The Contrarian: Finance, Accounting, and Business Research
Vol. 5 No. 2 (2026)

Sustainability report and accounting conservatism on earnings management: Evidence from Indonesia's consumer non-cyclicals sector (2021–2024)

Handel Benedicto Mangero (Sam Ratulangi University)
David P. E Saerang (Sam Ratulangi University)
Peter M. Kapojos (Sam Ratulangi University)



Article Info

Publish Date
11 Sep 2026

Abstract

Earnings management is an intervention by management in the preparation of financial reports for external parties in order to smooth, increase, or decrease reported earnings. In the consumer non-cyclicals sector, which has a stable market capitalization, earnings management may be influenced by various factors, including sustainability report disclosure as a form of corporate transparency and responsibility, and the level of accounting conservatism applied. This study aims to analyze the effect of the sustainability report and accounting conservatism on earnings management in consumer non-cyclicals sector firms listed on the Indonesia Stock Exchange (IDX) during 2021–2024. Earnings management is proxied by discretionary accruals (DA) using the Modified Jones Model, the sustainability report is proxied by the Sustainability Reporting Disclosure Index (SRDI), and accounting conservatism is proxied by conservatism accruals (CONACC). Using purposive sampling, 39 firms were selected, yielding 156 firm-year observations analyzed with multiple linear regression. The results show that the sustainability report has no significant effect on earnings management (t = -0.776; Sig. = 0.439), whereas accounting conservatism has a negative and significant effect (t = -14.323; Sig. < 0.001). The Adjusted R² of 0.567 indicates that both variables jointly explain 56.7% of the variation in earnings management. These findings suggest that sustainability disclosure has not yet directly constrained earnings management practices, while a higher level of accounting conservatism can suppress accrual-based earnings management among consumer non-cyclicals firms in Indonesia.

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Journal Info

Abbrev

cfabr

Publisher

Subject

Decision Sciences, Operations Research & Management Economics, Econometrics & Finance Social Sciences

Description

The Contrarian: Finance, Accounting, and Business Research (CFABR) is a double peer-reviewed journal published by the Yayasan Widyantara Nawasena Raharja. The Contrarian: Finance, Accounting, and Business Research (CFABR) will publish the articles bi-annually. The article submitted to The ...