Board characteristics, assurance auditing services role and earning management: evidence from Vietnam

The study examines the effect of corporate governance and assurance auditing services on earnings management in the case of Vietnam. We investigate that higher earnings manipulation is associated with higher board meeting frequencies and CEO/board chair position separation. Moreover, the qualified assurance auditing service insignificantly negatively affects earnings management. This finding suggests that pre-eminent perspectives of corporate governance systems from developed economies may not be a good fit for emerging markets like Vietnam. Generally, our paper emphasises the importance of the Vietnam policymaker's role in building effective monitoring mechanisms in the capital market by disciplining and supervising listed companies' current corporate governance applications. In addition, it is essential that the quality of assurance auditing services need to be enhanced to improve the transparency level in the capital market.