Management of Listed Consumer Goods companies in Nigeria: An Empirical Analysis

Abstract

The study examines the effect of audit tenure, auditor type (Big 4) on the earnings management of Nigerian companies with particular reference to the consumer goods sector. Audit tenure, audit fees, and auditor type were used to represent audit quality, while accrual was used to measure earnings management of the firms under study. Data sourced from annual reports were extracted between the years 2015 and 2019, descriptive statistics, correlations, and multiple regressions were used to analyze the data collected. Findings revealed that audit tenure has no significant effect on earnings management, audit fees affect earnings management and audit firm type (Big 4) has a significant effect on earnings management of companies involved in the study. The study recommends that the quality of audit reports should not be primarily based on the audit fee as the result of the study shows a negative relationship between audit fees and audit quality.