Investigating the Effect of Financial Distress and Growth Opportunities on Accounting Conservatism with the Role of Adjusting Management Overconfidence

Conservatism is an action that is used in conditions of uncertainty and limiting management optimistic behaviors to increase the reliability of financial statements. Financial distress and growth opportunities are among the factors that can improve the level of accounting conservatism. Meanwhile, managers' behavioral characteristics are expected to influence the relationship between financial distress and growth opportunities with accounting conservatism. Therefore, the aim of this study was to investigate the effect of management uncertainty on the relationship between financial distress, growth opportunities and accounting conservatism. The results of this study show, the variables of financial distress and growth opportunities have a positive and significant effect on conservatism. Management overconfidence has no significant effect on the relationship between financial distress and conservatism but it moderates the relationship between growth opportunities and conservatism and has a negative and significant effect on the relationship between them. In other words, that managers with unfavorable financial situation do not have a positive outlook on the future situation of the company and increase the level of conservatism. Managers of large and growing companies also tend to opt for more conservative accounting practices to minimize their political and social costs. On the other hand, overconfident managers are optimistic about the future state of the company and reduce the level of accounting conservatism.