This paper analyzes the relationship between real and accrual earnings management activities and IPO failure risk. Recent research shows that IPO firms manage earnings upward around the offer year utilizing real and accrual earnings management activities (e.g., Wongsunwai, 2012) and that these...

We find that IPO firms engage in real and accrual earnings management during the IPO and that big-N audit firms constrain discretionary expenses-based and accrual-based manipulations. The restriction of these forms of earnings management leads IPO firms to resort to a higher level of sales-based...