Bakgrund: Det råder inga tvivel om att revisorn har en explicit funktion till att stärka redovisningens trovärdighet. I det sociologiska perspektivet kan vi även förstå revisorns funktion som en producent av komfort medan vi i det ekonomiskt rationella perspektivet ser revision som ett medel för att minska informationsasymmetri. Covid-19 har orsakat omfattande utmaningar bland både företag och revisorer, vilket lyfter frågan om hur olika aspekter i revisionen har påverkats av att revidera företag med en uttalad riskfaktor. Riskfyllda företag i denna studie avser företag som har fått en utfärdad going concern-anmärkning. Sådana bedömningar har varit svåra för revisorn under covid-19, mot bakgrund av den ovisshet som präglat pandemin. Av den orsaken var det intressant att undersöka om revisionsprocessen har förändrats under covid-19 genom att analysera om det skett en förändring av revisionsarvodet och längden för revisionsprocessen. Syfte: Syftet med denna studie är att analysera förändringen av revisionsprocessen i samband med ökade risker i företag i en orolig samhällskontext. Metod: Studien är av kvantitativ karaktär då vi undersöker om det skett någon förändring av revisionsarvodet och längden på revisionsprocessen under covid-19. För att besvara syftet har relevanta variabler från årsredovisningar inhämtas för att göra tre olika statistiska undersökningar. Syftet var att undersöka frekvensen av skillnader och samband mellan variablerna. Slutsats: Resultatet visar att det skett en förändring av revisionsarvodet under covid-19. Resultatet påvisade även att det inte skett en förändring av revisionsprocessens längd under covid-19, även fast det förelåg en viss samvariation mellan revisionsarvode och längden på revisionsprocessen. Resultaten har visat tendenser till att kunna förklaras och förstås med hjälp av informationsasymmetri och skapande av komfort. / Background: There is no doubt that auditors have an explicit function to strengthen the credibility of a firms’ accounting and reporting. In the sociological perspective it can be understood that auditors function as a producer of comfort, meanwhile in the economical rational perspective, auditors are a function to reduce information asymmetry. Covid-19 has caused extensive challenges for firms and auditors, which enlightens the issue of auditing troubled firms. Troubled firms are in this study referenced to firms that have been assessed with a going-concern opinion. Going-concern opinions was difficult for the auditors to review during Covid-19, in the light of the uncertainties that bear the stamp of the pandemic. For this reason, it was interesting to study if the audit effort had changed during covid-19 by analyzing the possible changes in audit fees and audit reporting lag. Purpose: The purpose of this study is to analyze the changes of audit effort in association to increased risk in firms in context to a crisis. Method: The study identifies with a quantitative orientation as it studies the changes of audit fees and audit reporting lag during Covid-19. In order to achieve the purpose of the study, pertinent variables from the firms’ annual reports have been obtained to perform three statistical analyses. The purpose was to study the changes between two years and the correlation between the two variables. Conclusion: The results suggest an increase in audit fees during Covid-19. The results also indicate no change in the length of audit reporting lag during Covid-19, even though a covariance between audit fees and audit reporting lag was identified to a certain extent. The results have shown to be understood with support by information asymmetry and establishment of comfort.

Structural changes in the knowledge economy have greatly affected the way business is conducted and the processes firms create value. The financial reporting system is inadequate as a result of such changes, and disclosure of intellectual capital (IC) information has gained importance for communicating with capital markets. Empirical research documents corporate governance (CG) factors influencing IC disclosure practices, as well as demonstrates the value-relevance and predictive power of IC information. The disclosure of IC information by listed firms is a topic that has attracted considerable attention from contemporary researchers, but scant empirical evidence exists. Much of the researchers has examined CG as a key determinant of IC (and nonfinancial) disclosure; in contrast, few provides evidence for explaining their controversial findings of board independence on disclosure. In addition, a lack of studies confirms the literature about the use of IC information by capital market participants. Therefore, this thesis aims to examine disclosure of IC information in relation to outside directors, auditors, and sell-side analysts respectively. The specific objectives of this thesis are to examine whether outside directors’ expertise is a determinant of IC disclosure; and the extent to which the disclosure of IC information impacts on audit effort and analysts’ forecasts. In order to address these research objectives, a content analysis of IC disclosure (a self-constructed index of 64 coded items) in strategic reports released by FTST 350 companies is used. The content analysis captures and measures IC disclosure by category (i.e., human, structural & relational capital), notion (i.e., static vs. dynamic), and connection (i.e., across categories vs. with strategies). Using multivariate regression models that were primarily developed upon information asymmetry arguments and agency theory, the specific objectives of this thesis are addressed in three empirical chapters. The findings in Chapter 3 showed that proportion of outside directors (NEDs) with cross-directorship, nonaccounting and academia expertise has a positive association with IC disclosures, whereas board independence itself has no effect on the disclosures. The findings indicates that the monitoring role of NEDs alone is inadequate in promoting IC disclosure. Rather, it supports the importance of the dual role (i.e., monitor and advisory) of a supervisory board. The results also respond to the UK CG Code in their recommendation that the combination of skills, experience and knowledge guarantees a sound information environment to the market. Nonetheless, findings raised a further concern about the quantity of IC disclosures when companies have more NEDs with accounting expertise. On whether and how disclosure of IC information impacts on audit effort, Chapter 4 found that firms with high levels of IC disclosure in the previous year pay more audit fees (proxied for audit effort) in the current year regardless of their earnings quality conditions. It was also found that firms greatly disclosing dynamic IC information are charged more than those of focusing on static IC disclosure. In addition, findings in Chapter 5 revealed that there is a negative relation between IC disclosure and analyst forecast errors, indicating that UK sell-side analysts appreciate the disclosure of IC information and thus confirming that IC information has predictive ability of explaining a firm’s future value. It was further identified that disclosed IC information absorbs the negative effect of concentrated executive ownership and opaque financial environment. Overall, the results of this thesis suggest that IC reporting process could be improved by having sufficient outside directors with certain types of expertise on the board. In doing so, improved IC disclosure helps to reduce information asymmetry (proxied by analyst forecast accuracy) between firms and outside investors, albeit firms bear a significant increase in audit fees. This study calls for guidelines for IC disclosure in the UK and the support of assurance services to enhance credibility of firm-provided IC information in a bid to promote the communication of IC information with the capital market.

本研究探討台灣會計師公費揭露的市場反應，並以累計異常報酬（CAR）來衡量市場反應。第一階段針對是否揭露會計師公費研究其不同的反應；第二階段再將有揭露會計師公費的公司區分為主動揭露與被動揭露，並探討是否會造成不同的影響；第三階段更進一步將被動揭露的公司依其所符合的法規揭露原因再做細分，特別探討因為非審計公費過高而揭露公費者之市場反應。 研究結果發現，相較於不揭露會計師公費的公司，市場對於有揭露會計師公費資訊的公司會給予較正面的反應；其中，有揭露會計師公費的公司，若屬於主動揭露，市場更是會給予正面的肯定；相反的，有揭露會計師公費的公司，若是因非審計公費達審計公費之四分之一以上者而被動揭露者，市場會對此公司之會計師之獨立性有所懷疑，故給予負面的反應。可見會計師公費的資訊對投資大眾而言確實是一項有意義且重要的資訊。本研究並加入公司治理的相關變數，研究結果發現，若公司之治理程度較差，但「有揭露」會計師公費資訊者，投資大眾會給予正面的反應，此外，相對於被動揭露者，市場對於「主動揭露」之公司會給予更正面的肯定。另一方面，若公司之治理程度較佳，但其揭露原因是屬於非審計公費達審計公費四分之一以上而被動揭露者，市場會對會計師獨立性有所質疑，故對於此種公司仍給予負面的反應。 / This study attempts to examine audit fee disclosure and market reactions. We use Cumulative Abnormal Returns to measure market reactions. First, we analyze whether audit fee disclosure has any market reactions at all. Second, we divide the samples into voluntary disclosure and forced disclosure groups. Third, we make further segmentation from the forced disclosure group according to their disclosure reasons, and specially focus on the disclosure reason of high non-audit fees. We find that market reactions are significantly more positive for firms with audit fee disclosures than for firms without fee disclosure. Market reactions are also significantly better for firms with voluntary disclosure than the forced disclosure group. In contrast, market reactions are significantly lower for firms which disclose audit fees due to high levels of non-audit fees. Our evidence supports that audit fee is a piece of useful and important information to investors. Additionally, we include corporate governance variables in the analysis. We find that when firms’ corporate governance is not good, if they choose to disclose audit fee voluntarily, the market responds with positive reactions. In contrast, if a firm’s corporate governance is quite good but discloses audit fees due to high levels of non-audit fee, the market then reacts with negative returns.

本文主要研究支付給審計委員會較多的權益薪酬會不會影響到審計委員會的獨立性，從而支付較低的審計公費，選擇非產業專家的會計師。以2007至2015年間美國的上市公司為樣本，本研究發現審計委員會獲得的權益薪酬與審計公費，產業專家的會計師選擇呈負相關。此結果與預期一致，權益薪酬會誘導審計委員會妥協獨立性，從而買較少，品質較低的審計服務。

Bakgrund: Utvecklingen av revisorsprofessionen kan härledas ända till 1895. En utveckling som grundas i professionalitet men som på senare år blivit allt mer kommersialiserad. Revisionsbyråernas ägare benämns som partners och likt andra organisationstyper har ägarna en stor påverkan på organisationen. Partners skiljer sig dock från många andra ägare i stora företag med sin aktiva närvaro i det dagliga arbetet. Positionen som partner innebär bl.a. makt, status och finansiella fördelar. Incitamenten med partnerskapet bör variera beroende på partnerandel, vilket kan tänkas leda till en dominans av antingen professionell eller kommersiell logik. Syfte: Studiens syfte är att undersöka om partnerandelen påverkar revisionskvalitén inom de fyra största revisionsbyråerna i Sverige. Metod: För att undersöka studiens syfte har en hypotes skapats utifrån agentteorin samt kommersiell och professionell logik. Studien utförs med hjälp av en tvärsnittsdesign och en deduktiv ansats. Studien har utförts på ett urval som består av de fyra största revisionsbyråerna i Sverige och deras klienter på Stockholmsbörsens tre största listor för år 2012 och 2018. Slutsatser: Studien kan från analys och diskussion komma till en slutsats att partnerandelen har en påverkan på revisionskvalitén. Med studien kan det utläsas att auktoriserade revisorer per partner har en positiv relation till revisionskvalitén / Background: The development of the auditor profession originates from 1895. However, the development that is based on professionalism has in recent years become increasingly commercialized. The audit firm’s owners are called partners and like other types of organizations, the owners have a big impact on the organization. However, partners differ from other owners with their presence in the daily business. The position as a partner comes with power, status and financial advantages, which may lead to a dominance of either professional or commercial logic. Purpose: The purpose of the study is to explore whether the partner share affects the quality of auditing within the four biggest audit firms in Sweden. Method: To fulfill the purpose of the study, a hypothesis has been formulated with agency theory and commercial and professional logics. This study uses a crosssectional design with a deductive approach. The selection of data includes the four biggest audit firms in Sweden and their clients on the three biggest lists in the Swedish stock market during 2012 and 2018. Conclusions: The study can conclude from analysis and discussion that the partner share has an impact on audit quality. The study shows that authorized auditors per partner have a positive relationship to audit quality