<![CDATA[This study investigates the influence of company characteristics and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) attributes on earnings management practices in manufacturing firms listed on the Indonesia Stock Exchange (IDX). Drawing on agency theory, this research examines whether firm age, leverage, profitability, audit quality, CEO narcissism, CEO age, CEO education, and CEO gender affect accrual-based earnings management. Using a purposive sampling method, the final sample consists of 79 manufacturing companies, resulting in 237 firm-year observations. Earnings management is measured using discretionary accruals calculated through the Modified Jones Model, while the hypotheses are tested using multiple regression analysis.The empirical results reveal that leverage has a significant negative effect on earnings management, indicating that firms with higher debt levels tend to engage less in earnings manipulation due to stricter monitoring and supervision from creditors. In contrast, company age, profitability, audit quality, CEO narcissism, CEO age, CEO education, and CEO gender do not show a significant impact on earnings management practices. These findings suggest that financial pressure arising from debt obligations plays a more decisive role in constraining managerial discretion than firm maturity or individual CEO characteristics. This study contributes to the earnings management literature by providing empirical evidence from an emerging market context, where prior findings remain inconclusive. Practically, the results offer valuable insights for investors, creditors, and auditors in assessing the quality of financial reporting, particularly in firms with varying leverage levels. Future research is encouraged to explore alternative measures of CEO behavioral traits, incorporate corporate governance mechanisms, and examine real earnings management to provide a more comprehensive understanding of earnings manipulation behavior.]]>
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