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Brand Name Audit Pricing, Industry Specialization, and Leadership Premiums post†Big 8 and Big 6 Mergers

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  • Andrew Ferguson
  • Donald Stokes

Abstract

This paper investigates brand name, industry specialization, and leadership audit pricing in the wake of the mergers that created the Big 6 and the Big 5 accounting firms. For samples of Australian listed public companies in each of the postmerger years 1990, 1992, 1994, and 1998, we estimate national audit fee premiums for the Big 6/5 auditors and the industry specialists and leaders. We find limited support for the ability of the Big 6/5 to obtain fee premiums over non†Big 6/5 for those industries not having specialist auditors. Nonspecialist Big 6/5 auditors are able to obtain fee premiums over nonspecialist non†Big 6/5 auditors for those industries having specialist auditors. However, this result only holds among the smaller half of our sample. We do not find strong support for the presence of industry specialist premiums in the postmerger years, especially after 1990, using various definitions of industry specialist. We find, at best, limited support for the presence of industry leadership premiums. The evidence suggests that after the Big 8/6 audit firm mergers, some caution is required in generalizing the Craswell, Francis, and Taylor 1995 finding of national market industry specialist premiums. More generally, the study raises questions about the tenuous link between the concept of specialization and national market†share statistics.

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  • Andrew Ferguson & Donald Stokes, 2002. "Brand Name Audit Pricing, Industry Specialization, and Leadership Premiums post†Big 8 and Big 6 Mergers," Contemporary Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 19(1), pages 77-110, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:wly:coacre:v:19:y:2002:i:1:p:77-110
    DOI: 10.1506/VF1T-VRT0-5LB3-766M
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Palmrose, Zv, 1986. "Audit Fees And Auditor Size - Further Evidence," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 24(1), pages 97-110.
    2. Simunic, Da, 1980. "The Pricing Of Audit Services - Theory And Evidence," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 18(1), pages 161-190.
    3. 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.
    4. Francis, Jr & Stokes, Dj, 1986. "Audit Prices, Product Differentiation, And Scale Economies - Further Evidence From The Australian Market," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 24(2), pages 383-393.
    5. 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.
    6. Simunic, Da, 1984. "Auditing, Consulting, And Auditor Independence," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 22(2), pages 679-702.
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    Cited by:

    1. Ola Nilsson, 2018. "The relationship between shareholder protection through regulation and the demand for external auditor services," International Journal of Disclosure and Governance, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 15(3), pages 162-175, August.
    2. 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.
    3. Fang Sun & Fengyun Wu, 2023. "The Impact Of Debt Structure On Auditorchoice," Accounting & Taxation, The Institute for Business and Finance Research, vol. 15(2), pages 105-115.
    4. Hou, Fei & Liu, Jie & Pang, Tingyun & Xiong, Hao, 2020. "Signing auditors’ foreign experience and audit pricing," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 91(C), pages 300-312.
    5. Lai, Kam-Wah, 2019. "Audit report lag, audit fees, and audit quality following an audit firm merger: Evidence from Hong Kong," Journal of International Accounting, Auditing and Taxation, Elsevier, vol. 36(C), pages 1-1.
    6. Royston Greenwood & Stan X. Li & Rajshree Prakash & David L. Deephouse, 2005. "Reputation, Diversification, and Organizational Explanations of Performance in Professional Service Firms," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 16(6), pages 661-673, December.
    7. Chi Duong Thi, 2023. "Audit Quality, Institutional Environments, and Earnings Management: An Empirical Analysis of New Listings," SAGE Open, , vol. 13(2), pages 21582440231, June.
    8. Neal Arthur & Medhat Endrawes & Shawn Ho, 2017. "Impact of Partner Change on Audit Quality: An Analysis of Partner and Firm Specialisation Effects," Australian Accounting Review, CPA Australia, vol. 27(4), pages 368-381, December.
    9. Mohd Kharuddin, Khairul Ayuni & Basioudis, Ilias G. & Hay, David, 2019. "Partner industry specialization and audit pricing in the United Kingdom," Journal of International Accounting, Auditing and Taxation, Elsevier, vol. 35(C), pages 57-70.
    10. Michael Willenborg, 2002. "Discussion of “Brand Name Audit Pricing, Industry Specialization, and Leadership Premiums post†Big 8 and Big 6 Mergers†," Contemporary Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 19(1), pages 111-116, March.
    11. 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).
    12. 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.
    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. Hidaya Al Lawati & Khaled Hussainey, 2022. "The Determinants and Impact of Key Audit Matters Disclosure in the Auditor’s Report," IJFS, MDPI, vol. 10(4), pages 1-18, November.
    15. Bugeja, Martin, 2011. "Takeover premiums and the perception of auditor independence and reputation," The British Accounting Review, Elsevier, vol. 43(4), pages 278-293.
    16. Martin G. H. Wu, 2006. "An Economic Analysis of Audit and Nonaudit Services: The Trade†off between Competition Crossovers and Knowledge Spillovers," Contemporary Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 23(2), pages 527-554, June.

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