Earnings Management Acceptability
Ethics & CSRReliability: alpha 0.843 sample items
About this scale
A multi-item measure of how acceptable various earnings-management practices are perceived to be — accruals manipulation, real-activities manipulation, and disclosure timing.
Sample item(s)
“Delaying expenses to meet earnings targets is acceptable”
“Postponing R&D spending to manage earnings is acceptable”
“Adjusting accruals to smooth reported earnings is acceptable”
Reliability
Reported internal consistency: alpha 0.84. As a rule of thumb, Cronbach’s α ≥ .70 is considered acceptable, ≥ .80 good, and ≥ .90 excellent for established measures.
Notes
Useful in accounting-ethics research.
Source & citation
Bruns, W. J., & Merchant, K. A. (1990): The dangerous morality of managing earnings. Management Accounting, Vol. 72, No. 2, pp. 22–25.
Source. Scale details are summarised from the publication cited above. Always consult the original source for the full item set, scoring, and permission to use.
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