The Going Concern Opinion: A Time for a Referendum?

Author(s):  
Igor Pustylnick ◽  
Vicki Anderson ◽  
John H. Nugent
2016 ◽  
Vol 30 (3) ◽  
pp. 379-392 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jared Eutsler ◽  
Erin Burrell Nickell ◽  
Sean W. G. Robb

SYNOPSIS Prior research indicates that issuing a going concern opinion to financially stressed clients generally reduces the risk of litigation against the auditor following a bankruptcy (Kaplan and Williams 2013; Carcello and Palmrose 1994). However, we propose that a going concern report may indicate prior knowledge of financial distress, an important fraud risk factor, and this may have repercussions for the auditor if a fraud is subsequently uncovered. Consistent with counterfactual reasoning theory, experimental research suggests that a documented awareness of fraud risk actually increases the likelihood of litigation against the auditor following a fraud (Reffett 2010). This concern has been echoed by the professional community (AICPA 2004; Golden, Skalak, and Clayton 2006) and may be exacerbated by the current outcome-based regulatory environment (Peecher, Solomon, and Trotman 2013). To examine this issue we review Auditing and Accounting Enforcement Releases (AAERs) issued by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for alleged financial reporting frauds between 1995 and 2012. Results suggest that going concern report modifications accompanying the last set of fraudulently stated financials are associated with a greater likelihood of enforcement action against the auditor. This finding is consistent with counterfactual reasoning theory and suggests that, from a regulatory perspective, auditors may be penalized for documenting their awareness of fraud risk when financial statements are later determined to be fraudulent.


2020 ◽  
Vol 39 (3) ◽  
pp. 185-208
Author(s):  
Qiao Xu ◽  
Rachana Kalelkar

SUMMARY This paper examines whether inaccurate going-concern opinions negatively affect the audit office's reputation. Assuming that clients perceive the incidence of going-concern opinion errors as a systematic audit quality concern within the entire audit office, we expect these inaccuracies to impact the audit office market share and dismissal rate. We find that going-concern opinion inaccuracy is negatively associated with the audit office market share and is positively associated with the audit office dismissal rate. Furthermore, we find that the decline in market share and the increase in dismissal rate are primarily associated with Type I errors. Additional analyses reveal that the negative consequence of going-concern opinion inaccuracy is lower for Big 4 audit offices. Finally, we find that the decrease in the audit office market share is explained by the distressed clients' reactions to Type I errors and audit offices' lack of ability to attract new clients.


2014 ◽  
Vol 34 (3) ◽  
pp. 139-160 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gopal V. Krishnan ◽  
Changjiang Wang

SUMMARY While prior research has examined the relation between firm-level attributes and auditors' decisions, there is little empirical evidence on whether managerial attributes are informative to auditors. We examine the relation between managerial ability, i.e., ability in transforming corporate resources to revenues, and audit fees and a going concern opinion. We use the managerial ability measure recently developed by Demerjian, Lev, and McVay (2012). We find that incremental to firm-level attributes, both audit fees and the likelihood of issuing a going concern opinion are decreasing in managerial ability. Collectively, our findings support the notion that managerial ability is relevant to auditors' decisions.


2012 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jennifer Winchel ◽  
Scott D. Vandervelde ◽  
Brad Tuttle

2018 ◽  
Vol 17 (4) ◽  
pp. 514-539
Author(s):  
Hongkang Xu ◽  
Mai Dao ◽  
Jia Wu

Purpose This study aims to examine the effect of real activities manipulation (RAM) on auditors’ decision of issuing going concern (GC) opinions for distressed companies. Design/methodology/approach This study estimates and examines three types of RAM: reduction of discretionary expenses, sales manipulation and overproduction. It investigates the effect of RAM on auditor reporting conservatism by including the three measures of RAM methods in logistic regressions that explain the issuance of going concern opinions. The authors perform the analysis specifically on distressed firms for 2004-2013 period. Findings This study finds a significant and positive association between RAM and the likelihood of receiving going concern opinion in the financial distressed firm sample, suggesting that client’s abnormal business activity affects the auditor reporting conservatism. Practical implications This study provides evidence that auditors make going concern reporting decisions in consideration of the client’s abnormal operating decisions and management’s opportunism. Originality/value Recent literature argues that auditors have little recourse other than to resign if a client uses RAM to impact earnings or the financial statements, and hence the enhanced audit quality in the post-SOX period is due to the shift from using accruals management to RAM (Cohen et al., 2008; Chi et al., 2011; Kim and Park, 2014). The evidence provided in this study indicates that auditors report more conservatively (rather than simply resign) in response to the aggressive RAM.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 283-299
Author(s):  
Kimberli Kimberli ◽  
Budi Kurniawan

Abstract The problems that will be discussed in this journal are regarding the relationship between Profitability Ratios, Liquidity Ratios and Company Growth on Audit Delay. The research method used in this study uses secondary data. The population in this study is all Real Estate companies and the Property sub-sector registered on the BEI which are listed on the Indonesia Stock Exchange in 2017, 2018, 2019 and 2020. The sampling method in this study is purposive sampling. The criteria for companies that are sampled are companies that publish audited financial statements for four consecutive years and use the rupiah currency, so that the total number of samples in this study is 165 data. The independent variables in this study are Profitability Ratios, Liquidity Ratios and Company Growth. The dependent variable in this study is audit delay. The data analysis technique used is the Logistics Regression Test with the use of Software Eviews 10. The results of the analysis show that profitability has no significant effect on going concern audit opinion. Meanwhile, company growth and liquidity have no effect on going concern audit opinion. Keywords: Going Concern Opinion, Profitability, Liquidity, and Company Growth


2019 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Panggah Wira Angkasa ◽  
Dewi Indriasih ◽  
Baihaqi Fanani

The Impact of Good Governance, Opinion Shopping, Quality Audit and Audit Client Tenure Application towards Going Concern Opinion Audit Acceptance (Empirical Studies on Infrastructure Services Company, Utility, and Transportation which Registered at Indonesian Stock Exchange (ISE) during 2013 – 2017 Period). Essay. Tegal: Economic & Business Faculty, Pancasakti University Tegal. 2018. The aim of this research is to finding out the impact of institutional ownership, independent commissioner, committee audit, opinion shopping, quality audit, audit client tenure towards going concern’s opinion audit on infrastructure services company, utility, and transportation which registered at ISE during 2013 – 2017 period. The population in this research are infrastructure services company, utility, and transportation which registered at ISE during 2013 – 2017 period and the sample determination by using purposive sampling method, so within the result obtained 15 company’s samples. The data analysis method used is logistic regression analysis. Based on logistic regression analytic, the research result concluded that institutional ownership (0,109), audit committee (0,429), opinion shopping (0,607), and quality audit (0,998) are not affecting the going concern opinion audit. Meanwhile, the independent commissioner (0,006), and audit client tenure (0,004) are affecting the going concern opinion audit. Keywords: going concern, opinion audit, institutional ownership, independent commissioner, committee audit, opinion shopping, quality audit, audit client tenure


2019 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
pp. 11
Author(s):  
Ravaela Amba Masiku ◽  
Christine Novita Dewi

The purpose of this study is to examine auditor’s concervatism in term of their reaction to client’s earnings management behavior and their limitations to issue the going concern opinions (GCO). The population of this study consists of 672 observations from 69 companies are listed on the Indonesia Stock Exchange (BEI) during 2012-2017. The author used the modified Jones model to measure discretionary accruals as a proxy of earnings management. The results of this study indicate that size of audit firm has a positive effect to discretionary accrual. Companies that have been audited by the Big4 tend to apply discretionary accrual in their financial reporting than companies audited by Non-Big4. Further, to strenghten the first hypothesis, we examine the effect of discretionary accruals and going concern opinion on companies that audited by audit firms Big4 lower than companies that audited by audit firms Non-Big4. We found that the result is consistent with the first hypothesis. Keywords : auditor reputation, discretionary accruals, going concern opinion, audit firm  ABSTRAK Tujuan dari penelitian ini adalah untuk menguji konservatisme auditor dalam hal reaksi auditor terhadap akrual diskresioner yang dilakukan oleh perusahaan dan keterbatasan auditor untuk menerbitkan opini Going Concern (GC). Populasi penelitian terdiri dari 672 pengamatan dari 69 perusahaan yang terdaftar di Bursa Efek Indonesia (BEI) selama tahun 2012-2017. Penulis menggunakan model modifikasi Jones untuk mengukur akrual diskresioner sebagai proksi manajemen laba. Hasil dari penelitian ini menjelaskan bahwa ukuran kantor akuntan publik berpengaruh positif terhadap akrual diskresioner, hal tersebut diperkuat dengan pengaruh akrual diskresioner dan opini audit going concern yang diaudit oleh kantor akuntan publik Big4 lebih rendah dari perusahaan yang tidak diaudit oleh kantor akuntan publik Non-Big4. Kata kunci : reputasi auditor, akrual diskresioner, opini audit going concern, kantor akuntan publik


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document