The Effect of Social Interaction Perception of Managers on Companies’ Earnings Quality

Competent managers, along with financial and physical resources, are necessary for the success of companies. The competence of managers is not only the amount of their knowledge and technical skills, but also their psychological and social characteristics play a key role in shaping the competence of managers and their success in managing companies. The study aims to investigate the relationship between managers' social perception and earnings quality of companies listed on the Tehran Stock Exchange. The statistical population of this study is all companies listed on the Tehran Stock Exchange between 2014 and 2017 and the sample includes 134 companies. Multiple regression was used to test the research hypotheses using EVIEWS software. The Perception of Social Interactions Questionnaire (Glass, 1994) was used to measure the perception of social interaction and the time series of earnings characteristics (stability and smoothing) was used to measure the earnings quality. The results of hypothesis testing showed that managers' perception of social interaction has a significant and positive relationship with earnings stability and a significant and negative relationship with earnings smoothing, which indicates a positive relationship between perception of social interaction and earnings quality.