Audit partner workload, gender and audit quality

PurposeThe paper aims to investigate the relation between the auditor's workload (LogAPW) and audit quality. Further, it explores whether the presence of a female audit partner (hereafter FEM) influences the LogAPW effect on audit quality.Design/methodology/approachA dataset of 1,629 firm-year observations from 181 companies listed in the NASDAQ OMX Stockholm for the years 2010–2018 has been analyzed. The testable hypotheses have been tested using least squares regressions clustered at the Swedish public-listed companies (client-firm) level.FindingsThe research findings first indicate that overburdened audit partners (APS) are associated with lower-quality audits, consistent with the “busyness hypothesis.” Nevertheless, the adverse association turns to be positive for FEMs, supporting the thesis that FEMs have more tendency, as compared to their male counterparts, to preserve their partnership's position in the public-audit firms. Collectively, these results seem sound, as the results hold unchanged after controlling for the endogeneity concerns and provide the same conclusion for a host of additional measures for both the client-firms' discretionary accruals and the LogAPW.Research limitations/implicationsEven though a lower magnitude of the client-firms' discretionary accruals corresponds to a lower-opportunistic behavior of managers, the research is limited to by which lower values of earnings management reflect a better-quality financial reporting. Given that the empirical analysis has been confined to the Swedish Corporation, the regression results might not be generalizable for other countries with different contextual features.Practical implicationsThe study might participate to the ongoing debate about the introduction of more women to the public-audit firms' elite positions (e.g. partnership) by providing evidence for the favorable female auditor effect on the quality of the client-firms' financial reporting.Originality/valueThe regression results provide a preliminary evidence on how does the presence of a FEM mitigate the inverse relation between the LogAPW and audit quality, which is an issue that has not been examined before.

Auditing and earnings management in New Zealand

<p>The research summarised in this thesis focuses on two research issues of particular importance to the New Zealand economy. First, the thesis examines the impact of audit factors on the level of earnings management. Second, the thesis empirically assesses the relationship between the level of earnings management and the audit fees charged by audit firms. In the empirical work summarised in this thesis I use the absolute value of discretionary accruals (DACCs) as a proxy for earnings management. I estimate DACCs for each sample firm by using the modified Jones (1991) model. Moreover, several auditor characteristics have been employed in the thesis as proxies for auditor quality and independence. I use a BIG4 dummy variable (that equals 1 if the auditor is a Big 4 audit firm and 0 otherwise), an AOFFICE dummy variable (that equals 1 if the audit firm’s office is located in Wellington or Auckland and 0 otherwise), an AO dummy variable (that equals 1 if the client firm receives a qualified or conditional audit opinion and 0 otherwise) and a FISCAL dummy variable (that equals 1 if the client firm’s fiscal year-end falls in the period from March to June and 0 otherwise) as proxies for audit quality. I also use a RNAF variable (as measured by the ratio of non-audit fees to total fees paid) and a C_AUDITOR dummy variable (that equals 1 if a client firm changes its audit firm and 0 otherwise) as proxies for auditor independence in relation to the level of DACCs. The empirical results summarised in the thesis show that the level of DACCs is significantly and negatively associated with the BIG4 and AOFFICE variables. This result is consistent with the common perception that higher quality auditors will lead to a higher audit quality and that this in turn will reduce level of DACCs. I also find a positive and statistically significant relationship between the FISCAL variable and the level of DACCs. This result indicates that DACCs are likely to be higher if the audit is conducted during the busy audit season. The empirical results summarised in the thesis also show a positive and significant relationship between the audit opinion (AO) variable and the level of DACCs. This means that a qualified or conditional audit opinion is more likely to occur if the financial statements involve a relatively higher level of DACCs. However, the empirical results summarised in the thesis report an insignificant relationship between the level of DACCs and the C_AUDITOR and RNAF variables. These results mean that auditor independence does not appear to have any impact on the level of DACCs. In part two of this thesis, I examine whether the level of DACCs in the current year is associated with the level of the audit fee in the next ensuing year. Here it is well known that each year the auditor will review both the general and specific factors affecting their audit responsibilities in relation to a particular audit client. Hence, the agreed audit fee for the next ensuing year is likely to reflect information about the level of earnings management in prior years and of how the issues arising out of these earnings management procedures have been resolved between the client firm and the audit firm. In order to test this hypotheses, I employ the audit fee model of Simunic (1980) as refined by Choi et al. (2009), Francis and Simon (1987), Hay et al. (2006b) and Menon and Williams (2001). As expected, the second set of empirical results summarised in the thesis show a positive and statistically significant relationship between the level of DACCs in the current year and the level of the audit fee in the next ensuing year. This means that a high level of DACCs in the current year will impact positively on the level of the audit fee in the next ensuing year.</p>

Auditing and earnings management in New Zealand

<p>The research summarised in this thesis focuses on two research issues of particular importance to the New Zealand economy. First, the thesis examines the impact of audit factors on the level of earnings management. Second, the thesis empirically assesses the relationship between the level of earnings management and the audit fees charged by audit firms. In the empirical work summarised in this thesis I use the absolute value of discretionary accruals (DACCs) as a proxy for earnings management. I estimate DACCs for each sample firm by using the modified Jones (1991) model. Moreover, several auditor characteristics have been employed in the thesis as proxies for auditor quality and independence. I use a BIG4 dummy variable (that equals 1 if the auditor is a Big 4 audit firm and 0 otherwise), an AOFFICE dummy variable (that equals 1 if the audit firm’s office is located in Wellington or Auckland and 0 otherwise), an AO dummy variable (that equals 1 if the client firm receives a qualified or conditional audit opinion and 0 otherwise) and a FISCAL dummy variable (that equals 1 if the client firm’s fiscal year-end falls in the period from March to June and 0 otherwise) as proxies for audit quality. I also use a RNAF variable (as measured by the ratio of non-audit fees to total fees paid) and a C_AUDITOR dummy variable (that equals 1 if a client firm changes its audit firm and 0 otherwise) as proxies for auditor independence in relation to the level of DACCs. The empirical results summarised in the thesis show that the level of DACCs is significantly and negatively associated with the BIG4 and AOFFICE variables. This result is consistent with the common perception that higher quality auditors will lead to a higher audit quality and that this in turn will reduce level of DACCs. I also find a positive and statistically significant relationship between the FISCAL variable and the level of DACCs. This result indicates that DACCs are likely to be higher if the audit is conducted during the busy audit season. The empirical results summarised in the thesis also show a positive and significant relationship between the audit opinion (AO) variable and the level of DACCs. This means that a qualified or conditional audit opinion is more likely to occur if the financial statements involve a relatively higher level of DACCs. However, the empirical results summarised in the thesis report an insignificant relationship between the level of DACCs and the C_AUDITOR and RNAF variables. These results mean that auditor independence does not appear to have any impact on the level of DACCs. In part two of this thesis, I examine whether the level of DACCs in the current year is associated with the level of the audit fee in the next ensuing year. Here it is well known that each year the auditor will review both the general and specific factors affecting their audit responsibilities in relation to a particular audit client. Hence, the agreed audit fee for the next ensuing year is likely to reflect information about the level of earnings management in prior years and of how the issues arising out of these earnings management procedures have been resolved between the client firm and the audit firm. In order to test this hypotheses, I employ the audit fee model of Simunic (1980) as refined by Choi et al. (2009), Francis and Simon (1987), Hay et al. (2006b) and Menon and Williams (2001). As expected, the second set of empirical results summarised in the thesis show a positive and statistically significant relationship between the level of DACCs in the current year and the level of the audit fee in the next ensuing year. This means that a high level of DACCs in the current year will impact positively on the level of the audit fee in the next ensuing year.</p>

Management of Innovation and Intellectual Property in Outsourcing Projects

Innovation outsourcing creates two critical risks for a client firm. The first risk arises when a client discloses his/her technological knowhow and intellectual property (IP) with the service provider but the latter misappropriates the IP toward its own commercial benefit. Second, in the absence of perfect monitoring, the service provider might exert suboptimal effort on the innovation project. Management of client’s technology and innovation effort of agent are both crucially important in innovation outsourcing. It is shown that client can deter these risks by designing an appropriate contract. Two distinct regimes are considered. In Regime1, the client operates in an environment where IP cannot be protected. In Regime2, client’s IP is fully protected either due to strong legal enforcement or due to availability of a technological solution. First, it is found that an incentive payment scheme linked with project outcome can mitigate the shirking problem. Second, in Regime1, the client must provide higher compensation to the agent when compared to Regime2. A carrot and stick strategy involving higher incentive payments along with reduced sharing of background IP can deter the opportunistic behavior of the service provider. Third, if the cost of operating in Regime2 is prohibitively high, then the client can operate in Regime1 and yet obtain higher profits. In such a scenario, the client must use the carrot and stick strategy. Finally, due to predominant motive to reduce costs, clients might not be compensating their service providers appropriately. Such myopic cost-cutting strategy would exacerbate the IP misappropriation and suboptimal quality problems associated with outsourcing.

The role of individual audit partners for narrative disclosures

We analyze the extent to which individual audit partners influence the audited narrative disclosures in their clients’ financial reports. Using a sample of 3,281,423 private and public client firm-pairs, we find that the similarity among audited narrative disclosures is higher when two client firms share the same audit partner. Specifically, we find that the wording similarity of management reports (notes) increases by 30 (48) percent, the content similarity by 29 (49) percent, and the structure similarity by 48 (121) percent. Moreover, we find that audit partners in particular are relevant for their clients’ narrative disclosures because the increase in narrative disclosure similarity when sharing the same audit partner is nine (four) times greater than when sharing the same audit firm (audit office). We show that this influence of audit partners goes beyond adding boilerplate statements and, using novel field evidence, we shed light on the underlying mechanisms. Our findings are economically relevant because a stronger involvement of audit partners with their clients’ narratives is associated with a higher quality of narrative disclosures, which helps users better predict the future profitability of client firms.

Analisis Auditor Switching dan Faktor-Faktor yang Mempengaruhinya pada Perusahaan Non Keuangan yang Terdaftar di Bursa Efek Indonesia

This study aims to analyze the effect of Audit Opinion, Management Change, Public Accountant Firm Size, and Client Company Size on Auditor switching in Non-Financial Companies listed on the Indonesia Stock Exchange in 2018-2019. In this study, the population obtained from non-financial companies was 420. The sample obtained for 2 years was 210 samples. The sample data used uses secondary data, namely the annual financial statements of non-financial companies in 2018-2019. The data analysis technique used is logistic regression. The results of this study conclude that the variable of management turnover and the size of KAP have an effect on auditor switching, while audit opinion and the size of the client's company have no effect on auditor switching. Keywords: Audit Opinion, Management Change, Public Accounting Firm Size, Client Firm Size, Auditor Switching

Auditors’ Liability for Failure to Detect Fraud: Lessons Learned from Recent American Case Law

Auditors are occasionally sued for their failure to detect fraud in the client firm during an audit. These lawsuits are typically grounded in professional negligence, negligent misrepresentation, fraud, aiding and abetting fraud, or federal securities fraud. The PCAOB recently promulgated AS 2401, “Consideration of Fraud in a Financial Statement Audit,” which contains fraud-related Generally Accepted Auditing Standards (GAAS) applicable to audits of publicly-traded entities. An auditor’s failure to comply with GAAS may be evidence of professional negligence. U.S. states are divided as to whether an auditor’s averment of compliance with GAAS in an audit report is a statement of opinion or a statement of fact. An auditor’s failure to investigate evidence indicating potential fraud is one factor used to determine an auditor’s legal liability. An auditor may be able to use the doctrine of in pari delicto as a defense if the plaintiff is also a wrongdoer.

How do external auditor attributes impact corporate social responsibility disclosures: empirical evidence from ADX-listed companies

Purpose This paper aims to highlight the relationship between the attributes of external auditor companies and voluntary corporate social responsibility (CSR) disclosures of audited firms using a sample of Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange (ADX)-listed companies. Design/methodology/approach Based on a sample of 410 firm-year observations for the period 2010–2016, this study first computes an eight-item CSR disclosure index, then ran a multivariate regression analysis between CSR disclosure scores and external auditor attributes, along with client firm characteristics and additional control variables. Finally, this paper performs various additional robustness checks. Findings The results reveal that external auditor attributes have a significant impact on shaping the CSR disclosures of ADX-listed firms. Overall, auditor age, size, industry specialisation and portfolio diversification positively affect the level of customers’ CSR disclosures. By contrast, the magnitude of audit fees and auditor experience in the UAE has no impact on the CSR disclosures of ADX-listed firms. This study controls for client firm size, financial leverage, ownership concentration and the proportion of independent directors on companies’ board of directors. The results remain robust to additional sensitivity checks such as audit company CSR practices, extreme quartiles of CSR disclosures and the panel data estimation method. Research limitations/implications The research exhibits some limitations. First, this paper uses a simple index to measure CSR disclosures based on previous empirical studies, especially those related to emergent markets, which are not free from bias due to the lack of voluntary disclosure transparency for some companies listed on ADX. Second, although this study uses a seven-year observation period, the total number of observations remains limited due to ADX size. Third, other context-specific disclosures should be included such as cultural and governance variables (royal families ownership). Practical implications The study highlights the role of external attributes that can affect companies’ CSR disclosure policy, rather than firm-specific factors. The study also reshapes the concept of auditor quality beyond the dichotomy (“Big Four”/non-Big Four) used in the current literature. Originality/value The research adds to the current literature on CSR by revealing the impact of external auditor attributes on client firm CSR disclosure policy in an emerging market, the ADX.

Diversity of Signing Auditors and Audit Quality

Using data for listed firms in China, where two auditors sign the audit report, we examine whether the diversity of signing auditors' characteristics affects audit quality. We find a positive association between diversity and audit quality, consistent with the notion that diversity facilitates team performance. Further analyses show there is a stronger association between cognitive, rather than demographic, diversity of signing auditors and audit quality. Our results are robust to the inclusion of client firm and engagement auditor fixed effects. Cross-sectional results indicate stronger effects of the cognitive diversity of signing auditors on audit quality in complex, opaque, less important clients or firms without industry specialist auditors. Findings from our study suggest that audit firms should allocate staff to audit teams in a manner that results in cognitively diverse audit teams because such teams are more likely to deliver high quality audits.

The Effect of Engagement Auditors on Financial Statement Comparability

Prior literature finds that audit firm style shapes client firm financial statement comparability (Francis, Pinnuck, and Watanabe 2014). We expect that engagment partners also shape financial statement comparability, and find that two clients audited by the same engagement auditor have more comparable accruals than two clients audited by different auditors. We also find that engagement auditor past comparability style explains new client comparability with industry peers, suggesting that engagement auditor style persists over time. We uncover that auditor personal traits such as gender, experience, qualification, and industry-specialization are associated with higher comparability. Finally, we find that adding the audit-firm, audit-office and engagement-auditor fixed effects sequentially increases the adjusted R2 of our accrual comparability model by 0.6%, 1.9%, and 10%, respectively. Taken together, our findings suggest that the engagement auditors have a distinguishable effect on financial statement comparability that is incremental to the effect of audit firms and offices.