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The effects of advertising and solicitation on audit fees

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  • Hay, David
  • Knechel, W. Robert

Abstract

Leading academic and professional accountants have suggested that the crisis in auditing over the past few years may have had its origin in deregulation which allowed firms to advertise their services and solicit new clients, encouraging accounting firms to become more commercial. In this paper, we look at this issue in New Zealand which has the unique distinction of having separated two key forms of deregulation, namely advertising and solicitation, by 6Â years. This allows us to separately examine the effect of each form of market competition on audit fees. We find that advertising is associated with increases in fees, not decreases, which suggests that quality-based advertising took place, and not price-based advertising. In contrast, solicitation corresponded with a general decrease in average fees for clients of the Big 8. We interpret this result as indicating an increase in competition among accounting firms. Our results suggest that there may be a much more complex relationship among market competition, advertising and solicitation, and fees than the arguments used to originally justify deregulation.

Suggested Citation

  • Hay, David & Knechel, W. Robert, 2010. "The effects of advertising and solicitation on audit fees," Journal of Accounting and Public Policy, Elsevier, vol. 29(1), pages 60-81, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:jappol:v:29:y::i:1:p:60-81
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    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. Fleischer, Rouven & Goettsche, Max & Schauer, Maximilian, 2017. "The Big 4 premium: Does it survive an auditor change? Evidence from Europe," Journal of International Accounting, Auditing and Taxation, Elsevier, vol. 29(C), pages 103-117.
    2. Umapathy Ananthanarayanan, 2018. "Do Corporate Governance Measures Impact Audit Pricing Of Smaller Firms? Evidence From The United States And New Zealand," The International Journal of Business and Finance Research, The Institute for Business and Finance Research, vol. 12(2), pages 77-94.
    3. Averhals, Liesbeth & Van Caneghem, Tom & Willekens, Marleen, 2020. "Mandatory audit fee disclosure and price competition in the private client segment of the Belgian audit market," Journal of International Accounting, Auditing and Taxation, Elsevier, vol. 40(C).
    4. Gholamhossein Mahdavi & Abbas Ali Daryaei, 2016. "Auditing marketing and corporate governance," International Journal of Business Forecasting and Marketing Intelligence, Inderscience Enterprises Ltd, vol. 2(3), pages 190-214.
    5. Michael E. Doron, 2023. "Could Accounting Have Saved Itself from the Antitrust Laws?Revisiting the Antitrust Investigations into the US Accounting Profession 1966–1990," Abacus, Accounting Foundation, University of Sydney, vol. 59(3), pages 847-871, September.
    6. Su, Xijia & Wu, Xi, 2017. "Public Disclosure of Audit Fees and Bargaining Power between the Client and Auditor: Evidence from China," The International Journal of Accounting, Elsevier, vol. 52(1), pages 64-76.
    7. Michael E. Bradbury & Gary Monroe, 2017. "Large audit firm premium and audit specialisation in the public sector," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 57(3), pages 657-679, September.
    8. Najihah Yaacob & Ayoib Che-Ahmad, 2012. "Audit Fees after IFRS Adoption: Evidence from Malaysia," Eurasian Business Review, Springer;Eurasia Business and Economics Society, vol. 2(1), pages 31-46, June.
    9. Lennox, Clive & Li, Bing, 2012. "The consequences of protecting audit partners’ personal assets from the threat of liability," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 54(2), pages 154-173.
    10. Gholamhossein Mahdavi & Abbas Ali Daryaei, 2016. "Attitude toward auditing, marketing and corporate governance (An examination based in Parsons’ social action theory)," International Journal of Corporate Social Responsibility, Springer, vol. 1(1), pages 1-16, December.

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