Word - Based Measures and Conventional Measures of Fraud in Financial Reporting: Evidence from an Exploratory Study

Fraudulent financial reports are a major threat to investors. However, in practice, there is no method of instant detection of fraud. Therefore, the consideration of indirect measures for fraud is very necessary. Theoretically, along with the traditional criteria of fraud, which are generally quantitative measures, qualitative measures can also be useful in detecting fraud possibility. Accepting the assumption that traditional measures of fraud are the relatively accepted academic benchmark for fraud, this study assesses one of the qualitative criteria, the word-based metrics, in detecting fraud possibility. The findings of the research indicate that there is no significant relationship between the conventional measures, such as voluntary accruals, financial leverage, tax evasion, auditor's opinion, employee growth, income growth, current ratio and working capital to assets ratio and positive, negative, judicial and uncertainty words.