IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/advacc/v50y2020ics0882611020300559.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Audit quality indicators: Perspectives from Non-Big Four audit firms and small company audit committees

Author

Listed:
  • Harris, M. Kathleen
  • Williams, L. Tyler

Abstract

Through a combined study, we explore the professional perspectives of two distinct PCAOB constituent groups related to the PCAOB's proposed regulatory approach for audit quality indicators. First, we examine the comment letters of Non-Big Four audit firms and find that this specific constituent group views most of the PCAOB's proposed audit quality indicators as infeasible and redundant. Further, Non-Big Four audit firms contend that the indicators require greater clarification from the regulator as well as substantial accompanying qualitative context to avoid misinterpretation that may lead to unintended consequences. Second, we survey a collection of audit committee members from small, publicly-traded companies regarding the current evaluation and perceived effectiveness of eleven specific PCAOB audit quality indicators, each of which is well-established in the extant audit quality literature. We find indicators related to auditor personnel with specialized skill and knowledge, experience of audit personnel, and the timely reporting of internal control issues are perceived to possess the highest level of effectiveness in the evaluation of audit quality.

Suggested Citation

  • Harris, M. Kathleen & Williams, L. Tyler, 2020. "Audit quality indicators: Perspectives from Non-Big Four audit firms and small company audit committees," Advances in accounting, Elsevier, vol. 50(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:advacc:v:50:y:2020:i:c:s0882611020300559
    DOI: 10.1016/j.adiac.2020.100485
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0882611020300559
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.adiac.2020.100485?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    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. Peter Iliev, 2010. "The Effect of SOX Section 404: Costs, Earnings Quality, and Stock Prices," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 65(3), pages 1163-1196, June.
    2. Chee‐Yeow Lim & Hun‐Tong Tan, 2008. "Non‐audit Service Fees and Audit Quality: The Impact of Auditor Specialization," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 46(1), pages 199-246, March.
    3. Dan Dhaliwal & Vic Naiker & Farshid Navissi, 2010. "The Association Between Accruals Quality and the Characteristics of Accounting Experts and Mix of Expertise on Audit Committees," Contemporary Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 27(3), pages 787-827, September.
    4. Wuchun Chi & Huichi Huang & Yichun Liao & Hong Xie, 2009. "Mandatory Audit Partner Rotation, Audit Quality, and Market Perception: Evidence from Taiwan," Contemporary Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 26(2), pages 359-391, June.
    5. Veena L. Brown & Jodi L. Gissel & Daniel Gordon Neely, 2016. "Audit quality indicators: perceptions of junior-level auditors," Managerial Auditing Journal, Emerald Group Publishing, vol. 31(8/9), pages 949-980, September.
    6. Fei Leng & Ehsan H. Feroz & Zhiyan Cao & Sergio V. Davalos, 2011. "The Long-Term Performance and Failure Risk of Firms Cited in the US SEC's Accounting and Auditing Enforcement Releases," Journal of Business Finance & Accounting, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 38(7-8), pages 813-841, September.
    7. Mark S. Beasley & Joseph V. Carcello & Dana R. Hermanson & Terry L. Neal, 2009. "The Audit Committee Oversight Process," Contemporary Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 26(1), pages 65-122, March.
    8. Kenneth J. Reichelt & Dechun Wang, 2010. "National and Office‐Specific Measures of Auditor Industry Expertise and Effects on Audit Quality," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 48(3), pages 647-686, June.
    9. Louis, Henock, 2005. "Acquirers' abnormal returns and the non-Big 4 auditor clientele effect," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 40(1-3), pages 75-99, December.
    10. Mark L. Defond & Clive S. Lennox, 2017. "Do PCAOB Inspections Improve the Quality of Internal Control Audits?," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 55(3), pages 591-627, June.
    11. DeAngelo, Linda Elizabeth, 1981. "Auditor independence, `low balling', and disclosure regulation," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 3(2), pages 113-127, August.
    12. Lauren C. Reid & Joseph V. Carcello & Chan Li & Terry L. Neal & Jere R. Francis, 2019. "Impact of Auditor Report Changes on Financial Reporting Quality and Audit Costs: Evidence from the United Kingdom," Contemporary Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 36(3), pages 1501-1539, September.
    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. Khowanas Saeed Qader & Kemal Cek, 2023. "Analysis of the Impact of External Auditors’ Autonomy on Financial Accounting Information Quality Case Study Commercial Banks in Northern Iraq," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(12), pages 1-21, June.
    2. Luis Porcuna-Enguix & Elisabeth Bustos-Contell & José Serrano-Madrid & Gregorio Labatut-Serer, 2021. "Constructing the Audit Risk Assessment by the Audit Team Leader When Planning: Using Fuzzy Theory," Mathematics, MDPI, vol. 9(23), pages 1-22, November.
    3. Omid Mehri Namakavarani & Abbas Ali Daryaei & Davood Askarany & Saeed Askary, 2021. "Audit Committee Characteristics and Quality of Financial Information: The Role of the Internal Information Environment and Political Connections," JRFM, MDPI, vol. 14(6), pages 1-18, June.

    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. DeFond, Mark & Zhang, Jieying, 2014. "A review of archival auditing research," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 58(2), pages 275-326.
    2. Guangming Gong & Liang Xiao & Si Xu & Xun Gong, 2019. "Do Bond Investors Care About Engagement Auditors’ Negative Experiences? Evidence from China," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 158(3), pages 779-806, September.
    3. Nathan R. Berglund, 2020. "Do Client Bankruptcies Preceded by Clean Audit Opinions Damage Auditor Reputation?," Contemporary Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 37(3), pages 1914-1951, September.
    4. Habib, Ahsan, 2011. "Audit firm industry specialization and audit outcomes: Insights from academic literature," Research in Accounting Regulation, Elsevier, vol. 23(2), pages 114-129.
    5. Knechel, W. Robert & Thomas, Edward & Driskill, Matthew, 2020. "Understanding financial auditing from a service perspective," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 81(C).
    6. Masoud Azizkhani & Sarowar Hossain & Mai Nguyen, 2023. "Effects of audit committee chair characteristics on auditor choice, audit fee and audit quality," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 63(3), pages 3675-3707, September.
    7. Aobdia, Daniel, 2019. "Do practitioner assessments agree with academic proxies for audit quality? Evidence from PCAOB and internal inspections," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 67(1), pages 144-174.
    8. Saeed Rabea Baatwah & Adel Ali Al-Qadasi, 2020. "Determinants of outsourced internal audit function: a further analysis," Eurasian Business Review, Springer;Eurasia Business and Economics Society, vol. 10(4), pages 629-659, December.
    9. Li-Jen He & Jianxiong Chen, 2021. "Does Mandatory Audit Partner Rotation Influence Auditor Selection Strategies?," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(4), pages 1-21, February.
    10. Bugeja, Martin, 2011. "Takeover premiums and the perception of auditor independence and reputation," The British Accounting Review, Elsevier, vol. 43(4), pages 278-293.
    11. Velia Gabriella Cenciarelli & Giulio Greco & Marco Allegrini, 2018. "External audit and bankruptcy prediction," Journal of Management & Governance, Springer;Accademia Italiana di Economia Aziendale (AIDEA), vol. 22(4), pages 863-890, December.
    12. Bi, XiaoGang & Tang, Judy & Tharyan, Rajesh, 2020. "Switching due diligence auditor in Chinese mergers and acquisitions," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 54(C).
    13. Adrienne Rhodes & Dan Russomanno, 2021. "Executive Accountants and the Reliability of Financial Reporting," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 67(7), pages 4475-4504, July.
    14. Dhaliwal, Dan S. & Lamoreaux, Phillip T. & Litov, Lubomir P. & Neyland, Jordan B., 2016. "Shared auditors in mergers and acquisitions," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 61(1), pages 49-76.
    15. Hanish Rajpal & Pawan Jain, 2018. "Auditor’s Characteristics and Earnings Management in India," Accounting and Finance Research, Sciedu Press, vol. 7(4), pages 1-43, November.
    16. Lanfeng Kao & Min-Hsien Chiang & Anlin Chen, 2024. "To mitigate the effect of underwriter bargaining power on IPO pricing through audit committee under an economy of little information asymmetry," Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting, Springer, vol. 63(1), pages 147-167, July.
    17. 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.
    18. Alzoubi, Ebraheem Saleem Salem, 2018. "Audit quality, debt financing, and earnings management: Evidence from Jordan," Journal of International Accounting, Auditing and Taxation, Elsevier, vol. 30(C), pages 69-84.
    19. George Drogalas & Michail Nerantzidis & Dimitrios Mitskinis & Ioannis Tampakoudis, 2021. "The relationship between audit fees and audit committee characteristics: evidence from the Athens Stock Exchange," International Journal of Disclosure and Governance, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 18(1), pages 24-41, March.
    20. Jean Bédard & Suzanne M. Paquette, 2021. "Audit Committee Financial Expertise, Litigation Risk, and Auditor‐Provided Tax Services†," Accounting Perspectives, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 20(1), pages 7-48, March.

    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:eee:advacc:v:50:y:2020:i:c:s0882611020300559. 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: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.journals.elsevier.com/advances-in-accounting/ .

    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.