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The present work aimed to identify the impact of accrual-based earnings management on the cost of equity (KE) through corporate social responsibility (CSR) as a moderating variable on European Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) companies.

The authors used data from a sample of 366 European firms over the 2012–2022 period. The data were collected from the Thomson Reuters Asset 4 and I/B/E/S database and analyzed using STATA 17 as a statistical software package.

As expected, the results showed a negative relationship between accruals, CSR and KE. Moreover, they suggest that the moderating variable negatively affects the relationship between accruals and the KE.

The results are pertinent to stakeholders and investors, who would pressure companies to enhance the quality of disclosed information and mitigate risks facing the company.

The main contribution lies in examining the relationship between accruals and KE through CSR in the European ESG context.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the effect of R&D intensity on the real earnings management index.

The authors proceed with dividing the full sample into two sub-samples, in accordance with the R&D associated intensity median. The final test sample proves to involve 73 firms along with 949 relating observations, while the control sample appears to enclose 65 firms and 845 relevant observations for the period 2000-2012.

The main finding of this study is the great influence of R&D intensity on the real earnings management index on the test sample. Accordingly, the proposed hypothesis stipulating that the innovative firms engage in upward real earnings management turns out to be strongly supported.

The study was conducted using robust methods to test the effect of R&D intensity on the real earnings management index. The generalized least squares method was used to fit panel data and overcome heteroscedasticity and autocorrelation problems. The aim of the study was to prove the great effect of R&D intensity on the real earnings management index. As this study was based on data from American companies, the results cannot be generalized to all contexts.

This paper differs from previous work and tests the effect of innovative firms, the market-to-book ratio on real earnings management. The findings of this study will enrich the literature on real earnings management by suggesting R&D intensity that can significantly enhance the real earnings management index. Therefore, these findings will be helpful to investors, managers and regulators because they have implications for the interactive decision-making process.

The purpose of this study is to analyze the effect of corporate social responsibility (CSR) practices and corporate ethical behavior on implicit cost of equity (COE) using integrated reporting quality (IRQ) as a mediating variable in European companies belonging to the environmental, social and governance (ESG) index.

The authors use a panel data set of 540 European firms from the ESG index from 2013 to 2022. The data were collected from I/B/E/S and Thomson Reuters ASSET4 database and analyzed using the structural equation model to test hypotheses.

In the instance of ESG European firms, the findings indicate that CSR practices and corporate ethical behavior are negatively related to the COE. From the result of the Sobel test, this study indicated that IRQ has only indirect mediation on the relationship between CSR, ethical behavior of the company and implicit COE.

The findings have some policy and practical implications that may help regulators and managers in improving the COE and helping companies envision their future growth opportunities in a context where responsibility, ethics and disclosure are central to corporate valuation. Using the implicit COE is a better estimate of shareholder requirements in the context of ESG companies.

This research concentrates on ESG companies since they are more likely to contribute to environmental protection, which attracts responsible investors. Furthermore, the findings may be useful to worldwide managers and investors who use responsible practices as a criterion in their decision-making.