IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/bracre/v55y2023i2s089083892200107x.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Going big, going small: A perspective on strategies for researching audit quality

Author

Listed:
  • Francis, Jere R.

Abstract

This paper updates how archival audit research has evolved since the summary in Francis (2004) of what we knew then about audit quality. The paper describes an evolution from “going big” and asking basic questions about the audit market, institutions, and audit quality, to “going small” with a focus on smaller units of analysis (offices, partners, and engagement teams) as the key to understanding audit quality. I used to believe that audit firm differences, and differences across offices within firms, were the most important audit-related sources of variation in quality, and that differences in people and audit teams were relatively unimportant. However, the evidence in Cameran, Campa, and Francis (2022) using UK partner data convinced me otherwise. I now believe the behaviors of partner-led engagement teams are just as important (and maybe more important) than audit firms and offices in understanding audit quality. However, to learn more about partner-led teams means going inside the black box of audit firms, which requires proprietary data from audit firms and research access to their professional staff. I conclude with an example of collaborative research with audit firms.

Suggested Citation

  • Francis, Jere R., 2023. "Going big, going small: A perspective on strategies for researching audit quality," The British Accounting Review, Elsevier, vol. 55(2).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:bracre:v:55:y:2023:i:2:s089083892200107x
    DOI: 10.1016/j.bar.2022.101167
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S089083892200107X
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.bar.2022.101167?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. Jere R. Francis & Paul N. Michas & Scott E. Seavey, 2013. "Does Audit Market Concentration Harm the Quality of Audited Earnings? Evidence from Audit Markets in 42 Countries," Contemporary Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 30(1), pages 325-355, March.
    2. Jere R. Francis & Mihir N. Mehta & Wanli Zhao, 2017. "Audit Office Reputation Shocks from Gains and Losses of Major Industry Clients," Contemporary Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 34(4), pages 1922-1974, December.
    3. Daniel Kahneman & Amos Tversky, 2013. "Prospect Theory: An Analysis of Decision Under Risk," World Scientific Book Chapters, in: Leonard C MacLean & William T Ziemba (ed.), HANDBOOK OF THE FUNDAMENTALS OF FINANCIAL DECISION MAKING Part I, chapter 6, pages 99-127, World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd..
    4. Jere R. Francis & Jagan Krishnan, 1999. "Accounting Accruals and Auditor Reporting Conservatism," Contemporary Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 16(1), pages 135-165, March.
    5. Jere R. Francis & Dechun Wang, 2008. "The Joint Effect of Investor Protection and Big 4 Audits on Earnings Quality around the World," Contemporary Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 25(1), pages 157-191, March.
    6. Craswell, Allen T. & Francis, Jere R. & Taylor, Stephen L., 1995. "Auditor brand name reputations and industry specializations," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 20(3), pages 297-322, December.
    7. Dechow, Patricia M., 1994. "Accounting earnings and cash flows as measures of firm performance : The role of accounting accruals," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 18(1), pages 3-42, July.
    8. Francis, Jere R., 2004. "What do we know about audit quality?," The British Accounting Review, Elsevier, vol. 36(4), pages 345-368.
    9. W. Robert Knechel & Ann Vanstraelen & Mikko Zerni, 2015. "Does the Identity of Engagement Partners Matter? An Analysis of Audit Partner Reporting Decisions," Contemporary Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 32(4), pages 1443-1478, December.
    10. Matthew J. Beck & Jere R. Francis & Joshua L. Gunn, 2018. "Public Company Audits and City‐Specific Labor Characteristics," Contemporary Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 35(1), pages 394-433, March.
    11. Patricia M. Dechow & Richard G. Sloan & Amy P. Sweeney, 1996. "Causes and Consequences of Earnings Manipulation: An Analysis of Firms Subject to Enforcement Actions by the SEC," Contemporary Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 13(1), pages 1-36, March.
    12. Francis, Jere R., 1984. "The effect of audit firm size on audit prices : A study of the Australian Market," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 6(2), pages 133-151, August.
    13. Reynolds, J. Kenneth & Francis, Jere R., 2000. "Does size matter? The influence of large clients on office-level auditor reporting decisions," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 30(3), pages 375-400, December.
    14. DeFond, Mark & Zhang, Jieying, 2014. "A review of archival auditing research," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 58(2), pages 275-326.
    15. Jere R. Francis & Inder K. Khurana & Xiumin Martin & Raynolde Pereira, 2011. "The Relative Importance of Firm Incentives versus Country Factors in the Demand for Assurance Services by Private Entities," Contemporary Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 28(2), pages 487-516, 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. Andreea Georgiana PASCARU & Camelia-Daniela HATEGAN, 2024. "Audit Quality and Audit Market at European Level," The Audit Financiar journal, Chamber of Financial Auditors of Romania, vol. 22(176), pages 758-768, October.
    2. Cristian Lungu & Valentin Burcă & Ovidiu-Constantin Bunget & Alin-Constantin Dumitrescu, 2023. "The Association between Audit Quality and Corporate Tax Avoidance. A Bibliometric Review of Literature and Early Evidence on the European Union, from the Perspective of Tax-Related Key Audit Matters D," JRFM, MDPI, vol. 16(8), pages 1-14, July.
    3. Andreea Georgiana Pascaru & Camelia Daniela Hațegan, 2024. "Financial Reporting and Audit Quality. A Bibliometric Analysis," Journal of Financial Studies, Institute of Financial Studies, vol. 16(9), pages 205-217, May.

    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. Kharuddin, Khairul Ayuni Mohd & Basioudis, Ilias G & Farooque, Omar Al, 2021. "Effects of the Big 4 national and city-level industry expertise on audit quality in the United Kingdom," Journal of International Accounting, Auditing and Taxation, Elsevier, vol. 43(C).
    3. Kevin Koh & Li Li & Xuejiao Liu & Chunfei Wang, 2023. "The Effect of Audit Partner Diversity on Audit Quality: Evidence from China," Abacus, Accounting Foundation, University of Sydney, vol. 59(1), pages 340-380, March.
    4. Deqiu Chen & Li Li & Xuejiao Liu & Gerald J. Lobo, 2018. "Social Trust and Auditor Reporting Conservatism," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 153(4), pages 1083-1108, December.
    5. Kim Ittonen & Karla Johnstone & Emma-Riikka Myllym�ki, 2015. "Audit Partner Public-Client Specialisation and Client Abnormal Accruals," European Accounting Review, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 24(3), pages 607-633, September.
    6. Ya-Fang Wang, 2020. "New Insights on Audit Quality," International Journal of Business and Economic Sciences Applied Research (IJBESAR), Democritus University of Thrace (DUTH), Kavala Campus, Greece, vol. 13(1), pages 21-28, April.
    7. 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.
    8. Dang, Man & Puwanenthiren, Premkanth & Truong, Cameron & Henry, Darren & Vo, Xuan Vinh, 2022. "Audit quality and seasoned equity offerings methods," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 83(C).
    9. Alhababsah, Salem & Alhaj-Ismail, Alaa, 2023. "Does shared tenure between audit committee chair and engagement partner affect audit outcomes? Evidence from the UK," The British Accounting Review, Elsevier, vol. 55(2).
    10. Tong, Lijing & Wu, Bin & Zhang, Min, 2022. "Do auditors’ early-life socioeconomic opportunities improve audit quality? Evidence from China," The British Accounting Review, Elsevier, vol. 54(2).
    11. Athavale, Manoj & Guo, Zhaorui & Meng, Yun & Zhang, Tianshu, 2022. "Diversity of signing auditors and audit quality: Evidence from capital market in China," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 78(C), pages 554-571.
    12. Ferguson, Andrew & Lam, Peter & Ma, Nelson, 2018. "Market reactions to auditor switches under regulatory consent and market driven regimes," Journal of Contemporary Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 14(2), pages 197-215.
    13. Johnson, Elizabeth & Reichelt, Kenneth J. & Soileau, Jared S., 2018. "No news is bad news: Do PCAOB part II reports have an effect on annually inspected firms’ audit fees and audit quality?," Journal of Accounting Literature, Elsevier, vol. 41(C), pages 106-126.
    14. Bugeja, Martin, 2011. "Takeover premiums and the perception of auditor independence and reputation," The British Accounting Review, Elsevier, vol. 43(4), pages 278-293.
    15. Wael Almaqoushi & Ronan Powell, 2021. "Audit committee quality indices, reporting quality and firm value," Journal of Business Finance & Accounting, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 48(1-2), pages 185-229, January.
    16. Jennifer Martínez-Ferrero & Isabel-María García-Sánchez, 2018. "The Level of Sustainability Assurance: The Effects of Brand Reputation and Industry Specialisation of Assurance Providers," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 150(4), pages 971-990, July.
    17. Dechow, Patricia & Ge, Weili & Schrand, Catherine, 2010. "Understanding earnings quality: A review of the proxies, their determinants and their consequences," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 50(2-3), pages 344-401, December.
    18. Reiner Quick & Niklas Schenk & Florian Schmidt & Thilo Towara, 2018. "The impact of corporate governance on auditor choice: evidence from Germany," Journal of Management & Governance, Springer;Accademia Italiana di Economia Aziendale (AIDEA), vol. 22(2), pages 251-283, June.
    19. Mohammad Abedalrahman Alhmood & Hasnah Shaari & Redhwan Al-dhamari, 2022. "Audit Partner Characteristics and Real Earnings Management Practices in Jordan," Economic Studies journal, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences - Economic Research Institute, issue 6, pages 185-200.
    20. Jie Hao & Viet Pham & Meng Guo, 2022. "The Gender Effects of Audit Partners on Audit Outcomes: Evidence of Rule 3211 Adoption," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 177(2), pages 275-304, May.

    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:eee:bracre:v:55:y:2023:i:2:s089083892200107x. 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/the-british-accounting-review .

    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.