Accounting comparability and financial sustainability with the moderating role of earnings management in Indonesia

This study examines whether accounting comparability enhances financial sustainability and whether real earnings management (REM) moderates this relationship in an emerging-market setting. The analysis uses 309 firm-year observations from 103 non-financial companies listed on the Indonesia Stock Exchange during 2021–2023. The hypotheses are tested using pooled ordinary least squares regressions with year and industry fixed effects and clustered standard errors. The results show that accounting comparability is positively associated with financial sustainability (β = 0.607). REM has no statistically significant direct association with financial sustainability; however, the interaction between accounting comparability and REM is positive and significant (β = 0.458). These findings remain consistent across alternative model specifications and robustness tests. The evidence suggests that comparable financial reporting strengthens firms’ long-term financial resilience by improving transparency, benchmarking, and stakeholder monitoring. The positive interaction should not be interpreted as evidence that REM is inherently beneficial; rather, it indicates that the association between comparability and financial sustainability varies with managerial operating behavior. The study extends the literature by integrating financial reporting quality, managerial behavior, and multidimensional financial sustainability in the Indonesian capital-market context.