The Effect of Ownership Structure on Real Earnings Management: Evidence from Vietnamese Listed Companies in Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange

Earnings management has been a topic of significant interest to researchers for many decades. Earnings management is achieved through accrual-based accounting method or decisions related to real transactions within a company. This paper focuses on clarifying earnings management through real activity transactions (REM). Using a quantitative research method, this paper investigates how the characteristics of ownership structure affect REM in 217 listed companies on Ho Chi Minh stock exchange from 2012 to 2023. The regression outcomes indicate that ownership concentration, institutional ownership, and foreign ownership are the factors that influence REM in listed companies.