The Relationship between the Level of Business Ethics and Accounting Transparency for SME and Large Company

This study examines the relationship between corporate ethical commitment index(ECI) calculated by Choi and Jung(2008) and discretionary accruals(DA) estimated by modified Jones model(1995) as accounting transparency. We assume that companies with a higher level of ethical commitment show better quality financial reporting than those with a lower level of ethical commitment. To test the hypotheses, the regression models include ECI and the absolute DA as the dependant or main independent variables to analyze both sides by ex-ante or ex-post on the basis of the year 2008. The test sample consists of 451(ex-ante) and 783(ex-post) firm-year data, selected from the KRX listed companies of 2005～2012. Consistent with our prediction, we find that companies with a higher level of ethical commitment are engaged in less earnings management. We also find that SME(small-medium enterprises) and Large Companies some produce different results for the differences of ethical perceptions with political cost hypothesis.2