A presente pesquisa objetiva analisar as teorias acerca do processo de auditoria e sua relação com a opinião expressa no relatório de auditoria. A associação estudada se diferencia de outros estudos no arcabouço teórico de auditoria, tanto no cenário nacional, quanto no cenário internacional, ao detectar a opinião esperada frente à qualidade da contabilidade da empresa e à qualidade vinculada à firma de auditoria, em métricas ex ante ao relatório da auditoria. O arcabouço teórico, base para esta pesquisa, é a teoria dos custos contratuais. O estudo detectou e explorou nos principais periódicos internacionais fatores determinantes a qualidade da auditoria ex ante, sendo detectado: (I) a reputação/competência do auditor, (II) a especialização do auditor, (III) o atraso na emissão do relatório de auditoria e (IV) o tamanho da firma de auditoria. O método estatístico identificado para averiguação e detecção do objetivo da pesquisa é a regressão logística binária. Procurando identificar anomalias do modelo, as técnicas de análise de clusters e análise multidimensional foram utilizadas para identificar possíveis relações entre os setores. As análises exploratórias demonstraram a separação dos setores em três clusters categorizados pelo acerto do modelo e, após, foram identificadas semelhanças dentre os setores nos grupos formados. O primeiro, dentre os clusters, possui mais setores e comportamento equivalente ao conjunto de empresas abertas brasileiras. Outro cluster, contendo companhias nos setores de Agro e Pesca, Química, Energia Elétrica, Mineração, Minerais não Metalúrgicos e Petróleo e Gás, possui particularidades à opinião do auditor independente, no comparativo à amostra. Neste grupo da amostra o modelo proposto não possui assertividade aos pareceres com modificação de opinião. O terceiro conjunto de setores é composto de empresas com alta quantidade de pareceres sem modificação de opinião, não havendo correlação à amostra estudada. A relação entre a qualidade da auditoria ex ante e a opinião do auditor independente também foi testada, a fim de se detectar os principais motivos de anomalia no modelo e a separação da amostra em subgrupos. Como resultado, identificou-se uma associação atemporal entre a opinião da auditoria e as métricas de qualidade da contabilidade e de qualidade da auditoria para as empresas abertas do Brasil. / The present research aims to analyze the theories of the audit process and its relation to the expressed opinion in the audit report. The studied association differs from other audit theoretical frameworks, both on the national and international scenarios, as detects the expected audit opinion against the quality of the entity accounting and the quality linked to the audit firm, in metrics ex ante to the audit report. The basis for this research is the theory of contract costs. The study discovered and explored in major international models determinants the quality of ex ante audit, being detected: (I) the reputation / auditor competence, (II) the specialization of the auditor, (III) the delay in the issuance of the audit report and (IV) the size of the audit firm. The statistical method identified for investigation and detection of the goal in the research is the binary logistic regression. Seeking to identify anomalies in the proposed model, the techniques of multidimensional analysis and cluster analysis were used to identify possible relationships between sectors. Exploratory analyzes showed the separation of sectors into three clusters categorized by accuracy of the proposed model and, after that, similarities were identified among the sectors in the formed groups. The first, between the clusters, has more sectors and has equivalent behavior to the group of Brazilian public-listed companies. Another cluster, including companies from different industries like Agro, Fishing, Chemical, Energy, Minerals not Metallurgical and oil and gas, hold particularities in the external audit opinion, in comparison to the sample. On this the group the proposed model does not hold assertiveness regarding reports with modified opinions. The third set of sectors comprises companies in which the audit reports without modified opinions, and has no correlation to the others. The relationship between ex ante audit quality and the auditor opinion was also tested, in order to detect the model unconformity and the segregation of the sample into subgroups. As a result, it was identified that there is association between the auditors\' opinion and the accounting quality metrics and quality regarding the public-listed companies in Brazil.

Does social similarity between the auditor and a specialist induce social biases that impair the auditor's reliance on the specialist? It is important to examine potential impairments to reliance since auditors do not possess expertise in many of the areas examined during the audit. One type of specialist that is increasingly relied upon by the auditor is the IT specialist. Since firms have two approaches to the organization of IT personnel (decentralized vs. centralized) and often use professional designations as a hiring criteria for specialists, I examine two dimensions of social similarity: domain knowledge distinctiveness and spatial distance. Using a 2 × 2 experiment manipulating the IT specialist's domain knowledge distinctiveness (distinct vs. overlapping) and spatial distance (in-house office location vs. outsourcing from another office) relative to the auditor, I investigate financial auditors' reliance on IT specialists. My findings provide evidence of a boundary condition to the widely accepted social identity theory. Specifically, when specialists (IT specialists in this study) are outsourced, marginally less reliance is placed on specialists possessing overlapping (shared) domain knowledge relative to distinct domain knowledge. Additionally, I find evidence of a "consultant effect" in which greater auditor reliance is placed on IT specialists from other offices when the IT specialist possesses distinct domain knowledge relative to the financial auditor. Findings suggest that a broader theory of social similarity in which dimensions of social similarity can interact to produce social biases appears to be more descriptive of real-world social complexities than social identity theory.

Este estudo investigou se a qualidade de auditoria aumentou após as modificações implementadas pela ISA 700 revisada, que obrigou a inclusão de itens como os Principais Assuntos de Auditoria (PAAs), considerados mais informativos aos usuários das demonstrações contábeis. Além disso, investigou se os custos associados à auditoria tiveram algum impacto devido a essas novas exigências. A verificação dos possíveis impactos na qualidade de auditoria foi realizada com a utilização da proxy de qualidade das demonstrações contábeis obtida por estimação: (i) dos accruals absolutos anormais pelo Modelo de Kothari et al. (2005) derivado do Modelo de Jones (1991); (ii) dos accruals absolutos anormais pelo Modelo de Dechow e Dichev (2002) modificado; (iii) da qualidade dos accruals das receitas de Stubben (2010) e (iv) do percentual de magnitude dos accruals dos fluxos de caixa de Burgstahler et al. (2006). Os PAAs foram considerados, pois poderiam influenciar em maior qualidade de auditoria, sendo mais informativos aos usuários das demonstrações contábeis, podendo inclusive influenciar em uma gestão menos oportunista dos resultados por parte da administração (mensurado por menores accruals), com resultados ainda conflitantes na literatura contábil. A abordagem quantitativa das estimações foi realizada com dados contábeis e de mercado das companhias de capital aberto do Brasil, dos períodos de 2014 a 2017. A amostra consistiu em 1.554 observações para as quais foram coletadas, de forma manual, as informações sobre as firmas de auditoria responsáveis e as quantidades de PAAs divulgados que poderiam afetar a qualidade de auditoria. A maior parte das regressões, utilizando quatro métricas para os accruals não demonstrou evidências de melhoria na qualidade de auditoria após a adoção da ISA 700 revisada. Tais métricas foram analisadas considerando: (i) Painel A, que verificou a mudança na qualidade de auditoria na comparação do período pré e pós adoção da norma; (ii) Painel B, que incluiu o número de PAAs divulgados e (iii) Painel C, que incluiu as mudanças recorrentes de firmas de auditoria. Para a qualidade dos accruals das receitas foi obtido resultado positivo e significante no nível de 5%, indicando uma possível melhora na qualidade de auditoria. Em contrapartida, o poder explicativo diminuiu devido à alta correlação identificada entre a variável de interesse e a variável de controle que indica especificamente a quantidade de PAAs divulgados. Os honorários de auditoria também foram coletados manualmente, sendo que não apresentaram alterações estatisticamente significantes na comparação do período pré e pós adoção dos novos requerimentos. O presente estudo amplia as discussões acadêmicas para o mercado de capitais brasileiro acerca das implicações da inclusão dos PAAs nos relatórios de auditoria, bem como, na análise dos efeitos práticos da aplicação das normas expedidas pelos órgãos reguladores. Além disso, essa evidência pode auxiliar no aprimoramento das normas na busca por maior qualidade de auditoria e das demonstrações contábeis com foco no usuário que almeja redução de assimetria informacional sobre a realidade econômica das companhias. / This study investigated whether audit quality increased after the modifications implemented by the revised ISA 700, which required the inclusion of items such as Key Audit Matter (KAM), which are considered more informative to the users of the financial statements. Moreover, it investigated whether the costs associated with the audit had any impact due to these new requirements. The verification of possible impacts on audit quality was performed using the quality proxy of the financial statements obtained by estimating: (i) the abnormal absolute accruals by Kothari\'s Model (2005) adapted from the Jones\'s Model (1991); (ii) abnormal absolute accruals by Dechow and Dichev\'s Model (2002); (iii) the quality of accruals revenues of Stubben\'s Model (2010) and (iv) the percentage of magnitude of the accruals of cash flows of Burgstahler et al. (2006). The KAM could influence the quality of the audit, being more informative to the users of the financial statements and may even influence the less opportunistic management of the results by the administration measured by smaller accruals, although there are still conflicting results in the accounting literature. The quantitative approach in the estimates was made with accounting and market data for publicly traded companies in Brazil, from 2014 to 2017. The sample consisted of 1,554 observations for which the information about the responsible audit firms and the amounts of KAM disclosed that could affect audit quality were collected manually. Most of the regressions, using four accruals metrics, did not show evidence of improvement in audit quality after the adoption of ISA 700. These metrics were analyzed considering: (i) Panel A, which verified the change in audit quality in the comparison of the period before and after adoption of the standard; (ii) Panel B, which included the number of PAAs disclosed and (iii) Panel C, which included the recurring changes in audit firms. For the quality of revenue accruals, it was obtained a positive and significant result at the 5% level indicating a possible improvement in audit quality, but the explanatory power decreased due to the high correlation identified between the variable of interest and control variable that specifically indicates the amount of KAM disclosed. The audit fees were also manually collected and did not present statistically significant changes in the comparison of the period before and after the adoption of the new requirements. The present study uses the academic discussions for the Brazilian capital market on the implications of the inclusion of KAM in the audit reports, as well as on the practical effects of the application of the norms issued by the regulatory agencies. In addition, this evidence can help improve standards in the quest for higher audit quality and user-focused financial statements that aim to reduce informational asymmetry about the companies\' economic reality

Särskilt Betydelsefulla Områden infördes för att öka informationsvärdet i revisionsberättelsen och bidra till en ökad insikt i revisionsbranschens arbete. Det råder dock delade meningar kring vad SBO faktiskt fyller för funktion och det finns därför ett behov av att undersöka hur SBO påverkar förekomsten av resultatjustering, vilket avgör redovisningskvaliteten. Studien visar att resultatjustering är vanligt förekommande på Stockholmsbörsen, men att den minskar vid högre omfattning av periodiseringsrelaterade SBO i revisionsberättelsen. Större andel periodiseringsrelaterade SBO indikerar alltså bättre redovisningskvalitet. / Key Audit Matters was introduced to increase the informational value of audit reports and contribute to an enhanced insight of the audit process. However, there is a difference of opinion regarding the functionality and efficiency of KAM. Therefore, there is a need to investigate how KAM impacts the extent of earnings management, which decide the accounting quality.

論文摘要 我國經濟迅速發展的結果，造成所有權與經營權分離的企業經營模式。在這種專業經營的好處背後，隱藏代理問題的危機。欲解決代理問題，資訊的透明化是關鍵，而資訊的正確與否，則有賴於獨立公正的第三人加以驗證，因而促成對審計服務的需求。 由於審計服務的需求能否被滿足，繫於審計品質的優劣，因此本研究將代理成本的變動與審計品質需求的變動作一個連結，將國內上市公司更換會計師的行為視為對審計品質需求的變動，探討對有更換會計師的公司而言，當代理成本增加時，對高品質審計服務的需求是否增加；反之，當代理成本降低時，上述需求是否減少。 本研究以四個替代變數來衡量審計品質，即產業專業、聲譽、與美國大事務所結盟時間長短，以及以前述三種替代變數利用主成分分析所構建的審計品質總指標來衡量審計品質。至於代理成本，則以管理當局的持股比率、財務槓桿率、應計項目來衡量。四種審計品質的代理變數分別建立四個統計模式。在檢定個別自變數與應變數之間的關係時，由於聲譽、與美國大事務所結盟時間長短的模型，其應變數為類別性變數，因此係採鑑別分析，而產業專業與審計品質總指標模型的應變數則為分析性變數，故採用迴歸分析。 本研究發現，有關管理當局持股比率的假說，在產業專業的模型中獲得顯著的支持，但在聲譽、與美國大事務所結盟時間長短的模型中，則未獲支持；而財務槓桿比率的假說則獲得絕大部份的支持，顯示財務槓桿比率的變動與更換會計師審計品質的方向間具有正向的關係，惟在聲譽、與美國大事務所結盟時間長短的模型中，更換至品質較低的群組，未有顯著的支持；至於應計項目的假說則未獲支持，顯示應計項目的變動與更換會計師方向間並無顯著的正向關係。 / Abstract Name: Lu, Shiang-Ying Advisor: Ma, Sheree S., Ph.D. Title: A Study on the Association between Changes in Agent Costs and Audit Qualities Month/Year: July, 1999 With the development of economy, one of the impacts is the business style turns to be specialist resulting in the departure between management and owner incentives leads to agency conflict. To solve the conflicts, information transparency is the key point. The integrity of information lies to the independent audit of the third party, so the audit demand emerges. Whether the audit demands can be met depending on the audit quality. So, the study links the changes in agent costs to audit qualities; the extent of agency conflicts determines the degree of auditing needed to make management credible to current and potential investor. Specially, the higher (lower) the agent costs, the higher (lower) the demand for audit quality. This study measures audit quality by proxy variables which are industry expertise, brand, time span of allying with America large CPA firm and audit quality index. The audit quality index is a combination of first three proxy variables by principal component analysis. Agent costs are proxied by management ownership, leverage and accruals. Four audit quality proxy variables build four statistical models. The industry expertise and audit quality index models are analyzed by regression; the others are by discriminate analysis. The results do not provide support for the hypothesis that changes in accruals is associated with changes in audit quality. As to the hypothesis of management ownership and leverage, there is no consistent result.

<p>Background: An accountant is supposed to secure that the information from a company is true and fair. Recently consulting, or giving advice, has grown to be a major part of an accountants daily work particularly in smaller companies which may have insufficient financial competence themselves. This means that an accountant occupies two parts, as an independent reviewer and as an initiated advisor, which have caused controversy. </p><p>Purpose: The purpose is to outline and explain how the accountants and audit customers regard an eventual discrepancy between performing the audit and consulting, and to give suggestions how to manage this. The purpose is also to define what customers perceive as quality in consulting an auditor. </p><p>Method: Interviews were preformed with Chief financial officers from four companies, together with each company's auditor and head of quality from the audit firm. </p><p>Conclusion: The conclusion is that there are no conflicting interests from auditing and consulting in small companies. Receiving advice is on the contrary what smaller companies perceive as quality in employing an auditor. For the auditor to give advice therefore grants advantages to all stakeholders.</p>

<p><strong>Syfte: </strong>Syftet med uppsatsen är att utreda om revisionskunder upplever att revisionen skapar ett värde och vad som utgör detta eventuella värde. Vi vill också utreda om det finns skillnader mellan ett företags upplevda värde beroende på ägarförhållanden, revisionsbolag och kontakt med revisorn.</p><p><strong>Metod: </strong>Vi har gjort en kvantitativ undersökning genom att skicka ut en webbenkät till 540 aktiebolag. Den kvantitativa undersökningen kompletterades med semistrukturerade intervjuer med ekonomichefen på två företag i Kristianstad för att få djupare förståelse för aktiebolagens uppfattning av revision som värdeskapande.</p><p><strong>Empiri: </strong>Webbenkäten besvarades av 139 företag. Flertalet av respondenterna anser att revisionen ger ett ekonomiskt värde, många har uppgett att de anser att revisionen fungerar som en kvalitetsstämpel och att reviderad finansiell information är mer kvalitativ än ej reviderad finansiell information. Resultaten pekar även på att relationen med revisorn är betydande för företagens uppfattning om revisionens värde. Vidare påverkas upplevt värde av valet av revisionsbolag samt om företagen anser att de anlitat det bästa revisionsbolaget.</p><p><strong>Slutsatser: </strong>Vi har funnit att revisionen har ett värde för merparten av aktiebolagen då de anser att fördelen med revisionen överstiger kostnaden.  Revisionens värde består av kvalitetssäkrad information, företagen är nöjda med det revisionsbolag som anlitats samt har en god relation till revisorn. Företagen upplever högre värde om de anlitar en big 4 samt om de är nöjda med sin revisor och sitt revisionsbolag.</p> / <p><strong>Purpose: </strong>The purpose with this thesis is to study if audit customers perceive value adding and what they believe is causing audit value. We also investigate if there are any differences in perceived audit value depending on owner-structure, audit firm and contact with the auditor.<strong> </strong></p><p><strong>Methodology: </strong>We preformed a quantitative research by sending a web survey to 540 limited and public companies. Furthermore we did a qualitative study through semi-structured interviews with the financial managers of two companies in Kristianstad.   </p><p><strong>Empirical foundations:    </strong>The web survey was answered by 139 companies.<strong> </strong>Most respondents reckon audit gives an economical<strong> </strong>value, many indicate the audit to be a quality assurance and that audited financial information have higher quality than not audited information. The results indicate that the relation with the auditor is important for the companies’ opinion about audit value. Further, their view on whether they have the best audit firm or not are depending for how they perceive audit value, so does the choice of audit firm.</p><p><strong>Conclusions: </strong>Our findings shows that the audit is valuable for most companies, this because the benefits from the audit exceeds the costs. The value consists from quality secured information, satisfaction with the audit company and the good relation with the auditor. The companies experience higher audit value if they have a big 4 and if they are satisfied with their auditor and audit firm.</p> / VG

<p>With the wave of crises in the early 2000 notably Enron, auditor independence was put in the spotlight which has continually threatened the integrity of the entire auditing profession. Connected to these accounting scandals, it could be realized that most of the auditors involved in the audits of these corporations had long standing relationship with these clients. In other words, the auditors had extended audit tenures. This puts the issue of audit tenure into the open that is as to how long should auditors serve a client?</p><p>The general purpose of this study is to examine whether extended audit tenures can lead to the emergence of threats to auditor independence which may impair the auditor independence. Our study is quantitative, using a self-administered web-survey to collect our data. The study provides results from a cross sectional design to examine the impact of extended audit tenures on auditor independence. This impact is compared across short and extended (long) tenures on the basis of the threats to auditor independence. Using paired samples t-test in SPSS for our sample of authorized or approved Swedish auditors; we find that extended audit tenures impact self-interest, self-review and intimidation threats that affects auditor independence. Our findings did not reveal any relationship between the advocacy and familiarity threats and the impact extended audit tenures have on them, hence we rejected the hypotheses relating to these threats. However, though the relationship was still not strong, the results for self-interest, self-review and intimidation threats proved significant and this prompted us to accept the respective hypotheses. In conclusion, our results show that there is an association of auditor independence to extended audit tenures.</p>

Background: An accountant is supposed to secure that the information from a company is true and fair. Recently consulting, or giving advice, has grown to be a major part of an accountants daily work particularly in smaller companies which may have insufficient financial competence themselves. This means that an accountant occupies two parts, as an independent reviewer and as an initiated advisor, which have caused controversy. Purpose: The purpose is to outline and explain how the accountants and audit customers regard an eventual discrepancy between performing the audit and consulting, and to give suggestions how to manage this. The purpose is also to define what customers perceive as quality in consulting an auditor. Method: Interviews were preformed with Chief financial officers from four companies, together with each company's auditor and head of quality from the audit firm. Conclusion: The conclusion is that there are no conflicting interests from auditing and consulting in small companies. Receiving advice is on the contrary what smaller companies perceive as quality in employing an auditor. For the auditor to give advice therefore grants advantages to all stakeholders.

This dissertation investigates how economically-comparable peer firms can be used to obtain inferences about a company’s accounting quality in two different research settings. The first Chapter examines whether auditor industry specialization, measured using auditor market share by industry, improves audit quality. After matching clients of specialist and non-specialist auditors according to industry, size and performance, there are no significant differences in audit quality between these two groups of auditors. In addition, this Chapter uses two analyses that do not rely primarily on matched samples. First, examining a sample of Arthur Andersen clients that switched auditors in 2002, there is no evidence of industry-specialization effects following the auditor change. Second, using a simulation approach, this study shows that client characteristics, and particularly client size, influence the observed association between auditor industry specialization and audit quality. Overall, these findings do not imply that industry knowledge is not important for auditors, but that the methodology used in extant studies examining this issue may not fully parse out the effects of auditor industry expertise from client characteristics. The second Chapter examines whether account-level expectation models for analytical audit procedures can be enhanced by using information from economically-comparable peer firms. This Chapter assesses the effectiveness of three main types of expectation models, with and without including information from peer firms: heuristic, time-series, and industry cross-sectional models. Information from peer firms improves the accuracy of all models and improves the detection power of time-series and industry cross-sectional models. Comparing between models, one-period heuristic models are generally unreliable, and industry cross-sectional models can be more effective than time-series models. These findings may help auditors of public companies and financial analysts in selecting expectation models and finding peer firms to assess the reasonability of a company’s financial information at the account-level.