scholarly journals The effect of auditor type on audit quality in emerging markets: evidence from Egypt

2020 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Mohamed M. El-Dyasty ◽  
Ahmed A. Elamer
Keyword(s):  
Audit Quality ◽  
Least Square ◽  
Advanced Technology ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Auditor Choice ◽  
Big 4 ◽  
Audit Firms ◽  
Alternative Measures ◽  
Ordinary Least Square Regression ◽  
The Impact

Purpose Although a number of studies suggest that big audit firms provide higher audit quality in strict legal environments, empirical evidence remains inconclusive. As little is known about the effect of auditor type on audit quality in less strictly legal environments, this study aims to investigate the impact of auditor type on audit quality in the Egyptian market. Design/methodology/approach Data of Egyptian-listed companies during the period 2011–2018 are used. To examine the impact of auditor type on audit quality, ordinary least square regression and robust standard errors clustered at year and industry level are used. This study uses discretionary accruals as a proxy for audit quality. Several additional analyzes are conducted to assess the robustness of the main results, including alternative measures of audit quality and auditor type. Findings The results show that audit firms tend to provide higher audit quality when they are affiliated with a foreign audit firm. However, Big 4 auditors do not provide higher audit quality compare to their counterparts. Additionally, the governmental agency, accountability state authority, that monopolize audit function in state-owned companies do not appear to be associated with higher audit quality. Finally, local audit firms have a negative association with audit quality. This may be their strategy to secure future clients that seek low-quality audits. Research limitations/implications This study suggests that affiliation with foreign audit firms will help the Egyptian firms to develop their abilities by using advanced technology and techniques and transfer rare expertize to the Egyptian auditors. This study also shows that the strategy adopted by many Egyptian audit firms to affiliate with foreign auditors reflects the desire of these firms to be included in one tier alongside Big 4 audit firms to increase their market share under a claim of providing a higher audit quality. Originality/value This study adds to the rare but growing body of literature by investigating how auditor type affects audit quality in the context of less strictly legal environments. The results are important, as investors, standards-setters and regulators have growing concerns over audit quality since the Enron scandal. The findings suggest that audit quality depends on auditor type. These findings have important implications for investors, standards-setters and auditors interested in auditor oversight, audit quality and auditor choice.

Company reputation and auditor choice: evidence from fortune 1000 companies

2018 ◽  
Vol 31 (2) ◽  
pp. 232-248 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xuan Huang ◽  
Fei Kang
Keyword(s):  
Financial Reporting ◽  
Audit Quality ◽  
Planning Process ◽  
Practical Implication ◽  
Least Square ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Auditor Choice ◽  
Company Reputation ◽  
Auditor Selection ◽  
The Impact

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate how companies’ reputation affects their selection of auditors. Design/methodology/approach This paper measures company reputation using the reputation scores from Fortune’s “America’s Most Admired Companies” list. Multivariate analysis is performed to examine the impact of company reputation on public companies’ auditor choice. Robustness checks include conducting Heckman procedures and instrumental-variable two-stage least square regressions to control for self-selection bias and using alternative measures to proxy for company reputation and auditor industry expertise. Findings This paper finds that companies with higher reputations are more likely to hire industry-specialist auditors than their counterparts. The results suggest that because of reputation concerns, high-reputation companies have strong incentives to maintain and signal their financial reporting quality, which in turn increase their demand for audit quality. Practical implication This paper suggests that company reputation constitutes an important determinant of auditor selection and, therefore, has both policy and practical implications for the demand of audit services. The paper provides policy-makers and practitioners with insights into critical factors influencing companies’ complex decision process of auditor selection. Originality/value The findings of this paper on the empirical link between company reputation and auditor choice contribute to the auditing literature by enhancing the understanding of the effects of different company-level characteristics in financial reporting and audit planning process. This paper also adds to the growing literature on the influence of company reputation on corporate behavior by documenting the important role that company reputation plays in the managerial decision-making process.

To be or not to be – auditors’ ability to signal going concern problems

2015 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 175-192 ◽  
Author(s):  
Torbjörn Tagesson ◽  
Peter Öhman
Keyword(s):  
Audit Quality ◽  
Audit Fees ◽  
Annual Reports ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Going Concern ◽  
Big 4 ◽  
Audit Firms ◽  
Research Opportunity ◽  
Audit Reports ◽  
The Impact

Purpose – This paper aims to chart Swedish auditors’ likelihood of issuing going concern warnings (GCWs), and to investigate the relationship between formal auditor competence, audit fees and audit firm, respectively, and the likelihood of issuing GCWs. Design/methodology/approach – The empirical data are based on annual reports and audit reports for 2,547 limited companies that went bankrupt in 2010 in the wake of the financial crisis and had filed a financial statement in the year before the bankruptcy. Findings – The findings indicate that Swedish auditors seldom issue GCWs. Moreover, there is a positive relationship between audit fee level and the likelihood of issuing GCWs, and Big 4 auditors being more likely to issue such warnings than other auditors. However, the analyses identify differences between audit firms (within the group of Big 4 firms and within the group of other audit firms) in terms of their predictions of client bankruptcies. This suggests a need for further investigation of firm-specific differences. Contrary to what was predicted, authorized auditors are not more likely to issue GCWs than approved auditors. Research limitations/implications – This paper did not investigate the impact of audit experience and tenure or the possibility that auditors may signal survival problems by resigning. Practical implications – Levying appropriate audit fees creates opportunities for thorough audits, but auditors’ formal competence based on training and qualification is not a factor that enforces audit quality. Based on the findings, the authors also suggest some clarifications of existing standards to reduce ambiguity regarding the reporting of survival problems. Originality/value – The Swedish setting is a context in which most companies are small, creditor interest in accounting and auditing is strong and auditors must issue a modified audit opinion if half of the shareholders’ equity is spent. This setting offers a unique research opportunity because the formal competence differs between Sweden’s two categories of certified auditors, and it allows exploration beyond the dichotomy of Big 4 versus other audit firms.

The impact of audit quality on earnings management and cost of equity capital: evidence from a developing market

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ben Le ◽  
Paula Hearn Moore
Keyword(s):  
Financial Reporting ◽  
Audit Quality ◽  
Discretionary Accruals ◽  
Equity Capital ◽  
Cost Of Equity Capital ◽  
Cost Of Equity ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Big 4 ◽  
The Government ◽  
The Impact

Purpose This study aims to examine the effects of audit quality on earnings management and cost of equity capital (COE) considering the impact of two owner types: government ownership and foreign ownership. Design/methodology/approach The study uses a panel data set of 236 Vietnamese firms covering the period 2007 to 2017. Because the two main dependent variables of the COE capital and the absolute value of discretionary accruals receive fractional values between zero and one, the paper uses the generalised linear model (GLM) with a logit link and the binomial family in regression analyses. The paper uses numerous audit quality measures, including hiring Big 4 auditors or the industry-leading Big 4 auditor, changing from non-Big 4 auditors to Big 4 auditors or the industry-leading Big 4 auditor, and the length of Big 4 auditor tenure. Big 4 companies include KPMG, Deloitte, EY and PwC, whereas the non-big 4 are the other audit companies. Findings The study finds a negative relationship between audit quality and both the COE capital and income-increasing discretionary accruals. The effects of audit quality on discretionary accruals and the COE capital depend on the ownership levels of two important shareholders: the government and foreign investors. Foreign ownership is negatively associated with discretionary accruals; however, the effect is more pronounced in the sub-sample of state-owned enterprises (SOEs), the firms where the government owns 50% or more equity, than in the sub-sample of Non-SOEs. Originality/value To the best of the knowledge, no prior similar study exists that used the GLM with a logit link and the binomial family regression. Global investors may be interested in understanding how unique institutional settings and capital markets of each country impact the financial reporting quality and cost of capital. Further, policymakers of developing markets may have incentives to improve the quality of financial reporting and reduce the cost of capital which should result in attracting more foreign investments.

Board characteristics, external auditing quality and earnings management

2014 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 79-96 ◽  
Author(s):  
Neila Boulila Taktak ◽  
Ibtissem Mbarki
Keyword(s):  
Earnings Management ◽  
Management Practices ◽  
Audit Quality ◽  
Good Practice ◽  
Board Structure ◽  
External Audit ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Board Characteristics ◽  
Big 4 ◽  
The Impact

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of board characteristics and external audit quality on earnings management among major Tunisian banks over the period 2003-2007. Design/methodology/approach – Multivariate regressions are employed to test the effect of board structure and external audit quality on discretionary provisions as a proxy for earnings management. Findings – Results indicate that among the characteristics of the board, CEO duality is associated with higher levels of discretionary provisions. However, the presence of directors affiliated to the largest shareholder tends to constrain earnings management practices. The results reveal also that a co-audit belonging to the BIG 4 provides incentives to manage earnings while the capacity of the external auditor to disclose reservations impacts negatively the manager's discretion. Practical implications – First, it is not desirable to appoint a co-audit both belonging to the BIG 4. Second, the presence of affiliated directors reduces the discretionary practices except in cases where directors are affiliated to families. In this case, banks should strengthen the presence of independent directors. Finally, the delineation of the leeway left in the Tunisian accounting standards would provide more transparent financial information. Originality/value – This study contributes to the literature on governance and its impact on earnings management among Tunisian banks by introducing two variables that have not been tested before which are affiliated directors and co-audit. The paper will be of value to banks willing to comply with the Governance Good Practice Guide adopted recently in Tunisia.

Audit quality and earnings management: evidence from Jordan

2016 ◽  
Vol 17 (2) ◽  
pp. 170-189 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ebraheem Saleem Salem Alzoubi
Keyword(s):  
Earnings Management ◽  
Financial Reporting ◽  
Audit Quality ◽  
Reporting Quality ◽  
Least Square ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Audit Firm ◽  
Big 4 ◽  
Jones Model

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to test the association between audit quality and earnings management (EM). Audit quality studies documented that accruals would reduce when the auditor is independent or the audit firm is large. Design/methodology/approach – This paper uses generalised least square regression to investigate the influence of audit quality on EM. The sample contained 86 companies listed on the Amman Stock Exchange from 2007 to 2010. The cross-sectional modified Jones model was employed to measure discretionary accruals as a proxy for EM. Findings – This paper revealed that there is a significantly negative association between audit quality and EM. The result inferred that EM level is significantly lower among companies using the services of independent auditors. Moreover, this study exposed that the level of EM is significantly less among companies hiring a Big 4 audit firm, as compared to companies utilising the service of a non-Big 4 audit firm. Research limitations/implications – The measurement error, which is a rigorous concern for studies on EM, is one of the limitations in this study. Hence, the current study wholly inherited the limits of the modified Jones model. Practical implications – The findings based on the current study would provide beneficial information for regulators in Jordan and other countries with an institutional environment similar to that of Jordan. Moreover, the results provided valuable information to investors in assessing the influence of audit quality on financial reporting quality (FRQ). Originality/value – The current study contributed to auditing and corporate governance literature and its influence on EM among Jordanian companies. This research will be of value to companies seeking to reduce EM and enhance FRQ.

The role of audit quality in firm valuation

2016 ◽  
Vol 58 (5) ◽  
pp. 575-598 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mishari M. Alfraih
Keyword(s):  
Audit Quality ◽  
Value Relevance ◽  
Accounting Information ◽  
Institutional Setting ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Book Value ◽  
Big 4 ◽  
Audit Firms ◽  
Audit Team

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine the effect of audit quality on the value relevance of earnings and book value. Because joint audit is mandated for all Kuwait Stock Exchange-listed firms, it is hypothesized that the higher the quality of the audit team (as measured by the number of Big 4 audit firms in the joint audit team), the higher the value relevance of earnings and book values for equity valuation. Design/methodology/approach Consistent with prior research, the value relevance of earnings and book value is measured by the adjusted R2 derived from the Ohlson’s 1995 regression model. The number of Big 4 audit firms represented on the firm’s audit team is used as a proxy for audit quality. Three tiers of audit quality exist, namely, two non-Big 4 audit firms, one Big 4 and one non-Big 4 audit firms or two Big 4 audit firms. To address this paper’s objective, the association between audit quality and the value relevance of earnings and book value were examined using four approaches. The final sample consists of 1,836 firm-year observations and covers fiscal years from a 12-year period (2002-2013). Findings Taken together, the four approaches used collectively provide empirical evidence that audit quality positively and significantly affects the value relevance of accounting measures to market participants. Importantly, the results reveal significant variations in the value relevance of earnings and book value jointly across the three possible auditor combinations. Research limitations/implications Although using auditor size as a proxy for audit quality is well established in the auditing literature, a limitation of that proxy is that it measures audit quality dichotomously, which implicitly assumes a homogeneous level of audit quality within each group. Practical implications The findings show the importance of high-quality and rigorous external audits in improving the value relevance of accounting information. Originality/value This study contributes to the extent literature on audit quality by exploring the role of audit quality in a unique institutional setting that imposes mandatory joint audits. Although prior studies have investigated the effect of joint audit pair choice on earnings management and audit fee premium, this study is the first to investigate the effect of joint audit pair choice on the value relevance of accounting information.

Audit quality, media coverage, environmental, social, and governance disclosure and firm investment efficiency

2019 ◽  
Vol 28 (1) ◽  
pp. 45-72 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ahmad Hammami ◽  
Mohammad Hendijani Zadeh
Keyword(s):  
Media Coverage ◽  
Audit Quality ◽  
Economic Effect ◽  
Media Exposure ◽  
Least Square ◽  
Investment Efficiency ◽  
Firm Level ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Public Media ◽  
The Impact

Purpose The purpose of this study is twofold: first, to introduce two determinants of environmental, social and governance (ESG) disclosure transparency, namely, audit quality and public media exposure; and second, to investigate the impact of ESG transparency on firm-level investment efficiency. Design/methodology/approach Ordinary least square (OLS) regressions are applied to explore the relationship between the two variables of interest (audit quality and public media exposure) and ESG transparency on a sample of publicly listed Canadian firms during the period 2008 to 2017. Then, an econometric model is used to investigate the association between ESG transparency and investment efficiency under two identified scenarios, under-investment and over-investment. Findings Results show that audit quality and public media exposure are two main drivers of ESG transparency, hence, commitment to high-quality audits and exposure to high public media coverage drive firms to disclose more extensive and transparent ESG information. The authors also find a negative association between ESG transparency and firm-level investment inefficiency. Thus, ESG transparency generates influential incremental information that helps mitigate the information asymmetry between firms and stakeholders while fostering better resource allocation through investment efficiency. Originality/value This study contributes to the corporate social responsibility (CSR) and ESG literature by identifying audit quality and public media exposure as two determinants of ESG transparency; and by noting that higher ESG transparency has a significant economic effect on capital investment decisions through higher firm-level investment efficiency.

Integrated reporting disclosure alignment levels in annual reports by listed firms in Vietnam and influencing factors

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Huu Cuong Nguyen ◽  
Phan Minh Hoa Nguyen ◽  
Bich Hiep Tran ◽  
Thi Thien Nga Nguyen ◽  
Le Thanh Thuy Hoang ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Influencing Factors ◽  
Audit Quality ◽  
Least Square ◽  
Annual Reports ◽  
Government Ownership ◽  
Integrated Reporting ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Listed Firms ◽  
Factors Influencing ◽  
Ordinary Least Square Regression

Purpose This paper aims to examine the levels of integrated reporting disclosure alignment in annual reports by listed firms in Vietnam and the factors influencing these disclosure levels. Design/methodology/approach Drawing on a sample of 200 listed firms in Vietnam in 2017, the authors constructed a disclosure index based on the content of the International Integrated Reporting Committee (IIRC) Framework. Using this index, the study measures the extent to which Vietnamese listed firms’ annual reports include the content elements required by the integrated reporting (IR) Framework. The study performs ordinary least square regression to investigate the influencing factors. Findings The study documents that, on average, Vietnamese listed firms disclose about 43% of the information required by the IIRC Framework. The disclosure levels are positively associated with manufacturing firms, board independence, foreign ownership, government ownership, audit quality and firm size. Originality/value Integrated reports have been widely adopted in many countries, but it is still a new issue in Vietnam. This is the first paper providing some insights into the inclusion of the content elements required by the IR Framework by listed firms in Vietnam. It also contributes to the disclosure literature by providing empirical evidence on the factors influencing these disclosure levels. Deriving from the findings, the authors offer recommendations for policymakers on the issue of regulating and implementing IR in Vietnam.

Do government-experienced auditors reduce audit quality?

2019 ◽  
Vol 34 (6) ◽  
pp. 722-748
Author(s):  
Murat Ocak ◽  
Gökberk Can
Keyword(s):  
Audit Quality ◽  
Data Access ◽  
Discretionary Accruals ◽  
Small Sample ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Audit Firm ◽  
Audit Firms ◽  
Government Experience ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Independent Audit

Purpose Recent studies regarding auditor experience generally focus on auditor overall experience in accounting, auditing, finance and related fields (Hardies et al., 2014), auditor sector and domain experience (Bedard and Biggs, 1991; Hammersley, 2006), auditor experience as CPA (Ye et al., 2014; Sonu et al., 2016) or big N experience (Chi and Huang, 2005; Gul et al., 2013; Zimmerman, 2016) or auditors’ international working experience (Chen et al., 2017). But there is little attention paid to where auditors obtained their experience from? And how do auditors with government experience affect audit quality (AQ)? This paper aims to present the effect of auditors with government experience on AQ. Design/methodology/approach The authors used Turkish publicly traded firms in Borsa Istanbul between the year 2008 and 2015 to test the hypothesis. The sample comprises 1,067 observations and eight years. Two main proxies of government experience are used in this paper. The first proxy is auditor’s government experience in the past. The second proxy is the continuous variable which is “the logarithmic value of the number of years of government experience”. Further, auditor overall experience in auditing, accounting, finance and other related fields are also used as a control variable. Audit reporting aggressiveness, audit reporting lag and discretionary accruals are used as proxies of AQ. Besides this, the authors adopted the model to estimate the probability of selecting a government-experienced auditor, and they presented the regression results with the addition of inverse Mills ratio. Findings The main findings are consistent with conjecture. Government-experienced auditors do not enhance AQ. They are aggressive, and they complete audit work slowly and they cannot detect discretionary accruals effectively. Spending more time in a government agency makes them more aggressive and slow, and they do not detect earnings management practices. The Heckman estimation results regarding the variable of interest are also consistent with the main estimation results. In addition, the authors found in predicting government-experienced auditor choice that family firms, domestic firms and firms that reported losses (larger firms, older firms) are more (less) likely to choose government-experienced auditors. Research limitations/implications This study has some limitations. The authors used a small sample to test the impact of government-experienced auditors on AQ because of data access problems. Much data used in this study were collected manually. Earnings quality was calculated using only discretionary accruals. Real activities manipulation was not used as the proxy of AQ in this paper. The findings from emerging markets might not generalize to the developed countries because the Turkish audit market is developing compared to Continental Europe or USA. Practical implications The findings are considered for independent audit firms. Audit firms may employ new graduates and train them to offer more qualified audit work for their clients. The results do not mean that government-experienced auditors should not work in an audit firm, or that they should not establish an audit firm. It is clear that government-experienced auditors provide low AQ in terms of audit reporting aggressiveness, audit report lag and discretionary accruals. But as they operate more in the independent audit sector, they will become successful and provide qualified audit work. One other thing we can say is that it is perhaps better for government-experienced auditors to work in the tax department of independent audit firms. Originality/value This paper tries to fill the gap in the literature regarding the effect of auditor experience on AQ and concentrates on a different type of experience: Auditors with government experience.

scholarly journals The impact of audit quality on real earnings management in the UK context

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Syed Numan Chowdhury ◽  
Yasser Eliwa
Keyword(s):  
Earnings Management ◽  
Audit Quality ◽  
Production Costs ◽  
Real Earnings Management ◽  
Sampled Data ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Listed Firms ◽  
Big 4 ◽  
The Uk ◽  
The Impact

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine whether audit quality influence real earnings management activities using a sample of UK listed firms that have strong incentives to manage earnings upward through meeting past year’s earnings as a benchmark in the post-adoption period of International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS). Design/methodology/approach The authors use a sample of 4,774 firm-year observations of UK listed firms during the period 2005–2018. Univariate and multivariate analyses have been conducted to test the association after controlling for firm characteristics and institutional variables. Findings The study reports that the presence of Big 4 auditors is significantly and positively related with greater levels of sales and discretionary expenses manipulation. Though the authors do not find any conclusive evidence on production costs manipulation, the aggregated measure of real earnings management shows a significant positive association with the presence of Big 4 auditors. Practical implications The study implies that managers who have incentives to manage earnings upward around the UK firms take advantage of the accounting flexibility in defining policies while reducing information asymmetry among the investors to signal better future performance. The approach to detect earnings manipulation as described in the auditing standards fails to limit the managerial use of real activities due to limited scope and unclear guidance. Thus, due to the significant impact on public policies, the results should, therefore, be of interest to the regulators and standard setters. Originality/value To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study that examines the association between audit quality and real earnings management for the UK all-purpose operational firms in sampled data that just meet past year’s earnings as a benchmark in the post-IFRS period.

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