IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/jiaata/v18y2009i1p60-72.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Audit pricing and auditor industry specialization in an emerging market: Evidence from China

Author

Listed:
  • Wang, Kun
  • O, Sewon
  • Iqbal, Zahid

Abstract

In this paper we examine the determinants of audit fees by focusing on auditor industry specialization and second tier auditors in the Chinese market. We find evidence of Big 4 premiums for brand name as well as industry specialization in both the statutory and supplementary market. Big 4 industry specialists earn additional premiums in the statutory market as compared to non-industry specialists. We also find that market expansion did not provide the second tier auditors any price advantage. These auditors increased their market share mainly in the mid- and small-sized clienteles. Moreover, industry experience developed by the second tier firms may have helped them gain economy of scale and reduce service fees. This may be their strategy to win future clients that seek low-priced audits.

Suggested Citation

  • Wang, Kun & O, Sewon & Iqbal, Zahid, 2009. "Audit pricing and auditor industry specialization in an emerging market: Evidence from China," Journal of International Accounting, Auditing and Taxation, Elsevier, vol. 18(1), pages 60-72.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:jiaata:v:18:y:2009:i:1:p:60-72
    DOI: 10.1016/j.intaccaudtax.2008.12.006
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1061951808000505
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.intaccaudtax.2008.12.006?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. Palmrose, Zv, 1986. "Audit Fees And Auditor Size - Further Evidence," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 24(1), pages 97-110.
    2. Wang, Kun & O, Sewon & Claiborne, M. Cathy, 2008. "Determinants and consequences of voluntary disclosure in an emerging market: Evidence from China," Journal of International Accounting, Auditing and Taxation, Elsevier, vol. 17(1), pages 14-30.
    3. Chen, Charles J.P. & Su, Xijia & Wu, Xi, 2007. "Market competitiveness and Big 5 pricing: Evidence from China's binary market," The International Journal of Accounting, Elsevier, vol. 42(1), pages 1-24.
    4. 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.
    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. Jiang, Haiyan & Habib, Ahsan & Zhou, Donghua, 2015. "Accounting restatements and audit quality in China," Advances in accounting, Elsevier, vol. 31(1), pages 125-135.
    2. Abdullah AL-Mutairi & Kamal Naser & Naser Al-Enazi, 2017. "An Empirical Investigation of Factors Affecting Audit Fees: Evidence from Kuwait," International Advances in Economic Research, Springer;International Atlantic Economic Society, vol. 23(3), pages 333-347, August.
    3. 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.
    4. Dongshan Ma & Shengqiang Zhang & Jiayu Zhao, 2022. "The High-Speed Railway Opening and Audit Fees: Evidence from China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(20), pages 1-19, October.
    5. S. Verbruggen & J. Christiaens & A. Reheul & T. Van Caneghem, 2011. "Audit pricing in a reformed nonprofit market," Working Papers of Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, Ghent University, Belgium 11/764, Ghent University, Faculty of Economics and Business Administration.
    6. Dykxhoorn, Hans J. & Sinning, Kathleen E., 2010. "A review and analysis of international accounting research in JIAAT: 2002–2010," Journal of International Accounting, Auditing and Taxation, Elsevier, vol. 19(2), pages 137-153.
    7. Seyed Mahmoud Hosseinniakani & Helena Inacio & Rui Mota, 2014. "A Review on Audit Quality Factors," International Journal of Academic Research in Accounting, Finance and Management Sciences, Human Resource Management Academic Research Society, International Journal of Academic Research in Accounting, Finance and Management Sciences, vol. 4(2), pages 243-254, April.
    8. Markus Widmann & Florian Follert & Matthias Wolz, 2021. "What is it going to cost? Empirical evidence from a systematic literature review of audit fee determinants," Management Review Quarterly, Springer, vol. 71(2), pages 455-489, April.

    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. MohammadRezaei, Fakhroddin & Mohd-Saleh, Norman & Ahmed, Kamran, 2018. "Audit Firm Ranking, Audit Quality and Audit Fees: Examining Conflicting Price Discrimination Views," The International Journal of Accounting, Elsevier, vol. 53(4), pages 295-313.
    2. Nurul Nazlia Jamil, 2020. "The Power of Political Connections: Review on the Impacts of Audit Committee and Corporate Governance," Journal of Public Administration and Governance, Macrothink Institute, vol. 10(1), pages 333347-3333, December.
    3. James Ross Booth & Lena Chua Booth & Daniel Deli, 2012. "Managerial Incentives and Audit Fees: Evidence from the Mutual Fund Industry," Accounting and Finance Research, Sciedu Press, vol. 1(1), pages 1-76, May.
    4. Ray Ball, 2009. "Market and Political/Regulatory Perspectives on the Recent Accounting Scandals," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 47(2), pages 277-323, May.
    5. Duellman, Scott & Hurwitz, Helen & Sun, Yan, 2015. "Managerial overconfidence and audit fees," Journal of Contemporary Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 11(2), pages 148-165.
    6. 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).
    7. Sharad Asthana & Rachana Kalelkar, 2011. "The Market For Audit Services And S&P 500 Index Clients," Working Papers 0022, College of Business, University of Texas at San Antonio.
    8. Chahine, Salim & Filatotchev, Igor, 2011. "The effects of corporate governance and audit and non-audit fees on IPO Value," The British Accounting Review, Elsevier, vol. 43(3), pages 155-172.
    9. Michael Peel & Roydon Roberts, 2003. "Audit fee determinants and auditor premiums: evidence from the micro-firm sub-market," Accounting and Business Research, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 33(3), pages 207-233.
    10. Alan Kilgore & Renee Radich & Graeme Harrison, 2011. "The Relative Importance of Audit Quality Attributes," Australian Accounting Review, CPA Australia, vol. 21(3), pages 253-265, September.
    11. Sang Cheol Lee & Jaewan Park & Mooweon Rhee & Yunkeun Lee, 2018. "Moderating Effects of Agency Problems and Monitoring Systems on the Relationship between Executive Stock Option and Audit Fees: Evidence from Korea," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(11), pages 1-24, November.
    12. Connie L. Becker & Mark L. Defond & James Jiambalvo & K.R. Subramanyam, 1998. "The Effect of Audit Quality on Earnings Management," Contemporary Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 15(1), pages 1-24, March.
    13. David C. Hay & W. Robert Knechel & Norman Wong, 2006. "Audit Fees: A Meta†analysis of the Effect of Supply and Demand Attributes," Contemporary Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 23(1), pages 141-191, March.
    14. Sorin Romulus Berinde & Adrian GroÅŸanu, 2013. "Particularities Concerning The Beneficiaries Of Audit Services Provided By The Big 4 Companies: Evidence From Romania," Annales Universitatis Apulensis Series Oeconomica, Faculty of Sciences, "1 Decembrie 1918" University, Alba Iulia, vol. 2(15), pages 1-14.
    15. Ilias G. Basioudis, 2007. "Auditor's Engagement Risk and Audit Fees: The Role of Audit Firm Alumni," Journal of Business Finance & Accounting, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 34(9‐10), pages 1393-1422, November.
    16. Fleischer, Rouven & Goettsche, Max, 2012. "Size effects and audit pricing: Evidence from Germany," Journal of International Accounting, Auditing and Taxation, Elsevier, vol. 21(2), pages 156-168.
    17. Scott Whisenant & Srinivasan Sankaraguruswamy & K. Raghunandan, 2003. "Evidence on the Joint Determination of Audit and Non‐Audit Fees," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 41(4), pages 721-744, September.
    18. Ho, Nam, 2023. "Local competition and auditors' provision of non-audit services," Advances in accounting, Elsevier, vol. 63(C).
    19. Griffin, Paul A. & Lont, David H., 2011. "Audit fees around dismissals and resignations: Additional evidence," Journal of Contemporary Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 7(2), pages 65-81.
    20. Minjung Kang & Jung‐wha Lee & Mihye Ha & Moon‐Kyung Cho, 2021. "Impact of IFRS adoption on audit pricing: evidence from audit hours and unit audit price in the Korean audit market," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 61(2), pages 3517-3564, June.

    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:jiaata:v:18:y:2009:i:1:p:60-72. 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/journal-of-international-accounting-auditing-and-taxation .

    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.