The Effect of Auditor Characteristics on the Value of Diversification

2017 ◽  
Vol 37 (1) ◽  
pp. 115-137 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shu-Miao Lai ◽  
Chih-Liang Liu
Keyword(s):  
Information Asymmetry ◽  
Financial Reporting ◽  
Agency Problems ◽  
Market Value ◽  
Disclosure Quality ◽  
Diversification Discount ◽  
Industry Specialization ◽  
Diversified Firms ◽  
Auditor Characteristics

SUMMARY This paper examines how auditor characteristics (size, tenure, and industry specialization) affect the valuation of diversification. As expected, we find that diversified firms have lower market value than single-segment firms, and the diversification discount is smaller when firms employ Big N auditors and auditors with longer tenure. We also find that the diversification discount is larger when companies hire auditors with industry specialization and speculate that an industry focus may limit auditors' ability to detect misreporting in diversified firms. Also, diversified firms have higher financial reporting and disclosure quality when they employ Big N auditors and auditors with longer tenure, but lower financial reporting and disclosure quality when they employ industry specialist auditors. Overall, our findings suggest that auditor characteristics matter to investors in diversified firms because they contribute to the quality of financial reporting and disclosure, which can mitigate agency problems and the information asymmetry associated with diversification.

scholarly journals Does Industry Specialist Auditor Provide More Insights in Their audit report? An Empirical Study of Key Audit Matters Section

2021 ◽  
pp. 69-94
Author(s):  
Li-Jen He
Keyword(s):  
Financial Reporting ◽  
Audit Quality ◽  
The United States ◽  
International Standards ◽  
Audit Report ◽  
Disclosure Quality ◽  
Industry Specialization ◽  
Audit Reports ◽  
Industry Specialist

Abstract In 2015, International Auditing and Assurance Standards Board (IAASB) released new International Standards on Auditing 701 and required auditors to disclose key audit matters (KAM) in the audit report. Similar standards were also released in the United States in 2017 and the United Kingdom and Ireland Financial Reporting Council (FRC) in 2014. As KAM are expected to inform on matters of the greatest significance during an audit, before exploring the question regarding whether investors will obtain useful information from additional matter disclosures, the anterior consideration may be in regard to how audit quality affects the disclosure quality of KAM. This study use hand-collected data of the KAM disclosed in the audit reports of Taiwanese listed companies in 2016 to explore the association between auditor industry specialization and audit quality by the disclosure of KAM in new audit reports. The empirical results show that the association between the industrial specialist audit partner and the measurement of KAM quality is significantly positively related. The findings support our hypothesis that specialist auditors’ KAM are more informative than those issued by non-specialist auditors, and provide new evidence supporting prior studies about the superior auditing ability and disclosure quality of auditor industry specialist. Keywords: Key Audit Matters, KAM, International Standards on Auditing 701, International Auditing and Assurance Standards Board.

scholarly journals Corporate Governance Score and the Quality of Financial Disclosures: Evidence from the French Context

2016 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 217
Author(s):  
Mondher Kouki ◽  
Bilel Ben Attia
Keyword(s):  
Corporate Governance ◽  
Financial Reporting ◽  
Research Paper ◽  
Financial Disclosure ◽  
Disclosure Quality ◽  
Listed Firms ◽  
Financial Disclosures

This research paper examines how corporate governance is related to the quality of financial disclosures for a sample of French listed firms during the period 2003-2009. We find that the level of financial reporting is positively influenced by corporate governance score. Managers and blockholders are more likely to disclose less information. These results are consistent with the belief that effective corporate governance is associated with higher financial disclosure quality while entrenched insiders do not improve this effect.    

scholarly journals The Effect of Auditor’s Industry Specialization on the Quality of Financial Reporting of the Listed Companies in Tehran Stock Exchange

2016 ◽  
Vol 12 (8) ◽  
pp. 92 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rodabeh Havasi ◽  
Roya Darabi
Keyword(s):  
Market Share ◽  
Financial Reporting ◽  
Stock Exchange ◽  
Listed Companies ◽  
Cash Flows ◽  
Financial Reports ◽  
Industry Specialization ◽  
Effective Role ◽  
Logit Regression Model

<p>This study examines the effect of auditor’s industry specialization on quality of financial reporting of the listed companies in Tehran Stock Exchange during the period of 7 years from 2008 to 2014. It is expected that industry specialist auditors will show more competence and auditing quality in discovering opportunistic behavior in executives and most probably they will report financial statements to maintain their reputation; in other words, it is expected that auditors specialized in industry will have an effective role in corporate governance and improving the quality of financial reporting. In this research, the accurate of predicting future cash flows operations through components of the operation profit was served as a measure for the quality of financial reporting and patters of the market share based on the total audited properties of the company and total auditor income was used as auditor expertise characteristics in that audited unit's industry were used. A total number of 119 companies were selected as samples and using logit regression model, the results were analyzed. The findings suggest that auditor's expertise in the industry, has a direct impact on the quality of corporate financial reporting. In this regard, testing the research's hypotheses showed that the auditor expertise in the industry (on the basis of market share pattern based on auditor's total revenue) has no significant effect on the quality of financial reporting. However, if the auditor expertise in the industry (on the basis of market share pattern based on the sum of the audited assets) was to be measured, it will leave a significant effect on the quality of financial reports. Therefore, it is concluded that the factor of the auditor's expertise in the industry is sensitive in relation with the type of indices used to assess it. </p>

Disclosure, Incentives, and Contingently Convertible Securities

2007 ◽  
Vol 21 (3) ◽  
pp. 281-294 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carol A. Marquardt ◽  
Christine I. Wiedman
Keyword(s):  
Capital Structure ◽  
Financial Reporting ◽  
Financial Instruments ◽  
Disclosure Quality ◽  
Convertible Securities ◽  
Earnings Per Share ◽  
Disclosure Requirements ◽  
Potential Impact ◽  
Disclosure Incentives

We present descriptive evidence on the quality of firms' disclosures related to contingently convertible securities (COCOs). We document evidence of inconsistent and inadequate disclosure of the information necessary to undo the financial reporting effects associated with COCOs prior to 2004, when only the general disclosure requirements on capital structure provided in SFAS 129 were in effect. Disclosure quality improved after the introduction of FASB Staff Position 129-a, which specifically required firms to disclose the terms of COCOs that would enable users to understand the conversion features of COCOs and their potential impact on earnings per share (EPS). However, we find evidence that managerial incentives significantly affect disclosure quality in both disclosure regimes. Our results underscore the difficulty that standard setters face in developing general disclosure guidelines that foster adequate disclosure and suggest that additional specific disclosure guidance may be necessary as new financial instruments and transactions evolve.

Auditor Industry Specialization, Auditor Changes, and Accounting Restatements

2008 ◽  
Vol 22 (4) ◽  
pp. 389-413 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robin N. Romanus ◽  
John J. Maher ◽  
Damon M. Fleming
Keyword(s):  
Financial Reporting ◽  
Error Detection ◽  
Financial Statement ◽  
Corporate Boards ◽  
Accounting Restatements ◽  
Industry Specialization ◽  
Auditor Industry Specialization ◽  
Audit Firms ◽  
The Impact

SYNOPSIS: The increasing occurrence of accounting restatements has drawn considerable attention from regulators, audit firms, and corporate boards concerning audit and financial statement quality. Research suggests that auditor industry specialization is associated with improved error detection and greater financial statement quality. We examine the impact of auditor industry specialization on a sample of restatement and nonrestatement firms and find that auditor industry specialization is negatively associated with the likelihood of accounting restatement. In addition, focusing on the subset of restatement firms, we find that auditor industry specialization reduces the likelihood of issuing restatements affecting core operating accounts, suggesting that industry specialization adds value in auditing a particularly critical area of the firms’ continuing operations. Finally, we find changing from a nonspecialist to a specialist auditor increases the likelihood of restatement, and changing from a specialist to a nonspecialist reduces the likelihood of restatement. Our findings are consistent with industry specialization enhancing auditors’ role in improving the quality of the financial reporting process, particularly related to the core operations of their clients.

The multi-faceted dimensions for the disclosure quality of non-financial information in revising directive 2014/95/EU

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Simona Fiandrino ◽  
Melchior Gromis di Trana ◽  
Alberto Tonelli ◽  
Antonella Lucchese
Keyword(s):  
Financial Reporting ◽  
Corporate Sustainability ◽  
Sustainability Reporting ◽  
Financial Information ◽  
Public Consultation ◽  
Disclosure Quality ◽  
Consultation Process ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Management Procedure

PurposeThe aim of this paper is to provide the state of the art in the academic and professional debate on the disclosure quality of NFI. This analysis is driven by the need to feature the dimensions of NFI quality that should be considered to improve the current regulatory framework towards a more transparent disclosure.Design/methodology/approachThe research is an integrative literature review that assesses and synthesizes the scientific knowledge and the annexed documents collected during the public consultation for the Review of Non-financial Reporting Directive (NFRD) on the disclosure quality of non-financial information (NFI).FindingsFindings show that there is a common consensus between scientific literature and the annexed documents of the consultation process on the Review of the NFRD on the need to enhance a double-materiality perspective, to provide specific contents on sustainability issues, to clarify the relevance of NFI, and to embed NFI into the management report in an integrated manner. Furthermore, there is an alignment related to timeliness in favour of a risk management procedure and a forward-looking approach.Research limitations/implicationsThe research engages the debate on the NFI disclosure quality, in light of the recent Review of NRFD and the new Proposal of Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive that extends and enhances the non-binding reporting guidelines of NFI.Practical implicationsThe research provides a dashboard of the dimensions of NFI disclosure quality that aggregates the academics' and practitioners' knowledge systematically. It shows the interplay between the scholarly developments and the recent measures arisen in the consultation process to undertake NFI disclosure quality.Originality/valueThe research provides a lens to analyse, classify and interpret the insights emerged during the consultation process of the NFRD.

scholarly journals Disclosure Quality and its Impact on Financial Reporting Quality, Audit Quality, and Investors’ Perceptions of the Quality of Financial Reporting: A Literature Review

2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. 201
Author(s):  
Yousef Alwardat
Keyword(s):  
Financial Reporting ◽  
Audit Quality ◽  
Empirical Studies ◽  
Reporting Quality ◽  
Financial Reporting Quality ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Disclosure Quality ◽  
Quality Audit ◽  
Sarbanes Oxley

The purpose of this paper is to review the most recent empirical studies on corporate disclosures, in the aim of examining the link between disclosure quality (DQ) and financial reporting quality, audit quality, and investors’ perceptions of the quality of financial reporting and providing recommendations for future research on this topic. Seventy-eight empirical studies, published in several relevant journals from 2003 onwards (i.e. one year after the commencement of the SOX 2002), have been categorized and analyzed in order to identify the link between the aforementioned variables. The analysis has revealed that the Sarbanes Oxley Act (2002) has significantly increased management awareness of the importance of accounting disclosures. In general, the majority of the studies which have been reviewed have identified the presence of a positive correlation between four aforementioned variables. These findings lend credence to the belief that these variables may well be classified as dependent since they are complementary. Finally, the review presents a discussion of the limitations of the studies and provides useful recommendations for future research on this topic.  

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