Earnings Management in Russian Companies: Professional Ethics of Operating Decisions

Abstract

The problem of earnings management is on of most topical issues in accounting practice worldwide. There are many reasons for this phenomenon. In this paper we will follow papers [Fischer, Rosenzweig, 1995; Geiger et al., 2006] to present the results of analysis of a survey of Russian respondents concerning their attitudes on the ethical acceptability of earnings management. It occurs that Russian respondents’ behavior is different from other countries and we find factors that are associated with these differences. On the other hand, it was found that Russia is not significantly different in earnings management perception from market oriented developed countries.