Articles
Publication Date: 2025
Heritage and Sustainable Development (27120554)7(2)pp. 1041-1054
This study explores the impact of cost stickiness and its signaling effect on the accuracy of earnings per share (EPS) forecasts in the capital markets of developing countries, with a focus on Iraq and Jordan. Cost stickiness, defined as the asymmetric response of costs to revenue fluctuations, particularly their slower reduction during sales declines, challenges traditional forecasting models that assume cost symmetry. Drawing on panel data from 30 publicly listed firms between 2014 and 2023, the study tests six regression-based hypotheses. The results indicate that higher levels of total and operational cost stickiness significantly impair EPS forecast accuracy. In Iraq, operational and wage-related stickiness exert the strongest effects, while in Jordan, service and depreciation costs play a more prominent role. These findings are interpreted through agency theory, signaling, and information asymmetry, emphasizing how weaker institutional quality and disclosure, as in Iraq, intensify the adverse effects. The study contributes to the cost behavior literature and offers practical insights for analysts, regulators, and managers in emerging markets. © The Author 2025. Published by ARDA. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) that allows others to share and adapt the material for any purpose (even commercially), in any medium with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.
Publication Date: 2025
International Journal of Economics and Finance Studies (13098055)17(3)pp. 29-52
This study aims to explore the joint effect of accounting fraud and financial performance indicators on the crash risk of stock price for the banking industry. This study considers a dataset of 11 banks traded on the Tehran Stock Exchange and 6 banks traded on the Iraqi Stock Exchange for a period of 2015-2023. This study uses the discretionary accruals method to represent accounting fraud to measure the effect of crash risk of stock price. This study considers the NCSKEW and DUVOL methods to represent crash risk of stock price. This study finds that accounting fraud has a strong positive impact on crash risk of stock price for the respective country datasets. This study finds evidence that supports the concept of the existing bad news hoarding theory for banks. This study finds that accounting fraud affects crash risk of stock price to a higher level for Iraqi banks than Iranian banks. This confirms that institutional differences impact accounting fraud for crash risk of stock price datasets. This study considers control variables to develop a theoretical conceptual framework for better understanding of crash risk of stock price. This study finds that crash risk of stock price to a lower level for banks with higher size, age, and profits. This study finds that banks with higher leverage indicate a higher probability for crash risk of stock price. This study validates the analysis by utilizing the Beneish M-Score method to represent accounting fraud for crash risk of stock price. This study considers a CRASH dummy test to validate the analysis. This study contributes to the existing crisis theory for crash risk of stock price for banking industry by identifying three key points. First, this study introduces a theoretical concept that banking industry institutions impact accounting fraud for crash risk of stock price theory to advance future crisis theory for banking industry study requirements. This study explains that a banking industry study should focus on safety enforcement to develop transparency to enhance audit quality to develop banking industry stability for developing countries like Iraq for banking industry crisis theory. This study introduces a warning message to stakeholders to demand awareness to demand carefulness to demand prudence to demand caution while analyzing banking industry profits that banking industry profits induce for developing country crisis theory for banking industry. Taken together, the results contribute to a better understanding of the impact of accounting fraud on emerging market economies with respect to financial system integrity. © 2025, Social Sciences Research Society. All rights reserved.
Publication Date: 2024
International Journal of Economics and Finance Studies (13098055)16(3)pp. 305-320
Auditors’ personality affects audit quality, as an auditor performance function. Auditing may attract many personalities and require different personalities. This leads to the existence of different categories of personality features resulting in varying audit quality. This study examines the impact of auditor personality traits (agreeableness, extraversion, neuroticism, conscientiousness, and flexibility) on audit quality (auditor judgment and professional skepticism). The research statistical is all certified auditors in Iraq. For data analysis, the collected data were first entered into Excel and then analyzed using statistical software. In this study, ten hypotheses were formulated. The results indicate that extraversion, agreeableness, flexibility, neuroticism, and conscientiousness are positively related to audit quality (auditor professional skepticism). Additionally, extraversion and conscientiousness are in a positive relation with audit quality (auditor professional judgment), while flexibility and agreeableness negatively with audit quality (auditor professional judgment). Out of the ten hypotheses designed, nine were accepted, and only one hypothesis (the eighth) was rejected, indicating that neuroticism does not positively impact auditor professional judgment. © (2024), (Social Sciences Research Society). All Rights Reserved.
