Creating Accounting Numbers Using Designed Choices: A Case Study of Indian Hotel Industry

Creative Accounting has always been a subject of prime interest for shareholders' wealth. Over the years, it has diversified into various forms and sizes. The present study contributes by analyzing the creative accounting practices of the select companies in hotel sector in India, untouched so far. It has been analyzed on four parameters: discretionary accruals, manipulation score, quality of earnings and quality of revenue. The results show that these companies do practise creative accounting in one or the other form. The paper concludes with highlighting the scope for possible solutions for the creative accounting problem. It is hoped that the study improves shareholders' perception about the financial results reported by the companies in their self interest.