DIAGNOSING THE RISK OF MANIPULATION IN FINANCIAL ACCOUNTING INFORMATION. AN M-SCORE BASED APPROACH

The information provided by accounting is the raw material for the reports used in the decision-making process, and attempts to compromise its quality affect both the company and external users, generating attitude changes and wrong decisions.Starting from this idea, the aim of our study is to assess and measure the quality of financial information reported by some companies listed on the Bucharest Stock Exchange in 2023, operating in the HoReCa, construction, IT and agriculture industries.In order to succeed our goal, we set out to identify the main research directions and apply the M-Score model to capture the level of vulnerability to financial statement manipulation techniques of certain industries.The results of the research will materialize in a synthesis of the main issues that need to be known by users of accounting information and in a hierarchy of the most secure areas of activity among those analyzed, in order to help stakeholders and prevent wrong decisions or misallocation of resources.