Träffsäkerheten på Going Concern-varningar (GC-varningar) internationellt sett är låg, 40 procent, men enligt tidigare studier är den lägre i Sverige, under 20 procent. De fyra största revisionsbyråerna i världen, Big four, marknadsför sig med sin branschkännedom och flera studier pekar på att de har högre revisionskvalité än mindre byråer. Samtidigt finns det studier som visar att det inte finns någon skillnad på kvalitén mellan de fyra största och de mindre byråerna. Syftet med denna studie är att pröva om stora byråer har högre kvalité än medelstora och små byråer och om det finns skillnader mellan de enskilda byråerna inom respektive storlekskategori. Revisionskvalité mäter vi i form av GC-varningar och anmärkningar på finansiell stress (eget kapital understiger hälften av aktiekapitalet). Studien är kvantitativ och våra data omfattar 4718 aktiebolag, varav 1809 är finansiellt stressade, som gick i konkurs 2010. Genom Chi 2 test ser vi att träffsäkerheten på GC-varningar ligger på 17 procent och anmärkningar på finansiell stress på 82 procent. På samma sätt men med ytterligare hjälp av sambandsstyrka genom P-värden har vi kommit fram till våra andra resultat. Det finns ett väldigt starkt samband mellan andelen GC-varningar och storleken på byrån. Det finns även ett väldigt starkt samband mellan andelen GC-varningar och byrå inom kategorin stora byråer, ett visst samband inom kategorin medelstora byråer men inget samband inom kategorin små byråer. Det finns inget samband mellan andelen anmärkningar på finansiell stress och storleks-kategori eller mellan byråerna inom de olika kategorierna. Enligt vårt resultat har stora byråer högre revisionskvalité än medelstora och små byråer gällande GC-varningar, men vi finner inga skillnader mellan storlekskategorierna gällande anmärkning på finansiell stress. Vi finner även att kvalité med avseende på GC-varningar inte är homogen mellan de enskilda byråerna inom respektive storlekskategori. Våra slutsatser är att träffsäkerheten på GC-varningar är låg, men skulle kunna öka om revisorn kompletterar svårbedömd information med verifierbar information samt att etablerade metoder för GC-bedömningar infördes. Revisionskvalitén inom stora byråer är inte homogen, vilket kan bero på att de enskilda byråerna inom kategorin använder olika arbetssätt, som medför kvalitetsskillnader. / The international accuracy of Going Concern-warnings (GC-warnings) is as low as 40 percent, although studies show the accuracy is even lower in Sweden, under 20 percent. The four biggest accounting firms in the world advertise their knowledge of industry and a number of studies say that they have higher audit quality than the smaller firms. Meanwhile there are studies that claim that there are no differences in quality between them and the smaller firms. In this study we aim to test if the large firms have higher auditing quality than the medium and small firms and to test if there is any difference within the three categories. We measure quality as GC-warnings and a remark on financial stress (a remark on the equity being lower than 50 percent of the share capital). The study is quantitative and our data consists of 4718 limited companies, and 1809 financially stressed limited companies, which went bankrupt 2010. We measured the GC-warning accuracy to 17 percent and the remark on financial stress to 82 percent by using a Chi square test. We used the same test but added P-value to check the strength on the rest of the results. There is a very strong connection between the share of GC-warnings and the size of the accounting firm. There is also a very strong connection between the share of GC-warnings and the different firms within the large category. However there was only a weak connection between the different firms within the medium size and no connection at all within the small category. There is no connection at all between remarks on financial stress and either the firm size or within the firm size categories. According to our results, large audit firms have higher audit quality than medium and small firms concerning GC-warnings, but there are no differences between and within the categories concerning remarks on financial stress. We also find that quality concerning GC-warnings is not homogeneous between the different audit firms within each category. Our conclusions are that the accuracy on GC-warnings is low but it could increase if the auditors complement imponderable information with verifiable information and if methods for GC-judgments were established. The audit quality within large firms is not homogeneous which may be due to that the different audit firms within the categories use different ways to work, which causes differences in audit quality.

Syfte: Syftet med denna studie är att undersöka om revisionsbyråns storlek, uppdragslängden hos klienten, klientens storlek och revisorns kön påverkar revisorns benägenhet att utfärda fortlevnadsvarningar och således har en påverkan på revisionskvaliteten. Metod: Studien utgår från en kvantitativ forskningsmetod där data samlats in genom innehållsanalys av sekundärdata i form av årsredovisningar och revisionsberättelser. Urvalet består av 301 onoterade aktiebolag som inlett konkurs under 2020 och 2021. Data har analyserats i statistikprogrammet SPSS genom en logistisk regression där sambandet mellan utfärdade fortlevnadsvarningar och utvalda faktorer studerats. Resultat och slutsats: Resultatet från den statistiska analysen visar att varken uppdragslängden hos klienten, klientens storlek eller revisorns kön har ett statistiskt signifikant samband med revisionskvalitet. Däremot uppvisas ett statistiskt signifikant samband mellan revisionskvalitet och mellanstora revisionsbyråer gentemot mindre revisionsbyråer. De mellanstora revisionsbyråerna uppvisade högre revisionskvalitet än de mindre revisionsbyråerna. Inget statistiskt signifikant samband uppmättes mellan revisionskvalitet och stora revisionsbyråer gentemot mindre revisionsbyråer. Examensarbetets bidrag: Studien har bidragit till ytterligare forskning inom revisionskvalitet i onoterade bolag i Sverige och världen. Fortsatt bidrar studien till kunskap om vilka faktorer som har/inte har en påverkan på revisionskvaliteten. Studien visar bland annat på att kvinnor och män utför revision av samma kvalitet samt att stora och mindre revisionsbyråer utför revision av samma kvalitet. Förslag till fortsatt forskning: Ett förslag till vidare forskning är att genomföra en jämförande studie där den levererade revisionskvaliteten innan respektive under och efter pandemin undersöks för att se om det skiljer sig åt mellan åren. Även att jämföra revisionskvaliteten mellan onoterade och noterade bolag är något som hade varit intressant. Vidare hade det till forskningen inom området varit givande om en studie genomförts som undersökte kvaliteten utifrån typ I-fel. / Aim: The purpose of this study is to examine whether audit firm size, audit tenure, client size and the audit gender affect the auditor’s ability to issue going concern warnings and through that has an impact on the audit quality. Method: The study was conducted with a quantitative research method where data has been collected through content analysis of secondary data from annual reports and audit reports. The sample consists of 301 unlisted companies that went bankrupt in 2020 and 2021. Data has been analysed in the statistical program SPSS through a logistic regression where the relationship between issued going concern warnings and selected factors has been studied. Results and conclusion: The result from the statistical analysis shows that neither the audit tenure, client company size or auditor gender have a statistically significant relationship with audit quality. In contrast, medium sized audit firms show a statistically significant relationship with audit quality in comparison with smaller audit firms where medium sized firms show higher audit quality than smaller audit firms. No statistically significant relationship was measured between audit quality and big sized audit firms in comparison with smaller audit firms. Contribution of the thesis: The study contributes to further research of audit quality in unlisted companies. The study also contributes to knowledge about which factors that have, or do not have an impact on audit quality. It shows that women and men perform audit of the same quality and that big and small audit firms perform audit of the same quality. Suggestion for future research: A proposal for further research is to implement a comparative study where the delivered audit quality before, during and after the pandemic is examined to see if it differs between the years. Comparing the audit quality between unlisted and listed companies is also something that would have been interesting. Furthermore, it would have been rewarding for the research in the field if a study had been carried out thar examined the quality based on type I errors.

本研究之目的為透過中國大陸A股、B股公司財務報表之比較，探討相對於中國大陸會計準則（PRC GAAP），國際財務報導準則（IFRS）是否更具審慎性。研究方法採Khan and Watts在2009年發展之C_Score來衡量財務報表審慎性。研究期間為2001年初至2006年底，研究標的為在上海或深圳證券交易所同時掛牌上市A、B股之公司（意即同時按PRC GAAP及IFRS編製兩套財務報表之公司）。實證結果如下： 1.A股市場之C_Score小於B股市場之C_Score，顯示相對於依照PRC GAAP編製之財務報表，依照IFRS編製之財務報表其審慎性較高。 2.無論是針對個別產業進行A股、B股之比較，或是針對A股或B股市場進行跨產業比較，均證實產業因素會對財務報表之審慎性造成影響。 3.無論是針對A股或B股市場進行事務所規模之比較，均顯示在中國大陸，四大事務所查核之財務報表，其審慎性不但不如非四大事務所，而且在A股市場甚至不具審慎性。 / Using C_Score developed by Khan Watts(2009) to test the financial statements of Chinese companies which have both the A-Share and B-Share listed on the stock exchange marke of Shanghai and Shenzhen during 2001 to 2006, this study aims to examime whether International Financial Reporting Standards(IFRS) are more conservative than People’s Republic of China’s generally accepted accounting principles(PRC GAAP). The empirical results are as follows: 1.The average C_Score of A-Share companies is smaller than B-Share Companies, which means that, as compared to PRC GAAP-based financial statements, IFRS-based financial statements are more conservative. 2.Regardless of whether the comparison is between A-Share and B-Share companies in a specific industry, or between industries in a specific stock market, the results show some industry effect on the conservatism of financial statements. 3.Regardless of whether the stock is traded on the A-Share or B-Share market, the results show that in China, financial statements audited by Big 4 are not more conservative than non Big 4. In fact, for stocks traded on the A-Share stock market, financial statements audited by Big 4 are not conservative at all.

Submitted by Marcia Bacha (marcia.bacha@fgv.br) on 2013-10-09T18:12:28Z No. of bitstreams: 1 swaelen.pdf: 570327 bytes, checksum: cfd7441dce726c4b44c74dc6c12e1c99 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Marcia Bacha (marcia.bacha@fgv.br) on 2013-10-09T18:13:19Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 swaelen.pdf: 570327 bytes, checksum: cfd7441dce726c4b44c74dc6c12e1c99 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Marcia Bacha (marcia.bacha@fgv.br) on 2013-10-09T18:13:35Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 swaelen.pdf: 570327 bytes, checksum: cfd7441dce726c4b44c74dc6c12e1c99 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2013-10-09T18:16:09Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 swaelen.pdf: 570327 bytes, checksum: cfd7441dce726c4b44c74dc6c12e1c99 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2008 / Este estudo examina a relação entre o porte da empresa de auditoria e a manipulação da informação contábil. Consistente com a literatura, o porte de auditoria tem sido utilizado como proxy de qualidade do serviço, e classificado como auditoria Big 6 e não-Big 6, sendo quanto maior o porte, maior a qualidade. A pesquisa abrangeu os estudos que utilizam acumulações discricionárias na estimação da manipulação da informação contábil. Por meio de uma revisão sistemática da literária, foram selecionadas 14 pesquisas empíricas, abrangendo Estados Unidos, Europa e Ásia. Com base na análise dos seus aspectos substantivos e metodológicos, a conclusão é que a magnitude da manipulação da informação contábil não é uniforme nos países estudados sugerindo que os ambientes cultural, institucional e legal podem influenciar a capacidade da auditoria em mitigar a ação discricionária dos gestores. / This study examines the relation between the audit firm size and the manipulation of accounting information. Consistent with the literature, firm size has been used as a proxy for quality of service, and classified as Big 6 and non-Big 6, and the larger the size, the better the quality. The survey covered the studies that use discretionary accruals in the estimation of earnings management Through a systematic review of literature, 14 empirical researches were selected, covering the United States, Europe and Asia. Based on the analysis of their substantive and methodological issues, the conclusion is that the magnitude of the accounting manipulation of information is not uniform in the countries surveyed suggesting that the cultural, institutional and legal environments may influence the ability of the audit to mitigate managers’ discretion.