caa a22 4500 605484783 CHVBK 20210128100438.0 cr unu---uuuuu 210128e20150101xx s 000 0 eng 10.1007/s10551-013-1989-3 doi (NATIONALLICENCE)springer-10.1007/s10551-013-1989-3 Shafer William Lingnan University, 8 Castle Peak Road, Tuen Mun, NT, Hong Kong aut Ethical Climate, Social Responsibility, and Earnings Management [Elektronische Daten] [William Shafer] This study proposes and tests a model of the relations among corporate accountants' perceptions of the ethical climate in their organization, the perceived importance of corporate ethics and social responsibility, and earnings management decisions. Based on a field survey of professional accountants employed by private industry in Hong Kong, we found that perceptions of the organizational ethical climate were significantly associated with belief in the importance of corporate ethics and responsibility. Belief in the importance of ethics and social responsibility was also significantly associated with accountants' ethical judgments and behavioral intentions regarding accounting and operating earnings manipulation. These findings suggest that perceptions of ethical climate, usually presumed to reflect the "tone at the top” in the organization, lead accounting professionals to rationalize earnings management decisions by adjusting their attitudes toward the importance of corporate ethics and social responsibility. This is the first study to document a relationship between organizational ethical climate and professional accountants' support for corporate ethics and social responsibility, and also the first study to document that industry accountants' views toward corporate ethics and social responsibility are associated with their willingness to manipulate earnings. The findings have important implications, suggesting that organizational efforts to enhance the ethical climate and emphasize the importance of corporate ethics and social responsibility could reduce the prevalence of earnings manipulation. Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht, 2013 Ethical climate nationallicence Perceived importance of ethics and social responsibility nationallicence Earnings management nationallicence Hong Kong nationallicence Journal of Business Ethics Springer Netherlands 126/1(2015-01-01), 43-60 0167-4544 126:1<43 2015 126 10551 https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-013-1989-3 text/html Onlinezugriff via DOI BK010053 XK010053 XK010000 Metadata rights reserved Springer special CC-BY-NC licence nationallicence 1 research-article jats NATIONALLICENCE NATIONALLICENCE NL-springer NATIONALLICENCE 856 40 https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-013-1989-3 text/html Onlinezugriff via DOI NATIONALLICENCE 100 1- Shafer William Lingnan University, 8 Castle Peak Road, Tuen Mun, NT, Hong Kong aut NATIONALLICENCE 773 0- Journal of Business Ethics Springer Netherlands 126/1(2015-01-01), 43-60 0167-4544 126:1<43 2015 126 10551