IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/taf/euract/v7y1998i4p639-653.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Qualified audit reports in Finland: evidence from large companies

Author

Listed:
  • Erkki Laitinen
  • Teija Laitinen

Abstract

The purpose of the study is to develop a logistic model based on financial statement information to identify qualified audit reports. The empirical data are retrieved from audit reports from thirty-seven publicly-traded companies (HeSE) in the years 1992, 1993 and 1994. Thus, there are in all 111 audit reports of which only eight are qualified in the way of including remarks or supplementary information. These eight qualifications concerned three companies during the period of study. The qualification decision (0/1) is explained by sixteen financial ratios and by the audit lag. Univariate analysis showed that the qualification of an audit report is mainly associated with low profitability, high indebtedness and low (negative) growth. The multivariate logistic model showed that the likelihood of receiving a qualification is larger, the lower the growth of the firm, the lower the share of equity in balance sheet and the smaller the number of employees. The total error rate of the model in Lachenbruch validation was only 5.4%. When two qualified reports containing remarks on an additional and a separate auditor were considered as non-qualified, the corresponding total error rate for a re-estimated logistic model was as low as 1.8%. This model also included the audit lag as an explanatory variable. The results of the study indicate that an efficient model to explain qualifications in the audit reports of Finnish publicly-traded companies can be found.

Suggested Citation

  • Erkki Laitinen & Teija Laitinen, 1998. "Qualified audit reports in Finland: evidence from large companies," European Accounting Review, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 7(4), pages 639-653.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:euract:v:7:y:1998:i:4:p:639-653
    DOI: 10.1080/096381898336231
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/096381898336231
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1080/096381898336231?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. Edward I. Altman, 1968. "Financial Ratios, Discriminant Analysis And The Prediction Of Corporate Bankruptcy," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 23(4), pages 589-609, September.
    2. Edward I. Altman, 1968. "The Prediction Of Corporate Bankruptcy: A Discriminant Analysis," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 23(1), pages 193-194, March.
    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. Pinto, Inês & Morais, Ana Isabel & Quick, Reiner, 2020. "The impact of the precision of accounting standards on the expanded auditor’s report in the European Union," Journal of International Accounting, Auditing and Taxation, Elsevier, vol. 40(C).
    2. José Ramón Sánchez-Serrano & David Alaminos & Francisco García-Lagos & Angela M. Callejón-Gil, 2020. "Predicting Audit Opinion in Consolidated Financial Statements with Artificial Neural Networks," Mathematics, MDPI, vol. 8(8), pages 1-14, August.
    3. Andriosopoulos, Dimitrios & Gaganis, Chrysovalantis & Pasiouras, Fotios & Zopounidis, Constantin, 2012. "An application of multicriteria decision aid models in the prediction of open market share repurchases," Omega, Elsevier, vol. 40(6), pages 882-890.
    4. Chrysovalantis Gaganis & Fotios Pasiouras & Charalambos Spathis & Constantin Zopounidis, 2007. "A comparison of nearest neighbours, discriminant and logit models for auditing decisions," Intelligent Systems in Accounting, Finance and Management, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 15(1‐2), pages 23-40, January.
    5. Pasiouras, Fotios & Gaganis, Chrysovalantis & Zopounidis, Constantin, 2007. "Multicriteria decision support methodologies for auditing decisions: The case of qualified audit reports in the UK," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 180(3), pages 1317-1330, August.
    6. Santiago Lago-Peñas & Mercedes Mareque Álvarez-Santullano & Elena Rivo-López & Mónica Villanueva-Villar, 2017. "Determining factors for audit opinion in private family and non-family firms. Evidence from Spain," Working Papers. Collection C: Family business 1701, Universidade de Vigo, GEN - Governance and Economics research Network.
    7. Michael Doumpos & Chrysovalantis Gaganis & Fotios Pasiouras, 2005. "Explaining qualifications in audit reports using a support vector machine methodology," Intelligent Systems in Accounting, Finance and Management, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 13(4), pages 197-215, December.
    8. Garcia-Blandon, Josep & Argiles, Josep Ma, 2015. "Audit firm tenure and independence: A comprehensive investigation of audit qualifications in Spain," Journal of International Accounting, Auditing and Taxation, Elsevier, vol. 24(C), pages 82-93.
    9. Mercedes Mareque & Elena Rivo-López & Mónica Villanueva-Villar & Santiago Lago-Peñas, 2019. "Audit Opinions: Are They Really Different for Family Businesses?," SAGE Open, , vol. 9(2), pages 21582440198, June.
    10. Spathis, Charalambos & Doumpos, Michael & Zopounidis, Constantin, 2003. "Using client performance measures to identify pre-engagement factors associated with qualified audit reports in Greece," The International Journal of Accounting, Elsevier, vol. 38(3), pages 267-284.
    11. Chrysovalantis Gaganis, 2009. "Classification techniques for the identification of falsified financial statements: a comparative analysis," Intelligent Systems in Accounting, Finance and Management, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 16(3), pages 207-229, July.
    12. Srbinoska Dusica Stevcevska & Srbinoski Igor, 2021. "A study on audit report timeliness: The Macedonian Stock Exchange," International Journal of Management and Economics, Warsaw School of Economics, Collegium of World Economy, vol. 57(3), pages 234-254, September.
    13. Musa Success Jibrin & Success Ejura Blessing & Iyaji Danjuma, 2014. "The Role of Auditors in the Recent Nigerian Banking Crisis," International Journal of Academic Research in Business and Social Sciences, Human Resource Management Academic Research Society, International Journal of Academic Research in Business and Social Sciences, vol. 4(3), pages 231-251, March.
    14. Arber H. Hoti & Hysen Ismajli & Skender Ahmeti & Arben Dermaku, 2012. "Effects of Audit Opinion on Stock Prices: The case of Croatia and Slovenia," EuroEconomica, Danubius University of Galati, issue 2(31), pages 75-87, 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. Barbara Su, 2023. "Banking practices and borrowing firms’ financial reporting quality: evidence from bank cross-selling," Review of Accounting Studies, Springer, vol. 28(1), pages 201-236, March.
    2. Shaikh, Ibrahim A. & O'Brien, Jonathan Paul & Peters, Lois, 2018. "Inside directors and the underinvestment of financial slack towards R&D-intensity in high-technology firms," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 82(C), pages 192-201.
    3. Mikel Bedayo & Gabriel Jiménez & José-Luis Peydró & Raquel Vegas, 2020. "Screening and Loan Origination Time: Lending Standards, Loan Defaults and Bank Failures," Working Papers 1215, Barcelona School of Economics.
    4. Ruey-Ching Hwang, 2013. "Forecasting credit ratings with the varying-coefficient model," Quantitative Finance, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 13(12), pages 1947-1965, December.
    5. Antonio Davila & George Foster & Xiaobin He & Carlos Shimizu, 2015. "The rise and fall of startups: Creation and destruction of revenue and jobs by young companies," Australian Journal of Management, Australian School of Business, vol. 40(1), pages 6-35, February.
    6. Masahiro Enomoto, 2018. "Effects of Corporate Governance on the Relationship between Accounting Quality and Trade Credit: Evidence from Japan," Discussion Paper Series DP2018-12, Research Institute for Economics & Business Administration, Kobe University, revised Dec 2023.
    7. Chen, Peimin & Wu, Chunchi, 2014. "Default prediction with dynamic sectoral and macroeconomic frailties," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 40(C), pages 211-226.
    8. Knyazeva, Anzhela & Knyazeva, Diana, 2012. "Does being your bank’s neighbor matter?," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 36(4), pages 1194-1209.
    9. Giordani, Paolo & Jacobson, Tor & Schedvin, Erik von & Villani, Mattias, 2014. "Taking the Twists into Account: Predicting Firm Bankruptcy Risk with Splines of Financial Ratios," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 49(4), pages 1071-1099, August.
    10. Li, Chunyu & Lou, Chenxin & Luo, Dan & Xing, Kai, 2021. "Chinese corporate distress prediction using LASSO: The role of earnings management," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 76(C).
    11. Suzan Hol, 2006. "The influence of the business cycle on bankruptcy probability," Discussion Papers 466, Statistics Norway, Research Department.
    12. Gropp, R. & Grundl, C. & Guttler, A., 2012. "Does Discretion in Lending Increase Bank Risk? Borrower Self-Selection and Loan Officer Capture Effects," Other publications TiSEM bfec5360-2a2b-47e4-ba3f-d, Tilburg University, School of Economics and Management.
    13. Pavol Durana & Lucia Michalkova & Andrej Privara & Josef Marousek & Milos Tumpach, 2021. "Does the life cycle affect earnings management and bankruptcy?," Oeconomia Copernicana, Institute of Economic Research, vol. 12(2), pages 425-461, June.
    14. Dinh, K. & Kleimeier, S., 2006. "Credit scoring for Vietnam's retail banking market : implementation and implications for transactional versus relationship lending," Research Memorandum 012, Maastricht University, Maastricht Research School of Economics of Technology and Organization (METEOR).
    15. Park, Moon Deok & Han, Seung Hun, 2023. "Pay dispersion and CSR," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 51(C).
    16. Simon Cornée, 2014. "Soft Information and Default Prediction in Cooperative and Social Banks," Journal of Entrepreneurial and Organizational Diversity, European Research Institute on Cooperative and Social Enterprises, vol. 3(1), pages 89-103, June.
    17. Elizaveta Danilova & Evgeny Rumyantsev & Ivan Shevchuk, 2018. "Review of the Bank of Russia – IMF Workshop 'Recent Developments in Macroprudential Stress Testing'," Russian Journal of Money and Finance, Bank of Russia, vol. 77(4), pages 60-83, December.
    18. Alderson, Michael J. & Betker, Brian L. & Halford, Joseph T., 2021. "Fictitious dividend cuts in the CRSP data," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 71(C).
    19. Pesaran, M. Hashem & Schuermann, Til & Treutler, Bjorn-Jakob & Weiner, Scott M., 2006. "Macroeconomic Dynamics and Credit Risk: A Global Perspective," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 38(5), pages 1211-1261, August.
    20. Zhou, Fanyin & Fu, Lijun & Li, Zhiyong & Xu, Jiawei, 2022. "The recurrence of financial distress: A survival analysis," International Journal of Forecasting, Elsevier, vol. 38(3), pages 1100-1115.

    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:taf:euract:v:7:y:1998:i:4:p:639-653. 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: Chris Longhurst (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.tandfonline.com/REAR20 .

    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.