IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/ausact/v26y2016i3p226-242.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Trends in Auditor Reporting in Australia: A Synthesis and Opportunities for Research

Author

Listed:
  • Elizabeth Carson
  • Neil Fargher
  • Yuyu Zhang

Abstract

type="main"> The purpose of this review is to synthesise the existing research literature regarding audit reporting and, in particular, the going concern decision. We consider the findings of research conducted in Australia and New Zealand on these issues. We then analyse trends in audit reporting from 2005 to 2013. We identify an increase in auditors’ reports highlighting going concern issues well beyond the global financial crisis period confirming that this period represents a period of prolonged economic uncertainty. We identify trends by audit firm type, by industry and company size. We analyse the subsequent year outcomes for firms receiving going concern opinions. We also identify opportunities for future research.

Suggested Citation

  • Elizabeth Carson & Neil Fargher & Yuyu Zhang, 2016. "Trends in Auditor Reporting in Australia: A Synthesis and Opportunities for Research," Australian Accounting Review, CPA Australia, vol. 26(3), pages 226-242, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:ausact:v:26:y:2016:i:3:p:226-242
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1111/auar.12124
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Si Wen (Stacey) WANG & David HAY, 2013. "Auditor Independence in New Zealand: Further Evidence on the Role of Non-Audit Services," Journal of Accounting and Management Information Systems, Faculty of Accounting and Management Information Systems, The Bucharest University of Economic Studies, vol. 12(2), pages 235-262, June.
    2. David Hay & Robert Knechel & Vivian Li, 2006. "Non‐audit Services and Auditor Independence: New Zealand Evidence," Journal of Business Finance & Accounting, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 33(5‐6), pages 715-734, June.
    3. Craswell, Allen & Stokes, Donald J. & Laughton, Janet, 2002. "Auditor independence and fee dependence," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 33(2), pages 253-275, June.
    4. Yang Xu & Elizabeth Carson & Neil Fargher & Liwei Jiang, 2013. "Responses by Australian auditors to the global financial crisis," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 53(1), pages 301-338, March.
    5. Simnett, Roger, 1996. "The effect of information selection, information processing and task complexity on predictive accuracy of auditors," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 21(7-8), pages 699-719.
    6. Kathleen Herbohn & Vanitha Ragunathan, 2008. "Auditor reporting and earnings management: some additional evidence," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 48(4), pages 575-601, December.
    7. David A. Hensher & Stewart Jones & William H. Greene, 2007. "An Error Component Logit Analysis of Corporate Bankruptcy and Insolvency Risk in Australia," The Economic Record, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 83(260), pages 86-103, March.
    8. David A. Hensher & Stewart Jones, 2007. "Forecasting Corporate Bankruptcy: Optimizing the Performance of the Mixed Logit Model," Abacus, Accounting Foundation, University of Sydney, vol. 43(3), pages 241-264, September.
    9. Peter J. Carey & Marshall A. Geiger & Brendan T. O’Connell, 2008. "Costs Associated With Going‐Concern‐Modified Audit Opinions: An Analysis of the Australian Audit Market," Abacus, Accounting Foundation, University of Sydney, vol. 44(1), pages 61-81, March.
    10. Ogneva, Maria & Subramanyam, K.R., 2007. "Does the stock market underreact to going concern opinions? Evidence from the U.S. and Australia," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 43(2-3), pages 439-452, July.
    11. Maurice Peat, 2007. "Factors Affecting the Probability of Bankruptcy: A Managerial Decision Based Approach," Abacus, Accounting Foundation, University of Sydney, vol. 43(3), pages 303-324, September.
    12. Steven Mong & Peter Roebuck, 2005. "Effect of audit report disclosure on auditor litigation risk," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 45(1), pages 145-169, March.
    13. Peter Carey & Stuart Kortum & Robyn Moroney, 2012. "Auditors’ going-concern-modified opinions after 2001: measuring reporting accuracy," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 52(4), pages 1041-1059, December.
    14. Gary MONROE & Sarowar HOSSAIN, 2013. "Does Audit Quality Improve After the Implementation of Mandatory Audit Partner Rotation?," Journal of Accounting and Management Information Systems, Faculty of Accounting and Management Information Systems, The Bucharest University of Economic Studies, vol. 12(2), pages 263-279, June.
    15. El’Fred Boo & Roger Simnett, 2002. "The Information Content of Management’s Prospective Comments in Financially Distressed Companies: A Note," Abacus, Accounting Foundation, University of Sydney, vol. 38(2), pages 280-295, June.
    16. Divesh S. Sharma & Jagdish Sidhu, 2001. "Professionalism vs Commercialism: The Association Between Non-Audit Services (NAS) and Audit Independence," Journal of Business Finance & Accounting, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 28(5-6), pages 595-630.
    17. Andrew B. Jackson & Michael Moldrich & Peter Roebuck, 2008. "Mandatory audit firm rotation and audit quality," Managerial Auditing Journal, Emerald Group Publishing, vol. 23(5), pages 420-437, May.
    18. Wendy Green, 1995. "Addressing Issues Relating To Going-Gongern Audit Qualifications And Corporate Failure," Australian Accounting Review, CPA Australia, vol. 5(10), pages 26-34, November.
    19. Max Bessell & Asokan Anandarajan & Ahson Umar, 2003. "Information content, audit reports and going‐concern: an Australian study," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 43(3), pages 261-282, November.
    20. Kathleen Herbohn & Vanitha Ragunathan & Robert Garsden, 2007. "The horse has bolted: revisiting the market reaction to going concern modifications of audit reports," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 47(3), pages 473-493, September.
    21. Weiping Wu & Vincent Cheng Siong Lee & Ting Yean Tan, 2006. "Data preprocessing and data parsimony in corporate failure forecast models: evidence from Australian materials industry," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 46(2), pages 327-345, June.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Michael Kend & IIias Basioudis, 2018. "Reforms to the Market for Audit and Assurance Services in the Period after the Global Financial Crisis: Evidence from the UK," Australian Accounting Review, CPA Australia, vol. 28(4), pages 589-597, December.
    2. Larelle Chapple & James Routledge, 2020. "Board Turnover and Reorganisation Outcomes: Evidence from Voluntary Administration," Australian Accounting Review, CPA Australia, vol. 30(3), pages 212-224, September.
    3. Fabrizio Bava & Melchior Gromis di Trana, 2021. "Big4 Versus Non-Big4 Opinion about the Going Concern Assessment: A Survey," International Journal of Business and Management, Canadian Center of Science and Education, vol. 14(2), pages 1-87, July.
    4. David Hay & Jenny Stewart & Nives Botica Redmayne, 2017. "The Role of Auditing in Corporate Governance in Australia and New Zealand: A Research Synthesis," Australian Accounting Review, CPA Australia, vol. 27(4), pages 457-479, December.
    5. Yitang (Jenny) Yang & Roger Simnett & Elizabeth Carson, 2022. "Auditors’ propensity and accuracy in issuing going‐concern modified audit opinions for charities," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 62(S1), pages 1273-1306, April.
    6. Ahmed Eltweri & Alessio Faccia & Scott Foster, 2022. "International Standards on Auditing (ISAs) Adoption: An Institutional Perspective," Administrative Sciences, MDPI, vol. 12(3), pages 1-19, September.
    7. Ayca Zeynep Suer, 2021. "Review of Critical Accounting Estimates in the Context of Key Audit Matters," Muhasebe Enstitusu Dergisi - Journal of Accounting Institute, Istanbul University Business School, vol. 0(65), pages 23-37, July.
    8. Nora Muñoz-Izquierdo & María-del-Mar Camacho-Miñano & María-Jesús Segovia-Vargas & David Pascual-Ezama, 2019. "Is the External Audit Report Useful for Bankruptcy Prediction? Evidence Using Artificial Intelligence," IJFS, MDPI, vol. 7(2), pages 1-23, April.
    9. Yihan Guo & Deborah Delaney & Ammad Ahmed, 2020. "Is an Auditor's Propensity to Issue Going Concern Opinions a Valid Measure of Audit Quality?," Australian Accounting Review, CPA Australia, vol. 30(2), pages 144-153, June.
    10. Geiger, Marshall A. & Basioudis, Ilias G. & DeLange, Paul, 2022. "The effect of non-audit fees and industry specialization on the prevalence and accuracy of auditor’s going-concern reporting decisions," Journal of International Accounting, Auditing and Taxation, Elsevier, vol. 47(C).
    11. Stewart Jones & Nurul Alam, 2019. "A machine learning analysis of citation impact among selected Pacific Basin journals," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 59(4), pages 2509-2552, December.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Geiger, Marshall A. & Basioudis, Ilias G. & DeLange, Paul, 2022. "The effect of non-audit fees and industry specialization on the prevalence and accuracy of auditor’s going-concern reporting decisions," Journal of International Accounting, Auditing and Taxation, Elsevier, vol. 47(C).
    2. Sanoran, Kanyarat (Lek), 2018. "Auditors’ going concern reporting accuracy during and after the global financial crisis," Journal of Contemporary Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 14(2), pages 164-178.
    3. Martina K. Linnenluecke & Jacqueline Birt & Xiaoyan Chen & Xin Ling & Tom Smith, 2017. "Accounting Research in Abacus, A&F, AAR, and AJM from 2008–2015: A Review and Research Agenda," Abacus, Accounting Foundation, University of Sydney, vol. 53(2), pages 159-179, June.
    4. Yi-Hsing Liao & Pih-Shuw Chen & Teng-Sheng Sang & Chia-Hsuan Tseng, 2020. "Does Client Importance Matter to Book-Tax Differences?," Journal of Applied Finance & Banking, SCIENPRESS Ltd, vol. 10(5), pages 1-17.
    5. Sandro Brunelli & Francesco Venuti & Thomas Niederkofler & Camilla Falivena, 2024. "Financial distress, auditors’ going concern modification (GCM) and investors’ reaction in a concentrated ownership environment: new evidence from the Italian stock market," International Journal of Disclosure and Governance, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 21(2), pages 313-339, June.
    6. Yu (Elli) Zhang & David Hay & Claus Holm, 2016. "Non-audit services and auditor independence: Norwegian evidence," Cogent Business & Management, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 3(1), pages 1215223-121, December.
    7. Sarowar Hossain & Larelle Chapple & Gary S. Monroe, 2018. "Does auditor gender affect issuing going‐concern decisions for financially distressed clients?," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 58(4), pages 1027-1061, December.
    8. Bugeja, Martin, 2011. "Takeover premiums and the perception of auditor independence and reputation," The British Accounting Review, Elsevier, vol. 43(4), pages 278-293.
    9. Ayesha Hameed & Mazhar Ali Alyani & Muhammad Sijawal Alyani & Ghulam Hussain & Abdul Manan Channa, 2024. "Various Factor Affecting External and Internal Auditor Performance: Analytical Perspectives of Employees Working in Karachi Audit Firm and Companies," Bulletin of Business and Economics (BBE), Research Foundation for Humanity (RFH), vol. 13(2), pages 848-856.
    10. Nirosh Karuppu, 2009. "Evidence on Auditors Use of Business Continuity Models as an Analytical Procedure," Accounting & Taxation, The Institute for Business and Finance Research, vol. 1(1), pages 63-74.
    11. Wu, Chloe Yu-Hsuan & Hsu, Hwa-Hsien & Haslam, Jim, 2016. "Audit committees, non-audit services, and auditor reporting decisions prior to failure," The British Accounting Review, Elsevier, vol. 48(2), pages 240-256.
    12. Mary Kehinde Salawu, 2017. "Factors Influencing Auditor Independence among Listed Companies in Nigeria: Generalized Method of Moments (GMM) Approach," International Journal of Economics and Finance, Canadian Center of Science and Education, vol. 9(8), pages 191-203, August.
    13. Maria H. Kim & Graham Partington, 2015. "Dynamic forecasts of financial distress of Australian firms," Australian Journal of Management, Australian School of Business, vol. 40(1), pages 135-160, February.
    14. Carlos Serrano-Cinca & Yolanda Fuertes-Call鮠 & Bego uti鲲ez-Nieto & Beatriz Cuellar-Fernᮤez, 2014. "Path modelling to bankruptcy: causes and symptoms of the banking crisis," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 46(31), pages 3798-3811, November.
    15. Ruben M.T. Peixinho & Richard J. Taffler, 2011. "Are analysts misleading investors? The case of goingconcern opinions," CEFAGE-UE Working Papers 2011_22, University of Evora, CEFAGE-UE (Portugal).
    16. Dennis M. O'Reilly, 2010. "Do investors perceive the going-concern opinion as useful for pricing stocks?," Managerial Auditing Journal, Emerald Group Publishing, vol. 25(1), pages 4-16, February.
    17. Rita Lamboglia & Daniela Mancini, 2021. "The relationship between auditors’ human capital attributes and the assessment of the control environment," Journal of Management & Governance, Springer;Accademia Italiana di Economia Aziendale (AIDEA), vol. 25(4), pages 1211-1239, December.
    18. Ali A. Al-Thuneibat & Basheer Ahmad Khamees & Nedal A. Al-Fayoumi, 2008. "The effect of qualified auditors' opinions on share prices: evidence from Jordan," Managerial Auditing Journal, Emerald Group Publishing, vol. 23(1), pages 84-101, January.
    19. Jennifer Martínez‐Ferrero & Isabel‐María García‐Sánchez & Emiliano Ruiz‐Barbadillo, 2018. "The quality of sustainability assurance reports: The expertise and experience of assurance providers as determinants," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 27(8), pages 1181-1196, December.
    20. Martin Kukuk & Michael Rönnberg, 2013. "Corporate credit default models: a mixed logit approach," Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting, Springer, vol. 40(3), pages 467-483, April.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bla:ausact:v:26:y:2016:i:3:p:226-242. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/journal.asp?ref=1035-6908 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.