Audit Firm Industry Specialization Research Articles

Organizational complexity and audit report lag in GCC economies: the moderating role of audit quality

Purpose This study aims to investigate whether organizational complexity (hereafter firm complexity) increases audit report lag (ARL) in a unique environment of GCC countries. Design/methodology/approach The research study uses a panel data set of 6,084 firm-year observations of nonfinancial firms from GCC economies from 2009 to 2022. First, the study uses an ordinary least square estimator to examine the association of firm complexity with ARL. Second, for robustness purposes, the study applies the propensity score matching technique. Findings This research study finds that the firms’ complexity increases ARL. Supporting the argument that auditors respond to firm complexity with increased effort, the authors find a positive relation of firm complexity with ARL. This relationship is augmented by auditor change, auditors’ tenure, auditor-qualified opinion and adoption of IFRS. In addition, the authors also find that Big-4 and audit firm industry specialization curtail the positive impact of firm complexity on ARL. Research limitations/implications Firms in the GCC have less time to complete their audit and complex firms are likelier to have bigger ARLs. This study provided evidence regarding the curtailing effect of audit quality in GCC. Our findings suggest policymakers and reformers choose improved audit quality to reduce the possibility of larger ARL. Originality/value This study enriches the scholarship by presenting a mechanism for reducing the ARL of complex firms through higher audit quality. This study contributes to agency theory by emphasizing audit quality’s important role in emerging markets.

Mediating influence of earnings management in the nexus between audit quality and company value: new proof from Jordanian market

PurposeThis paper aims to recognize the direct influence of audit quality (AQ) on earnings management practices (EMP) and company value (CV), as well as the mediating role of EMP in the link between AQ and CV. It presents new factual proof from the Jordanian market, which is still in its early stages.Design/methodology/approachA pattern of 43 service firms listed on the Amman Stock Exchange (ASE) was collected for the timeframe (2012–2019), giving an amount of 344 firm-year observances. The data was collected from the annual reports extracted from the ASE’s database and tested with panel data analysis.FindingsThe results show that audit firm industry specialization positively affects EMP while its size and tenure do not, which implies that its industry specialization does not restrict earnings management but rather leads to an increase in opportunistic behaviors. Audit firm size and audit firm industry specialization positively affect CV, whilst audit firm tenure does not. Additionally, the findings indicate that EMP negatively affect CV, and EMP act as a mediator for the AQ–CV nexus.Research limitations/implicationsStakeholders can use the findings to enhance the capacity and effectiveness of Jordan’s fiscal market. For example, our results will boost policymakers’ eagerness to institute suitable statutes improving Jordan’s fiscal market performance. Besides, the results can assist existing and potential investors make sound adjudication by using AQ proxies and earnings management as signals to predict future company’s value.Originality/valueThe paper differentiates itself from previous papers through initiating a new proposed model by exploring the role of earnings management as a mediator in the nexus between AQ and CV by presenting new factual proof from the Jordanian market.

Audit pricing puzzle: Do audit firm industry specialization and audit report lag matter?

This study examines whether audit firm industry specialization and audit report time lag (ARL) matter in the audit fees puzzle. Specifically, we examine the moderating effect of audit time lag on the audit firm industry specialization and audit fees nexus. We use dataset from 100 quoted and unquoted Ghanaian firms from 2008 to 2018. We find that audit firm industry specialization exhibits a significant positive impact on audit fees and a significant negative effect on ARL. The results of the interaction between audit firm industry specialization and ARL also display a negative association with audit fee, signifying that specialization significantly reduces audit fee premium paid provided these experts produce the financial report in a short time. Further analysis on large and small companies, state-owned and private companies, weak and strong internal controls also indicate the significance of audit firm industry specialization and reporting time lag in explaining audit pricing puzzle. The novelty aspect of this study is the analysis of the moderation effect of audit timeliness on the audit firm industry specialization and audit fees nexus in the context of a lax enforcement of Generally Accepted Accounting Principles environment.

Effect of audit firm industry specialization on cost of debt financing: Evidence from Ghana

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Audit Quality and Earnings Manipulations in Nigeria: Beneish Model

The significance to prepare reliable information discloses the need to fall back on an external auditor and a quality auditing process that can caution against the management of earnings. In line with the business practice, auditing does not provide sufficient coverage for some earnings management (EM) activities that result in financial statement fraud. Over the years, capital markets around the globe have witnessed numerous corporate financial scandals largely because of financial and accounting figures' manipulation. This has led to casting doubt on the quality of published financial reports and questioning the ability of the audit process. Against this background, this study examined the relationship between audit quality and real earnings management of listed manufacturing companies in Nigeria. Specifically, this study evaluated the effect of audit firm size, audit firm industry specialization, audit firm tenure, and audit firm independence on real earnings management. The study sampled 38 out of 55 listed manufacturing companies that cut-across different sectors from 2013 to 2020. From the multivariate analysis, the findings revealed a significant relationship between audit quality (audit firm size and audit firm independence) with a p-value of 0.014 and 0.003 respectively. It was concluded that firms audited by Big-4 firms with independence attract greater publicity and tighter scrutiny; hence, companies tend to desist from managing their earnings. The study, therefore, recommended that the management of manufacturing firms in Nigeria should persist in engaging experience audit firms with international affiliations, and they should work strictly with the CAMA, 2020 as amended by rotating audit firms after every three years as this will promote the reliability of financial statement prepared by management, and finally reduce manipulation of earnings.

The Determinants of Audit Quality: A Study Using the Approach of Earnings Surprise Benchmark

This study aims to find empirical evidence regarding the influence of audit tenure, audit firm rotation, audit firm industry specialization, and time budget pressure on audit quality. This research is a quantitative research using secondary data in the form of financial statements. This study uses a population of manufacturing companies in the consumer goods sector listed on the Indonesia Stock Exchange in 2015-2017. The sampling was done by using a non-probability method with a purposive sampling technique. The number of samples used in this study is 34 companies. The data analysis method used is a logistic regression analysis method using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 21. The results of this study indicate that audit tenure and audit firm rotation have no effect on audit quality, PAF industry specialization has a positive effect on audit quality, time budget pressure has a negative effect on audit quality.

The Effect of Auditor Industry Specialization and Board Independence on the Cash Flow Reporting Classification Choices under IFRS

This study explores the relationship between audit partner and firm industry specialization and board of director independence on the one hand and the decision by Taiwanese firms to take advantage of IFRS flexibility concerning reporting interest income and expense, and dividends received in the operating cash flow section of the statement of cash flows on the other. A sample of 1,227 Taiwanese firms were drawn for fiscal year 2013, the year that Taiwan switched from using its GAAP to using IFRS principles. Of these, 354 changed their cash flow reporting classifications. We examine the interaction effect of board independence and auditor industry specialization at both partner-level and firm-level on the cash flow reporting classification choices under IFRS. The results show there is a substitute relationship between board independence and partner-level industry specialization on the change in cash flow reporting classification, but a complementary relationship between board independence and firm-level auditor specialization. Further, both partner-level and firm-level auditor industry specialization have a complementary relationship with board independence in not changing a firm’s interest expense paid reported in operating activities to financing activities.

Does Auditor Industry Specialization Increase Analysts’ Forecast Accuracy? Evidence from the Listed Firms of Australia

This paper examines the relation between auditor industry specialization and analysts’ beginning-of-the-year earnings forecast accuracy. It predicts that the higher industry specialization of the auditors will improve the quality of external financial reports and thus mitigates the analysts’ forecast error. It also predicts that higher audit quality will have a negative association with analyst forecast dispersion. The empirical test results on Australian listed firms from the year 2003 to 2012 does not find evidence of association between audit firm industry specialization and analysts’ beginning-of the year earnings forecast error. However, firms with higher analysts forecast error is associated with lower forecast dispersion among analysts, which is consistent with the prediction that analysts are consistent with predicting future earnings and analysts possess similar traits in terms of difference with the actual earnings. Additional analysis also finds that’s larger firms have less forecast errors compared to smaller firms. The findings contribute to the growing literature on auditing and financial reporting quality in Australian context.

Does CEO-Auditor Dialect Sharing Impair Pre-IPO Audit Quality? Evidence from China

Using a sample of Chinese to-be-listed firms during the period of 2006–2012, this study examines the influence of CEO-auditor dialect sharing (CADS) on pre-IPO audit quality and further investigates the moderating effects of auditor reputation and audit firm industry specialization. On the basis of information in personal identification cards, this study hand-collects data about CADS, and then provides strong and consistent evidence to show that CADS is significantly positively related with discretionary accruals (the inverse proxy for audit quality), suggesting that CADS leads to the collusion between the CEO and the signing auditors, elicits pre-IPO earnings management, and eventually impairs pre-IPO audit quality. Moreover, both auditor reputation and audit firm industry specialization attenuate the positive effect of CADS on discretionary accruals. Furthermore, sensitivity tests suggest that above findings are robust to different measures of CADS and discretionary accruals, and above conclusions still stand after controlling for the endogeneity. Lastly, the findings using the post-IPO sample further validate the negative association between CADS and pre-IPO audit quality.

Auditorss Response to Analystss Forecast Properties: Some Evidence from Audit Pricing

This study draws on information asymmetry theory and audit pricing theory to examine the linkage between analysts’ earnings forecast properties and audit pricing in the US. To test these associations information asymmetry is measured by (1) analysts’ forecast accuracy, and (2) analysts’ forecast dispersion. This study provides evidence that higher analyst earnings forecast accuracy (dispersion) are associated with lower (higher) audit fee pricing. Our interpretation of these results are that analysts, as important financial intermediaries, provide useful information to other third parties, including auditors. We find that these relationships are stronger for small firms and younger firms in line with these firms having higher informational problems, and that audit firm industry specialization plays a significant role in reducing information asymmetry.

The Impact of Auditor Industry Specialization on the Retention and Growth of Audit Clients

The effect of the economic financial crisis worldwide has increased the need for auditors to provide a high quality services to their clients. An important element considered by clients for selecting their auditors is whether the audit firm has specialization in particular industry. Audit firm industry specialization provides clients with value for money services to help management achieve efficiency and effectiveness in their operations. Other benefits for audit firms may include increased market share, audit tenure, better financial reporting and less earnings management, audit quality with less restatements of financial information, appropriate audit fees, less exposure to litigation risk, less enforceable action by supervisory bodies and ability to compete in highly competitive environment. Specialization was also seen as critical for the survival of the auditing profession. This research analyzes the effects of audit firm industry specialization on the retention of the audit firm and growth in its business. Factors such as whether the firm is a big 4, with international affiliation, local firm, type of industry and growth were also studied for audit firm retention and growth. The sample studied includes the top 100 publicly held companies’ annual reports in the Egyptian stock market during the period 2007-2011 which are analyzed to determine the audit firms’ retention and growth. The results support that industry specialization has an important effect on the auditor’s retention especially for industry where capital investment is significant such as building, construction, financial services, housing, and real estate. Big 4 audit firms retained their clients due to their industry specialization and brand name. The findings provided evidence that good knowledge of accounting & auditing standards resulted in audit firms with international affiliation competing with big 4 for clients’ retention & growth in business. The result also showed some evidence that the auditing profession in Egypt is dominated by the big 4 and the Central Audit Organization

Do Industry Specialist Auditors Add Value in Mergers and Acquisitions?

This study examines whether the stock market returns surrounding announcements of mergers and acquisitions (M&A) are higher for acquiring firms audited by industry specialists. External auditors are uniquely positioned to provide assurance on the financial statements of their acquiring clients both before and after an acquisition. Also, an important aspect of due diligence in M&A transactions is the external auditors review of the accounting records, financial statements, internal controls and information systems of the target company. Using a sample of 4,283 M&A announcements between 1988 and 2011 in the United States of America, we report the results from our main regressions, controlling for all the bidder traits and deal characteristics. We examine incremental effect of audit firm specialization on cumulative abnormal returns. We also measure the effect of audit firm industry specialization in a reduced sample of 3,946 acquisitions after removing all non-Big N auditors. We use Heckmans (1979) two-step procedure to ensure that announcement period return to the size of the audit firm is not driven by the determinants related to auditor choice. Consistent with the idea that industry specialists provide higher quality assurance and possibly superior M&A advisory services, we find that the stock market returns are higher when acquiring firms are audited by industry specialists.

Does Audit Tenure, and Audit Firm Industry Specialization Influence Audit Quality?: Evidence From The Manufacturing Industry in Indoensia

Abstract: Audit quality is influenced by the independence and competence of the audit firm and also an auditor. This research aims to analyze the impact of audit firm tenure, auditor tenure, and audit firm industry specialization towards audit quality. Long audit tenure of both, auditor and audit firm, merely results in a deeper understanding about the client or entity, but on the other hand, also threatens auditor independence. Audit firm industry specialization is appointed to be one of the factors increasing audit quality in terms of industry-specific knowledge owned by the audit firm. This research uses 36 manufacturing entities in financial distress listed on the Indonesian Stock Exchange in the year of 2004-2010. By using the propensity to issue a going-concern opinion as a proxy for audit quality, this research shows that audit firm tenure and audit firm industry specialization has no significant influence on audit quality. Nevertheless, auditor tenure has a positive and significant effect on audit quality. Abstrak: Kualitas audit dipengaruhi oleh independensi dan kompetensi dari perusahaan audit dan juga auditor. Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk menganalisis pengaruh penguasaan perusahaan audit, tenur auditor, dan spesialisasi industri audit perusahaan terhadap kualitas audit. Masa jabatan audit yang lama baik, auditor dan perusahaan audit, hanya menghasilkan pemahaman yang lebih dalam tentang klien atau entitas, tetapi di sisi lain, juga mengancam independensi auditor. Spesialisasi industri perusahaan audit diangkat menjadi salah satu faktor yang meningkatkan kualitas audit dalam hal pengetahuan khusus industri yang dimiliki oleh perusahaan audit. Penelitian ini menggunakan 36 entitas manufaktur dalam financial distress yang terdaftar di Bursa Efek Indonesia pada tahun 2004-2010. Dengan menggunakan kecenderungan untuk mengeluarkan opini going-concern sebagai proksi untuk kualitas audit, penelitian ini menunjukkan bahwa audit kepemilikan perusahaan dan spesialisasi industri perusahaan audit tidak memiliki pengaruh signifikan terhadap kualitas audit. Namun demikian, tenur auditor memiliki pengaruh positif dan signifikan terhadap kualitas audit.

Is Corporate Governance A Determinant of Auditor Choice -Evidence From Turkey

External independent audit is an important component of strong corporate governance. The choice of independent external auditor is determined by several different factors. Besides all firmspecific factors, corporate governance might be a determinant of external auditor choice. The relation between auditor choice and corporate governance varies in accordance with the “substitution or complementary effect”. Firms may prefer to demand less effective and low quality audit and substitute the quality of audit services by a strong corporate governance structure. Alternatively, firms may demand a high quality audit in order to complement and support firms’ corporate governance structure. Therefore it is important to understand how a strong corporate governance structure is associated with auditor choice to reveal the effect of each corporate governance mechanisms on Big-4 and industry-specialist auditor choice. The main aim of this study is to investigate the association between corporate governance and auditor choice by using a sample of 805 firm-year observations from Istanbul Stock Exchange (ISE) between the years 2005-2009. Overall findings show that, firms’ auditor choice in terms of Big-4 and audit firm industry specialization is affected by the firm-level corporate governance mechanisms of firms, particularly, board of directors’ composition and ownership structure

A meta‐analysis of the determinants of modified audit opinion decisions

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to provide a meta‐analysis of the effect of: auditor and audit‐related variables; and firm‐specific variables on auditors' propensity to issue modified audit opinions. Auditor and audit‐related variables include Big N affiliation, audit firm industry specialization, audit firm and audit partner tenure, provision of non audit services and audit report lag. Some of the important firm‐specific variables include firm size, leverage, and profitability.Design/methodology/approachThe Stouffer combined test is employed as the meta‐analysis technique for this paper. The test produces a z‐statistic that can be used to test the direction and significance of the effect of the hypothesized variables on the propensity of auditors to issue modified audit opinions. A total of 73 published studies are aggregated from 1982 to 2011.FindingsMeta‐analysis result reveals that the effect of audit and auditor‐related variables on audit opinion decisions is far from conclusive. Big N affiliation and audit report lag variables are found to be positively related while the association between non‐audit fees and modified audit opinion decisions is negative. However, the significant effect of non‐audit fee variable is found only in non US studies. Evidence on the effect of firm‐specific variables on auditors' propensity to issue modified audit opinions is broadly consistent with hypotheses formulated in the published studies.Practical implicationsMeta‐analysis statistically aggregates results across individual studies and corrects for statistical artefacts like sampling and measurement error and, thereby, provides much greater precision with respect to the findings, compared with narrative reviews. The findings should be relevant for the current project on audit reporting initiated by the International Auditing and Assurance Standards Board (IAASB).Originality/valueAudit opinion formulation is a complex procedure that culminates in the issuance of appropriate audit opinions. This paper adds value to the strand of audit opinion formulation research by documenting that some of the variables are more significant in explaining auditors' modified audit opinion decisions compared to other variables.

How Increased Regulatory Oversight of Nonaudit Services Affects Investors' Perceptions of Earnings Quality

SUMMARYIn 2003, the Financial Supervisory Authority of Norway (FSA) disclosed that audit firms had violated the legal restrictions for providing nonaudit services (NAS). In response, the FSA tightened the NAS regulations. This study examines how regulatory oversight affects the relation between the provision of NAS and earnings response coefficients (ERC). For small, non-industry specialized audit firms, the disclosure of violations in 2003 negatively affected the relationship between NAS and ERC, but the effect was more pronounced in the disclosure year 2003 than in the new regulation period 2004–2008. For Big 5 audit firms, these negative effects are moderated, indicating higher audit quality. Contrary to our expectations, the results of this study suggest that investors perceive audit firm industry specialization as a threat to independence in 2003.Data Availability: Data are publicly available from the listed sources.

How Increased Regulatory Oversight of Non-Audit Services Affects Investors’ Perceptions of Earnings Quality

In 2003, the Financial Supervisory Authority of Norway (FSA) disclosed that audit firms had violated the legal restrictions for providing non-audit services (NAS). In response, the FSA tightened the NAS regulations. This study examines how regulatory oversight affects the relation between the provision of NAS and earnings response coefficients (ERC). For small, non-industry specialized audit firms, the disclosure of violations in 2003 negatively affected the relationship between NAS and ERC, but the effect was more pronounced in the disclosure year 2003 than in the new regulation period 2004-2008. For Big 5 audit firms, these negative effects are moderated, indicating higher audit quality. Contrary to our expectations, the results of this study suggest that investors perceive audit firm industry specialization as a threat to independence in 2003.

Audit firm industry specialization and audit outcomes: Insights from academic literature

Audit firms vary with respect to the quality of services they provide to their clients. One differentiation strategy is related to providing services to clients that are based on in-depth industry knowledge. Industry specialization helps audit firms increase the demand for audit and non-audit services, improves audit efficiency through economies of scale, creates barriers to entry by requiring new entrants to invest significant resources in relevant industries, and affects client-relevant audit outcomes like audit fees and financial reporting quality. This review attempts to evaluate critically the archival research on the effect of audit firm industry specialization on client-relevant audit outcomes. Some suggestions for future research are offered.

Audit firm industry specialization and the audit report lag

This paper contributes to the audit report lag (ARL) literature by documenting the association between audit firm industry specialization and the ARL. ARL is one of the few externally observable audit output variables that allows outsiders to gauge audit efficiency, because it relates to the timeliness of both audit and earnings information. Although a sizable volume of literature exists on the determinants of the ARL in different countries, the effect of audit firm industry specialization on the ARL has not been investigated. Industry-specialist auditors are able to develop industry-specific knowledge and expertise and to familiarize themselves quickly with the clients’ business operations and, therefore, are likely to complete the audit sooner than their non-specialist counterparts. Using regression analyses with two different definitions of industry specialization, and controlling for known determinants of ARL, we demonstrate that the ARL is shorter for firms audited by industry specialist auditors. Our findings also reveal that the adoption of International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) has increased the ARL for all auditors except for industry specialist auditors.

Auditor quality and earnings management: Singaporean evidence

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to examine the association between the magnitude of earnings management and auditor quality. It focuses on earnings management in response to mounting pressure amongst investors, policy makers and corporate governance reformists for mechanisms to curb excessive opportunistic behavior amongst corporate management. Auditor quality is the main focus of this study analysis as this factor is considered to be a key determinant of earnings management.Design/methodology/approachThe cross‐sectional modified Jones model is used to measure discretionary accruals (the proxy for earnings management). Following prior studies (Pearson and Trompeter, Craswell et al., Hogan and Jeter, DeFond et al., Ferguson and Stokes), the author uses audit firm industry specialization to proxy auditor quality.FindingsThe paper presents evidence of a negative association between auditor quality and the earnings management indicator. This finding infers that the magnitude of earnings management amongst firms engaging the services of a specialist is significantly lower than firms purchasing audit services from a non‐specialist auditor. In addition, this study also reveals that the magnitude of earnings management is significantly lower amongst companies engaging a Big 4 specialist audit firm relative to companies using the audit services of a Non‐Big 4 specialist.Originality/valueInsights drawn from this study may be of assistance to policy makers as they consider the costs and benefits associated with varying levels of audit market concentration. The findings provide stronger support for allowing the audit market to operate in a basic laissez‐faire manner without any overbearing interference by policy makers. Given industry specialization is likely to play an increasingly important role in audit value in the future, policy makers and reformists play an important role in encouraging firms to use the services of, especially, Big 4 specialist auditors.