Mediating Effect of the Internal Audit Committee on Firm Attributes Sapping from a Real Earnings Management

The study examined the mediating effect of the internal audit committee of firm attributes tunneling from real earnings management. Balance panel data obtained from Thomson Reuters Data Stream of 469 listed non-financial firms used for the analysis from 2011-2017. The Pool OLS and the random effect GLS are utilized for two-step panel data regression analysis using firm attributes and real earnings management.The findings indicate that: internal audit committee mediates the relationship between firm attributes and activity based earnings management in listed non-financial firms. Nigeria. Further analysis revealed that affiliated family firms, brand name auditors, risk management and whistleblowing positively impacted on the quality of earnings in listed non-financial firms, Nigeria. However, related party transactions, audit pricing, tenure of audit and qualified audit reports do not positively impacted on the earnings quality in listed non-financial firms, Nigeria. The study incorporates compound theories to gain a deeper understanding of firm-level earnings management behavior and draw policy implications.