young discipline. It can be stated that decision-making is no longer an intuitive process. Most decision-making situations are of a multiple criteria character. In this contribution, the authors focus on multiple-criteria decision-making, to which several methods can be applied. In the practical part, the authors use Saaty's method, also known as the Analytic Hierarchy Process. Saaty is considered to be the most important researcher dealing with the issue of multiple-criteria decision-making. The set multiple-criteria decision-making problem was to choose one business partner out of eight under consideration. The decision-making criteria included selected financial indicators and non-financial criteria. The aim of the contribution is to use the Analytic Hierarchy Process to assess potential business partners and to select an optimal candidate.

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Many kinds of research has suggested that innovation is positively linked to business performance and that it acts as an intermediary between organizational variables and financial performance measured by earnings achieved. Researchers worldwide have paid great attention to identifying and exploiting the main drivers of innovation management, which has led to many research articles that have adopted different approaches and identified several factors that are related to innovation. Nevertheless, there is some ambiguity about the critical behavioral factors for innovation. Therefore, this study aims to identify behavioral incentives, or key factors, that impact business innovation and financial stability, mainly in the field of strategic management, and to reveal the latest trend in corporate innovation policy by using bibliographic mapping. The purpose is to precisely define specific incentives that can influence the overall productivity and profitability of a business, and this list of innovation factors can be of benefit to a strategic manager in introducing or supporting innovative activities. The analysis is preceded by an in-depth study of publications from the Web of Science and Scopus databases and based on the VOS Viewer method (which is a mapping and clustering program for network data), the available keywords are analyzed, and then a list of incentives in strategic innovation is compiled.

The paper is focused on the analysis of the influence of partial indicators on the selected top indicator, which is the earnings. The profit is the resulting effect of the enterprise’s business activity and, at the same time, often the measure of whether the company is successful or not. Business performance data is one of the cornerstones for further corporate planning and decision making. It is necessary to point out the factors that influence the company’s result. The main purpose of the contribution is the pyramidal breakdown of the economic performance indicator to identify the main factors influencing its change over the two-year reference period. The pyramidal breakdown of the economic result is complemented by the breakdown of the ROE indicator.