Purpose

The purpose of this study is to propose an analytical model that investigates both a direct path between corporate governance quality and earnings quality and an indirect path, in which firms' performance is a mediating variable that is influenced by corporate governance quality and that, in turn, influences earnings quality.

Design/methodology/approach

The study employs a structural equation modelling (SEM), to a sample of Egyptian listed firms during 2011–2017, to test the proposed analytical model and to determine the relative importance of both the direct and indirect paths.

Findings

The findings show a statistically significant evidence of both a direct path from corporate governance quality to earnings quality, and an indirect path that is mediated by firms' performance, suggesting that both corporate governance quality and performance have a complementary effect on earnings quality. However, the weight of the evidence favouring the direct path is more important in case of accounting-based performance measures; and the weight of the evidence favouring the indirect path is more important in case of market-based performance measures.

Research limitations/implications

The current study has some limitations. First, the study focuses specifically on one proxy for measuring earnings quality which is the absolute value of discretionary accruals. Other proxies of earnings quality could be examined in future research, such as income smoothing, earnings persistence and timely loss recognition. Another limitation is that only financial performance measures were examined, namely, return on assets, return on equity, price-to-earnings ratio and market-to-book value. Notwithstanding, non-financial performance measures could be investigated in future studies, such as balanced scorecard (BSC). Furthermore, considering cultural, political and legislative differences among countries, the results may not be generalised outside the scope of the current sample (i.e. Egyptian listed firms).

Practical implications

The implications of the findings for both theory and practice are discussed.

Originality/value

This study is distinguished by validating an analytical model that has been overlooked by prior studies. Moreover, it provides a new constructed index for measuring corporate governance quality. Furthermore, it uses a new sophisticated statistical technique, which is SEM, for testing the proposed model.

中文翻译：

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公司的绩效如何调解公司治理质量与收益质量之间的关系？

目的

这项研究的目的是提出一种分析模型，该模型研究公司治理质量和收益质量之间的直接路径和间接路径，在这种间接路径中，公司绩效是受公司治理质量影响的中介变量，进而又受公司治理质量影响的中介变量的影响。 ，影响收益质量。

设计/方法/方法

该研究对2011-2017年期间埃及上市公司的样本采用结构方程模型（SEM），以测试建议的分析模型并确定直接路径和间接路径的相对重要性。

发现

调查结果显示了从统计意义上重要的证据，既显示了从公司治理质量到收益质量的直接路径，又包含了由公司绩效介导的间接路径，这表明公司治理质量和绩效都对收益质量产生了互补的影响。但是，在采用基于会计的绩效指标的情况下，支持直接路径的证据的权重更为重要。在基于市场的绩效指标的情况下，支持间接路径的证据权重更为重要。

研究局限/意义

当前的研究有一些局限性。首先，本研究专门针对一种衡量收益质量的指标，该指标是任意应计收益的绝对值。其他收入质量指标可以在将来的研究中进行研究，例如收入平滑，收入持久性和及时的亏损确认。另一个限制是，仅检查了财务绩效指标，即资产回报率，股本回报率，市盈率和市净率。尽管如此，仍可以在将来的研究中研究非财务绩效指标，例如平衡计分卡（BSC）。此外，考虑到国家之间在文化，政治和立法上的差异，结果可能无法在当前样本（即埃及上市公司）的范围之外进行概括。

实际影响

讨论了研究结果对理论和实践的影响。

创意/价值

这项研究的特点是验证了一个被先前研究忽略的分析模型。此外，它为衡量公司治理质量提供了一种新构建的指标。此外，它使用了一种新的复杂的统计技术，即SEM，来测试所提出的模型。