Studying a sample of Japanese firms, we examine whether foreign investors exert a significant influence on earnings management through manipulation of real activities. We find that foreign investors play an independent role in restraining real earnings management, as captured by abnormal cash...

This study advances the limited generalizability of previous studies that have focused on developed market multinational enterprises and explores the link between institutional distance and ownership choice of emerging market multinational enterprises (EMNEs). Such studies in the EMNE context...