An overview of earnings management detection approaches

Earnings management could be considered as a matter ofserious concernby the financial accounting literature.
Several approaches for detecting earnings management have been provided by the previous studies. This
study aimsto review the different approaches used to identify earnings management and makes a critical
evaluation on the weaknesses and strengths of these methods. Despite the fact that accrual-based earnings
management is the most widely used approach for detecting earnings management, it has a number of
drawbacks. We have attempted to shed more light on the strengths and drawbacks that should be considered
when identifying earnings management behaviour.