Toward enhancing financial integrity: decoding the impact of audit committee characteristics on earnings management in emerging markets – the moderator role of concentrated ownership

This study explores the moderating role of concentrated ownership (CO) in the relationship between audit committee (AC) characteristics and earnings management (EM) in the banking sector in Jordan. The fixed effects regression and Driscoll–Kraay regression were used to extract the results from a sample of listed banks in Jordan between 2010 and 2024. The fixed effects and Driscoll–Kraay regressions indicate that concentrated ownership plays a significant role in moderating the relationship between EM when combined with audit committee characteristics such as audit committee independence (ACI), gender diversity (GD), audit committee member age (ACMA), busy directors (BD), and audit committee member tenure (ACMT). The main limitation of this study is the sample size, which may limit the generalizability of the results. The main results of this study are pivotal for policymakers, regulators, and stakeholders. These findings are expected to enhance the understanding of monitoring frameworks (corporate governance) in the context of concentrated ownership within Jordan. Regardless of the availability of previous investigations in different contexts (developed and less-developed markets), the moderating impact of concentrated ownership on the relationship between AC characteristics and EM has been scarcely addressed within emerging markets.