Audit partner tenure and earnings management: evidence from Vietnam

Abstract

Purpose This study aims to examine the relationship between audit partner tenure and earnings management of companies listed on Vietnamese stock exchanges. Design/methodology/approach This study uses a sample of 1,363 observations from 2016 to 2019. This study manually collects data on audit partner tenure. Using Datastream financial data, this study calculates abnormal accruals using the modified-Jones models (Jones, 1991; Dechow et al., 1995; Kothari et al., 2005), which are used as the proxy for earnings management. This study runs Ordinary Least Squares regressions to test this study’s hypothesis. Findings The results show that audit partner tenure is positively related to abnormal accruals. Cross-sectional analyses indicate that the relationship between audit partner tenure and abnormal accruals is more pronounced for firms that are audited by non-Big Four auditors and for firms that have chief executive officer-chairperson duality, suggesting that weak corporate governance is a channel for the established relationship. The evidence also shows that audit partner tenure is negatively associated with the magnitude of income-decreasing accruals but has no relationship with income-increasing accruals. This study’s findings are robust for several tests, including using the propensity score matching approach. Originality/value To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first to provide evidence of the relationship between audit partner tenure and earnings management in Vietnam.