This article emphasizes the significance of researching the cross effect of using jointly external audit quality and ownership structure over managerial discretion in a largely unexplored non-Western and emerging context. The analysis is based on a sample of 61 Tunisian firms listed and unlisted on the Tunis Stock Exchange and operating in the industrial and commercial sectors during the period 2007-2011. To provide evidence on this topic we conduct an empirical examination. First we examine the effect of external audit quality and ownership structure on the discretionary accruals for the whole sample. We find that only auditor reputation has a negative and significant effect on earnings management. Second this article provides empirical evidence on the cross effect of external audit quality variables and capital concentration on earnings management. This test suggests that this combinat...

This article emphasizes the significance of researching the cross effect of using jointly external audit quality and ownership structure over managerial discretion in a largely unexplored, non-Western and emerging context. The analysis is based on a sample of 61 Tunisian firms listed and unlisted on the Tunis Stock Exchange and operating in the industrial and commercial sectors during the period 2007-2011. To provide evidence on this topic, we conduct an empirical examination. First, we examine the effect of external audit quality and ownership structure on the discretionary accruals for the whole sample. We find that only auditor reputation has a negative and significant effect on earnings management. Second, this article provides empirical evidence on the cross effect of external audit quality variables and capital concentration on earnings management. This test suggests that this comb...