The findings from this study impact firms with debt covenant requirements. Violations from debt covenants occur frequently and are often due to tight restrictions rather than signs of financial distress. These types of violations often lead to renegotations or waivers instead of immediate repayment. However, this study shows that auditors will still have negative reactions regardless of whether or not the violation is due to financial difficulty. It is important for firms to not only consider the financial and lending consequences of a violation, but the auditing consequences as well.
Bhaskar, Lori Shefchik, G. V. Krishnan, and W. Yu.2017. “Debt Covenant Violations, Firm Financial Distress, and Auditor Actions”. Contemporary Accounting Research 34.1 (2017): 186.
http://commons.aaahq.org/groups/e5075f0eec/summary
There are numerous factors that go into a firm’s decision to cross-list on foreign stock exchanges. One factor firms should consider regarding entrance into the U.S. stock exchange is an increase in audit fees. The evidence from this study indicates this increase can be traced back to costs from the legal environment and increased audit effort.
Bronson, Scott N., A. Ghosh, and C. E. Hogan. 2017. “Audit Fee Differential, Audit Effort, and Litigation risk: An Examination of ADR Firms”. Contemporary Accounting Research 34.1 (2017): 83.
http://commons.aaahq.org/groups/e5075f0eec/summary
The results of this study suggest that companies who offer incentive-based compensation to chief internal auditors, especially through equity, are more likely to be perceived as having a higher audit risk by external auditors. Consequently, external auditors may charge a higher fee for their services. This study gives a basis for the benefit/cost analysis of providing incentive-based compensation for chief internal auditors. While it is possible internal auditors will respond positively to an IBC and bring extra value to the organization, there is a risk that an external auditor could raise audit fees cancelling out this added benefit.
Chen, Lucy Huajing, H. H. Chung, G. F. Peters., and J. P. Wynn. (Jeannie).2017. Does Incentive-Based Compensation for Chief Internal Auditors Impact Objectivity? An External Audit Risk Perspective. Auditing, A Journal of Practice and Theory 36 (21): 21-44
The results of this paper contribute to the understanding of the determinants of audit firms’ initial audit price discount decisions. The results suggest that concentration of audit firms within the local audit market has a stronger influence on non-Big 4 audit firms’ initial pricing decisions compared to Big 4 firms’ initial pricing decisions. In addition, the results are of interest to regulators and managers who are concerned about the effect of audit market concentration on audit pricing and audit quality.
Eshleman, J. D. and B. P. Lawson. 2017. Audit Market Structure and Audit Pricing. Accounting Horizons 31 (1): 57 – 81.
This paper adds a new dimension to the research on strategic alliances by focusing on auditing rather than governance, performance, funding, or equity participation. It also identifies incomplete contracts as the driver of audit complexity, and extends the audit fee literature by documenting that the number of strategic alliances is a significant determinant of audit fees. Finally, the authors’ evidence that strategic alliances result in higher audit fees provides empirical support for the largely theoretical argument that incomplete contracts are complex.
Demirkan, S. and N. Zhou. 2016. Audit Pricing for Strategic Alliances: An Incomplete Contract Perspective. Contemporary Accounting Research 33 (4): 1625-1647.
Taken together, the results of this study suggest that dividends provide information to auditors and mitigate concerns over their clients’ earnings quality. It appears dividends provide incremental information to auditors beyond other audit risk indicators, such as low earnings persistence or high accruals. These findings also suggest that firms’ dividend-paying status provides an easily observable cue to auditors and others that can be used when assessing a firms’ earnings quality.
Lawson, B. P. and D. Wang. 2016. The Earnings Quality Information Content of Dividend Policies and Audit Pricing. Contemporary Accounting Research 33 (4): 1685 – 1719.
This study contributes to the auditor-client realignment literature by examining whether auditors’ client acceptance and pricing decisions vary with firm ownership structure, which was not investigated before. It also documents a significant association between the identity of the successor auditor and firm ownership structure following the resignation of the incumbent auditor. This is important given the potential consequences of auditor changes to both auditors and their clients.
Khalil, S. and M. Mazboudi. 2016. Client Acceptance and Engagement Pricing following Auditor Resignations in Family Firms. Auditing: A Journal of Practice and Theory 35 (4): 137 – 158.
This study is important given the continued concerns expressed by global regulators about the potential harm to audit quality caused by concentrated audit markets. The separation of offsetting direct and indirect effects of concentration on audit quality enhances the understanding of how concentration influences audit quality and could explain why the previous studies document mixed evidences. The study also provides evidence on how audit fees play an important role in the association between concentration and audit quality and that regulatory interventions changing one of the offsetting effects could produce potential unintended consequences.
Huang, T., Chang, H., and Chiou, J. 2016. Audit Market Concentration, Audit Fees, and Audit Quality: Evidence from China. Auditing: A Journal of Practice and Theory 35 (2): 121-145.
This paper asks whether auditors recognize the volatility of OCI and incorporate it into pricing of audits. They find that audit fees do reflect changes in OCI and that these changes reflect various risk factors associated with OCI. The findings suggest that auditors already recognize the difficulty in assessing value of fair value items which run through OCI—reinforcing regulator concerns about fair value valuation.
Huang, H., S. Lin, K. Raghunandan. 2016. The Volatility of Other Comprehensive Income and Audit Fees. Accounting Horizons 30 (2): 195-210.
This study illustrates new measures of spatial competition that incorporate the separate and distinct effects of competition within and between the large and small audit markets. This study also provides evidence that the pricing in the large firm market segment is affected by competitive pressure from small audit firms; furthermore, the study provides evidence of a differentiation premium that small audit firms are able to obtain by being perceived as competing in a bigger league than other small audit firms. Finally, the study contributes by examining measures of competition beyond the Herfindahl index in the audit firm market.
Bills, K.L. and N.M. Stephens. 2016. Spatial Competition at the Intersection of the Large and Small Audit Firm Markets. Auditing: A Journal of Practice and Theory 35 (1): 23-45.