Earnings management in firms has several different motivations. This article examines the preserving of socioemotional wealth as a motive for earnings management in specific types of private family firms by looking at the generational stage, the management team, and the CEO position. The authors’ results suggest that socioemotional wealth may play a role as motive for upward earnings management when firm performance is poor. Under this condition, first-generation and founder-led private family firms seem to have greater incentive to engage in upward earnings management because of the preservation of their socioemotional wealth.

No abstract