What motivates managers' choice of discretionary accruals?

The papers by Subramanyam (1996) and Kasanen, Kinnunen, and Niskanen (KKN, 1996) both consider why managers manipulate accounting accruals. Subramanyam finds that discretionary accruals are associated with several performance measures, and concludes that managers' accrual choices increase the informativeness of accounting earnings. However, a strong competing alternative is that the 'Jones model' systematically mismeasures discretionary accruals, so that they contain a significant nondiscretionary component. Unlike many US studies, KKN find strong evidence of earnings management in Finland, where Finnish managers set earnings to satisfy the demand for dividends by keiretsu-like institutional investors.