This article studies the underinvestigated but fascinating issue of the sociological determinants of accounting misbehavior while focusing on an allegedly illicit accounting practice (i.e., restatement) in family- vs. nonfamily-controlled corporations. Under the framework of institutional anomie theory, we examined whether sociological structures (i.e., legal forces and cultural values) influence accounting errors inducing restatements. By applying a multivariate regression analysis to a sample of restating firms listed in 23 countries during the 2006 to 2014 period, we found that legal forces and cultural values significantly moderate the severity of accounting errors. The results of this study suggest that investors, managers, and policymakers should more fully consider the sociological structures of societies when debating the feasibility of corporate misbehaviors, as combining firm-level and country-level analyses could help to predict a firm’s accounting misbehaviors, such as more severe accounting errors.

中文翻译：

---

社会学结构和会计不当行为：家族企业重述的制度失范理论解释

本文研究了会计不当行为的社会学决定因素这一未被充分调查但引人入胜的问题，同时关注家庭与家庭中涉嫌非法的会计实践（即重述）。非家族控制的公司。在制度失范理论的框架下，我们检验了社会学结构（即法律力量和文化价值观）是否会影响导致重述的会计错误。通过对 2006 年至 2014 年期间在 23 个国家上市的公司样本应用多元回归分析，我们发现法律力量和文化价值观显着缓和了会计错误的严重性。本研究结果表明，投资者、管理者和政策制定者在讨论公司不当行为的可行性时应更充分地考虑社会的社会结构，因为结合公司层面和国家层面的分析有助于预测公司的会计不当行为，例如作为更严重的会计错误。