Partner's Style Research Articles

Audit partner style and financial statement comparability: New evidence from the US market

AbstractWe explore the influence of individual audit partner style on financial statement comparability in a US setting using newly available data. We find evidence of an audit partner style effect on comparability incremental to audit firm and audit office effects. Our results are consistent across several comparability measures and are economically significant. For example, the audit partner effect is associated with a 12.59% decrease in the mean difference in abnormal accruals compared with a 4.4% decrease for firm pairs audited by the same Big 4 audit office. We also find that audit partner expertise and experience have a greater influence on comparability than audit office expertise and experience. Our results are consistent in endogeneity and robustness tests including (1) auditor switching tests, (2) entropy balancing, (3) placebo tests and (4) controlling for clients’ economic similarity. Our results suggest that the association between audit partner style and financial statement comparability persists in highly regulatory environments and corroborate the PCAOB's intuition that the role of the engagement partner “is of singular importance” to the outcome of the audit (PCAOB 2011).

Does Audit Partner Style Affect Financial Reporting Outcomes? Evidence from U.S. Bank Holding Companies

Does Audit Partner Style Affect Financial Reporting Outcomes? Evidence from U.S. Bank Holding Companies

The Effect of Auditor Style on Reporting Quality: Evidence from Germany

This paper examines whether the ‘style’ of individual auditors influences financial reporting quality in Germany. Audit quality in Germany should be uniformly high, because of strong reputational needs, strict controls on operating procedures, and quality enforcement mechanisms. An audit partner's style should not affect this quality level. However, our results do not support this expectation. Exploiting a unique dataset comprising the names of the audit engagement and review partners of listed German companies, we find that audit engagement partners in Germany have a significant influence on audit quality, beyond firm‐ and office‐level factors. In contrast, audit review partners do not have a consistent significant influence on audit quality. We measure audit quality by the level of a firm's abnormal accruals and its propensity to meet or beat an earnings target. We also find that the 2005 adoption of a new audit quality enforcement system that includes ‘naming and shaming’ does not reduce the influence of audit partner style on financial reporting quality.

Audit Firm and Audit Partner Style in Non-Big 4 Firms

We examine Big 4 and non-Big 4 auditor styles and the effect of Big 4 style through individual audit partners on financial statement comparability. Our study has four principal findings: One, we find the existence of a unified Big 4 style, distinct from any individual Big 4 firm style, leading to increased comparability for pairs of clients with Big 4 auditors. Two, we find that this unified Big 4 style persists in audits conducted by non-Big 4 partners with former Big 4 experience. Three, we find that annually inspected non-Big 4 firms have their own firm-level styles but do not find evidence of individual triennially inspected non-Big 4 firm styles affecting financial statement comparability. Four, we find evidence that the unified Big 4 style effect on non-Big 4 clients with a former Big 4 partner is partially offset by the individual firm style of annually inspected non-Big 4 firms. In further cross-sectional tests, consistent with our expectations, we find that the unified Big 4 style effect through former Big 4 experienced auditors is stronger for partner level Big 4 experience and for pairs of partners that left the Big 4 firm around the same time. Our results provide novel evidence on the ways in which auditors foster financial statement comparability apart from the firm’s unique audit methodologies and accounting standard interpretations.

Work Insecurity and Compensation on Turnover Intention Mediated by the Job Satisfaction of Employees

Among the challenges companies must face is to reduce the intensity of employee turnover. Companies need to improve and implement policies that can minimize turnover. The purpose of this study is to examine and explain the influence of job insecurity, compensation, and job satisfaction on turnover intention and examine the mediating role of job satisfaction in the influence of job insecurity and compensation on turnover intention. This research is quantitative associative research conducted at PT. True Partner Style. The total population is 98 employees with a sample of 79 employees. The data were obtained through a questionnaire using the 5-point Likert scale. The data analysis technique used was SEM-PLS. The results revealed that job insecurity has a positive and significant influence on turnover intention, compensation and job satisfaction has a negative influence on turnover intention, job insecurity has a negative influence on job satisfaction, compensation has a positive influence on job satisfaction, and job satisfaction was able to partially mediate the influence of job insecurity and compensation on turnover intention.

The effect of audit partner style on financial statement comparability

ABSTRACT Several studies provide evidence that auditors play an important role in the implementation of accounting comparability. We extend this line of research by examining whether comparability in accounting earnings between two firms is affected by auditor industry expertise measured at the partner level. Using 45,741 pairs of firms over the period 2003–2016, we find that the accounting comparability between two firms in a pair is higher when they are audited by the same expert partner than when they are audited by the same non-expert partner. The findings suggest that the degree of accounting comparability within a partner’s clientele is influenced by the industry expertise of the individual audit partner. Specifically, expert partners are more likely to provide consistent implementation of auditing standards and enforcement of accounting standards across their client base. These findings are robust to various sensitivity tests including using alternative measures of comparability, industry expertise and pair-matching methods.

Formation of mediation competence of participants in the educational space of the Krasnoyarsk Territory in the Siberian Federal University

Introduction. The relevance of the study is due to the lack of trained teachers - heads of school mediation services and future mediators. Reducing the deficit is possible only through increasing the competence of teachers in the field of conflict resolution and the formation of the ability and readiness to use mediation practices aimed at creating a conflict-free educational environment and harmonizing interethnic relations in a multicultural educational space. The authors presented a component-wise model of the formation of mediated competence of participants in the educational process from among the heads of school mediation services and future mediators and tested it. Materials and methods. The study used methods of measuring the components of mediation competence: communicative, information-analytical, organizational and managerial, emotional. The study involved two groups: students of the professional retraining program “Mediation. Psychology of Conflict Management ”55 people (experimental group) and 60 people (control group), teachers who are not trained in mediation programs. Comparative analysis of groups was carried out using the U-Mann-Whitney test. Results. Analysis of the effectiveness of the formation of mediation competence showed significant differences (p <0.05) on a number of scales that affect the effectiveness of the formation of components of mediation competence. Significant changes (p <0.05) were revealed in terms of the parameters of the severity of communicative skills, which indicates the formation of a confident partner style of behavior. Changes in the components of emotional competence are significant: emotional awareness (p = 0, 002), emotion management (p = 0, 045), recognition of other people's emotions (p = 0.021). There is a significant difference in the formation of information and analytical competence (p <0.05), primarily in the parameter of motivation (p = 0.000) of using mediation practices to resolve conflicts. Conclusion. It was revealed that the formation of the mediation competence of participants in the educational space of the Krasnoyarsk Territory can go through professional retraining programs and will be effective when combining the efforts of the academic community and practicing mediators, professional mediator communities and the cooperation of resources of various Siberian universities.

Audit Partner Style in Key Audit Matter Reporting Decisions

We examine the relative importance of audit firm-level versus audit partner-level styles in key audit matter (KAM) outcomes. We define style as stable within-firm (partner) similarities and between-firm (partner) differences in KAM reporting over time and across clients and industries with respect to the volume of KAMs, their topical diversity, and the linguistic manner in which they communicate KAMs to users. Using a sample of UK KAMs, we find that firms and partners have unique styles for KAM reporting volume, topical diversity, and communication. Partner-level styles are the locus of KAM reporting decisions, adding 10 to 19 percent improvement in explanatory power versus firms’ two to five percent. Partner demographics do not meaningfully explain KAM reporting outcomes. We find that partners make unique KAM reporting judgments, countering concerns that audit firms’ standardization will yield boilerplate KAMs, but lending credence to concerns that KAM reporting judgments may lack comparability across partners.

Professional skepticism: The combined effect of partner style and team identity salience

Although essential in the delivery of a high‐quality audit, regulators report their concerns about an apparent lack of professional skepticism exercised by auditors. In an experiment, we use regulatory focus and social identity theories to examine how the style used by a partner (supportive or unsupportive) when allocating a task and team identity salience (high or low) combine to impact skepticism. We find that when team identity salience is high, auditors demonstrate greater skepticism when a partner's style is supportive rather than unsupportive. In additional analysis, we also consider how motivation moderates the effect of partner style and team identity salience on skepticism and retest our hypotheses using a different measure of skepticism. Our results suggest that team identity salience is important when considering the effect of partner style on professional skepticism.

Individual Auditor Style and Audit Quality in a High Reputation Risk Setting

This paper examines whether the ‘style’ of individual auditors influences financial reporting quality in Germany. Audit quality in Germany should be uniformly high, because of strong reputational needs, strict controls on operating procedures, and quality enforcement mechanisms. An audit partner’s style should not affect this quality level. However, our results do not support this expectation. Exploiting a unique dataset comprising the names of the audit engagement and review partners of listed German companies, we find that audit engagement partners in Germany have a significant influence on audit quality, beyond firm- and office-level factors. In contrast, audit review partners do not have a consistent significant influence on audit quality. We measure audit quality by the level of a firm’s abnormal accruals and its propensity to meet or beat an earnings target. We also find that the 2005 adoption of a new audit quality enforcement system that includes ‘naming and shaming’ does not reduce the influence of audit partner style on financial reporting quality.

Mothers’ and fathers’ parenting styles and associations with toddlers’ externalizing, internalizing, and adaptive behaviors

Abstract The two primary objectives of the present study were to (a) investigate mothers’ and fathers’ reports of their own as well as their partner's parenting styles, and (b) assess how mothers’ and fathers’ parenting styles uniquely and jointly predicted toddlers’ externalizing, internalizing, and adaptive behaviors. Fifty-nine mothers and fathers independently completed the Parenting Styles and Dimension Questionnaire (PDSQ; Robinson, Mandleco, Olsen, & Hart, 2001 ) and the Behavior Assessment Scale for Children-2 (BASC-2; Reynolds & Kamphaus, 2004 ). Parents’ self-reports of their parenting styles were positively correlated with each other for all three parenting styles (authoritative, authoritarian, and permissive). Comparisons between parents’ reports of their partner's styles with that of the partner's self-reports were positively and moderately correlated for all three parenting styles. Findings revealed mothers’ and fathers’ self-reported parenting styles explained 44% of the variance in youngsters’ externalizing behaviors. In particular, permissive parenting by mothers and authoritarian parenting by fathers uniquely and significantly predicted toddlers’ externalizing behaviors, while authoritative paternal parenting was predictive of adaptive behaviors.

Attachment and Relational Satisfaction: The Mediating Effect of Emotional Communication

This study investigated associations among one partner's relational satisfaction and the other partner's style of attachment and emotional communication. Findings from a questionnaire study involving 581 couples showed that participants reported more relational satisfaction when their partners scored high in security and low in dismissiveness and preoccupation. These associations between one's relational satisfaction and the partner's attachment style were partially mediated by how the partner reported communicating emotions. Specifically, participants were less satisfied in relationships with preoccupied partners who reported expressing anger using destructive communication. Participants were less satisfied with dismissive partners who reported using detached emotional communication. Finally, participants were more satisfied with secure partners who reported using prosocial emotional communication. These findings suggest that the often-cited relationship between attachment and relational satisfaction is partially explained by emotional communication.

Maternal and paternal similarities and differences in parenting: An examination of Mexican-American parents of young children

Abstract The present study evaluated the degree of parental similarity–dissimilarity across parenting dimensions operationalized in terms of: (1) one's own and one's partner's style; (2) meta-emotion belief structures; (3) behavioral strategies in reaction to children's emotions; as well as (4) parental support and responsiveness. The first four dimensions were assessed with independent self-reports from both mothers and fathers and the latter was measured through observed behaviors in a discussion of emotions. Fifty-seven families participated. The mothers (92%) and fathers (90%) of preschool-aged children (mean age 57.5 months, 54% male) were predominantly of Mexican descent. Results revealed significant similarity when comparing mothers’ and fathers’ observed behaviors. Agreement among parents also emerged when comparing minimizing coping reactions to children's emotional displays and self-reported and reports of one's partner's authoritative parenting. Despite evidence of agreement on use of authoritative strategies and similarity on observed behaviors, comparisons of mean levels revealed dissimilarity. The participating mothers reported a greater tendency to employ authoritative strategies and their partners’ ratings of the mothers’ parenting confirmed this perceived difference. In addition, comparisons of mothers’ and fathers’ observed behaviors in interaction with their children suggested that, while mothers and fathers are engaged in similar behaviors, mothers are observed to engage in them more frequently. These results reinforce the need to assess both parents, employing multiple methods, in determining interdependence or their combined and unique contributions to socializing children.

Nonverbal involvement, expressiveness, and pleasantness as predicted by parental and partner attachment style

This work argues that individuals’ attachment styles combine with that of their partners’ to create approach and avoidance tendencies and ensuing nonverbal involvement style during interactions with their significant others. Specifically, while secures are expected to be moderately involved, expressive, and pleasant, preoccupieds are expected to be highly so, while avoidants are the least involved. In combination with partner style, however, dismissive avoidants paired with preoccupieds are expected to be the very least involved, while secures paired with secures are expected to be moderately involved, and preoccupieds paired with dismissive avoidants are expected to be the very most involved of all the romantic partners in the current investigation. Results support the contention that parental and partner attachment are both important in predicting approach and avoidance in that role‐reversed females paired with avoidant partners were less kinesically and vocally involved and less kinesically pleasant. Further, females with preoccupied partners reciprocated levels of involvement, in that they exhibited greater kinesic involvement, expressiveness, and pleasantness when interacting with their romantic partners. Additionally, role‐reversed females with more secure partners exhibited greater vocal expressiveness. Finally, and most consistent with current theorizing, role‐reversed males paired with preoccupied partners exhibited less kinesic involvement and pleasantness.