Use of Non-Financial Performance Measures in Managers’ Compensation Contracts as Earnings Management Constraints

Earnings management literature argues that managers' compensation contracts are based on Financial Performance Measures (FPM). Indeed, the accounting earnings have been the subject of several studies. A few of them have attempted to check whether to introduce the Non-Financial Performance Measures (NFPM) as a constraint on earnings management. The aim of this paper is to empirically test the impact of NFPM on earnings management behavior. Our sample consists of 89 Canadian listed firms pertaining to three sectors for the period, 1997-2006. The results are conclusive and showed that there is a negative relationship between Discretionary Accruals (DA) as a proxy for earning management and the relative importance of NFPM in managers' compensation contracts, suggesting that NFPM acts as an additional earnings management constraint