Drawing on agency and socioemotional wealth theory, this study elucidates that ownership succession intentions affect earnings management in private family firms. Based on a combination of questionnaire data and archival data of 331 Belgian private family firms, results indicate that family firms intending to transfer ownership to non-family members engage more in earnings management than those planning to transfer ownership to family members. Our findings also show differences in earnings management within each subset of ownership succession, thereby highlighting family firm heterogeneity. Family owners intending to transfer ownership to their children engage less in upward earnings management than those planning to transfer ownership to other family members. Family owners intending to transfer ownership to employees engage more in downward earnings management than those intending to transfer ownership to outsiders. This study contributes to both theory and practice by considering ownership succession intentions as a driver of earnings management.

本研究借鉴代理和社会情感财富理论，阐明所有权继承意图影响私人家族企业的盈余管理。根据对 331 家比利时私营家族企业的问卷数据和档案数据的结合，结果表明，打算将所有权转让给非家族成员的家族企业比那些计划将所有权转让给家族成员的家族企业更多地参与了盈余管理。我们的研究结果还显示了所有权继承的每个子集的盈余管理差异，从而突出了家族企业的异质性。与计划将所有权转让给其他家庭成员的家庭所有者相比，打算将所有权转让给子女的家庭所有者较少参与向上的收益管理。打算将所有权转让给员工的家族所有者比打算将所有权转让给外部的家族所有者更多地参与向下的盈余管理。本研究通过将所有权继承意图视为盈余管理的驱动因素，对理论和实践都有贡献。