Auditing in Family Firms: A Literature Review

Abstract

In recent years, we can observe a noteworthy rise in interest in auditing research on family firms. Although many studies have been published in various scientific journals on this topic, these studies thus far have mostly remained unconnected. Therefore, in this paper, we present a synthesis of existing research on auditing in family firms. Our findings suggest that many auditing-related issues, such as audit fees, audit quality, and auditor choice, greatly differ between family firms and non-family businesses. Significant heterogeneity in auditing also exists within the large group of family firms. These findings indicate that future auditing research should investigate family influence on auditing in more depth or—in quantitative empirical settings—at least control for family influence. In addition, we can identify various gaps in current knowledge on auditing in family firms. Thus, we conclude this paper with an array of important future research avenues in this field.