Accounting Standards, Goodwill Impairment and Earnings Management in Malaysia

This paper has two objectives. The first is to investigate whether the provision of MFRS 136 (that is equivalent to IAS 36) allows for an earnings management technique termed “big bath” in Bursa Malaysia and, whether the change in firms’ CEOs plays a role in goodwill impairment loss recognition. The second objective is to examine the application of goodwill impairment loss recognition under the provision of MFRS136 in Bursa Malaysia between 2011–2012, using a “Mann-Whitney U” test. Our findings suggest that companies utilize goodwill impairment to take a “bath” regarding earnings management. Moreover, we find that Malaysian companies struggle to understand the ambiguity of the Value in Use (VIU) method under the MFRS 136 as they tend to take extreme accounting treatment strategies. Finally, we find that the new CEOs in Malaysian companies are more conservative in accounting treatment than CEOs with long tenure.