This study provides evidence between auditors' fees and earnings management in New Zealand. The fee measures used in this study are audit fees, non-audit fees and total fees paid by a client to the audit firm. For each of the three fee measures, I derive client importance fee measures that reflect a client’s economic importance to the auditor relative to other clients of the auditor at the city office and national levels. This study employs both performance adjusted discretionary accruals and current accruals as proxies for earnings management. Using a sample of 224 firm-years comprising firms listed on the New Zealand Stock Exchange (NZX) in fiscal years 2004 and 2005, the results of multivariate tests indicate an adverse association between non-audit fees and earnings management. In other words, non-audit fees paid by a client relative to fees paid by other clients, at the office and national levels, appear to impair the auditor’s independence because clients generating relatively more non-audit fees report greater discretionary and current accruals. Such evidence is more pronounced for income increasing accrual proxies for earnings management. The results also show that audit fee is not related to earnings management. As the results in this study are consistent across both discretionary and current accruals, the validity of the results is strengthened. This study contributes to the literature by providing insight into how auditors’ fee metrics indicating client importance affect earnings management in a legal and institutional environment of a small economy, and where the audit market is largely saturated with little room for growth. This study raises implications for relevant regulatory bodies in New Zealand pertaining to future developments of auditor independence and financial reporting regulations.

This study provides evidence between auditors' fees and earnings management in New Zealand. The fee measures used in this study are audit fees, non-audit fees and total fees paid by a client to the audit firm. For each of the three fee measures, I derive client importance fee measures that reflect a client’s economic importance to the auditor relative to other clients of the auditor at the city office and national levels. This study employs both performance adjusted discretionary accruals and current accruals as proxies for earnings management. Using a sample of 224 firm-years comprising firms listed on the New Zealand Stock Exchange (NZX) in fiscal years 2004 and 2005, the results of multivariate tests indicate an adverse association between non-audit fees and earnings management. In other words, non-audit fees paid by a client relative to fees paid by other clients, at the office and national levels, appear to impair the auditor’s independence because clients generating relatively more non-audit fees report greater discretionary and current accruals. Such evidence is more pronounced for income increasing accrual proxies for earnings management. The results also show that audit fee is not related to earnings management. As the results in this study are consistent across both discretionary and current accruals, the validity of the results is strengthened. This study contributes to the literature by providing insight into how auditors’ fee metrics indicating client importance affect earnings management in a legal and institutional environment of a small economy, and where the audit market is largely saturated with little room for growth. This study raises implications for relevant regulatory bodies in New Zealand pertaining to future developments of auditor independence and financial reporting regulations.

This dissertation presents the results of three research studies investigating the role trust plays in an auditor's decisions. The first study examines whether auditors develop trust in a client's management after working with the client during prior audit engagements. The results indicate that auditors have higher trust in the client's management after a positive, overall satisfying experience working with the client compared to a negative, overall unsatisfying experience. The first study also investigates whether auditors" trust in a client affects their audit decisions. The results show a negative relationship between auditors" trust and their fraud risk assessment. Specifically, lower levels of trust are associated with higher levels of risk, and vice versa. Together, the results suggest that auditors may indeed develop trust in a client's management and this trust may affect their audit decisions. The second study examines whether Certified Public Accountants’ (CPAs) level of moral reasoning affects their decision to trust a client's management and the extent to which to trust them. The results show that CPAs with relatively higher levels of moral reasoning have less trust in the client's management than CPAs with relatively lower levels of moral reasoning. The findings indicate that an auditor's decision to trust a client's management is, at least in part, an ethical judgment. Also, because the decision is an ethical one, the findings suggest that trust beyond some threshold would be considered unethical. The third study extends the results of the first study by simultaneously examining how an auditor's trust and the financial importance of the client affect the auditor's decision to accept the client's preferred method of recognizing revenue. The results indicate that auditors" trust in the client's management is positively related to their commitment to the goal of supporting the client's preferred reporting methods (goal commitment), which in turn is positively related to the auditors" assessments of the acceptability of the client's methods for reporting purposes. The importance of the client did not affect auditors" goal commitment or their acceptability assessments. The findings suggest that auditors with higher levels of trust may be more likely to accept the client's preferred method of financial reporting. Overall, these results add to our knowledge of audit judgment and decision-making by providing evidence that auditors do indeed develop trust in a client's management; that the decision and extent to trust the client is in part an ethical judgment; and that auditors" trust may affect their audit decisions. This dissertation highlights the important role that an auditor's trust plays in his or her audit decisions. / Ph. D.

This study investigated the relationship between audit independence and audit quality, which is measured by sanctions issued by Nasdaq Stockholm Exchange. Sanctions as a tool to measure audit quality is uncommon, this study is one of the first studies using this approach in Europe. The investigation was based on a sample size of 49 company-years, and a total of 16 unique companies that are or were listed on either Nasdaq Stockholm or Nasdaq First North between the years of 2008-2018. The study used a logistic regression model to investigate the relationship between the dependent and independent variables since the dependent variable was classified as a binary variable. Three different proxy variables were used to measure audit independence, Audit Tenure, Client Importance and Non-Audit Services. The study found indications about a negative relationship with each proxy variable, however the findings were not strong enough to be statistically significant, which led to the conclusion that this study did not find any association between sanctions and the chosen variables.

Chen et al.(2010)以中國審計市場為調查對象，研究會計師對簽證客戶的經濟依存度(以資產衡量)對審計品質的影響。他們發現在2001年以前經濟依存度會傷害審計品質；然而在2001年至2004年間，因中國法律規範的改善，而未發現經濟依存度的負面影響。基於近年中國資本市場的長足發展且審計公費成為公眾可取得之資訊，本文延伸他們的研究樣本期間(至2008年)並以實際的審計公費計算經濟依存度。實證結果發現，無論以整體事務所或合夥會計師來計算經濟依存度，Chen et al.(2010)的結論並未改變。 / Chen et al.(2010) examine how the legal and regulatory changes in China affect the relationship between client economic importance (measured by assets audited by audit firm ) and audit quality. They find that audit quality is negatively correlated with client importance from 1995 to 2000. Therefore, when the institutional environment became more investor friendly, started from 2001 to 2004, they do not find that audit quality negatively correlated with client importance anymore. Following Chen et al.(2010), this study extends the sample period to 2008 and I use ratio of client’s total audit fees to audit firm’s total revenue as proxies for client importance to examines whether the client importance affect audit quality in china. Based on the data for firms listed in Shanghai and Shenzhen stock exchanges from 2004 to 2008, I do not find that audit partners compromise independence for economically important clients, no matter at the firm or the partner level.

The aim of this work is to find and to describe the importance of social workers in therapeutic community for drug addicts in the field of social rehabilitation. Using a quantitative method of data collection has been identified that the social worker in therapeutic community for drug addicts is an integral part of the process of client social rehabilitation. This finding is a confirmation of the theory of several experts who claim that social worker is an important part of the professional team and thus he also plays an important role in social rehabilitation process of the clients.

本研究以財務長與審計委員會相對任期作為財務長與審計委員會相對影響力之指標，探討財務長與審計委員會相對影響力對財務報表重編之影響。利用2007至2014年間中國滬深A股為樣本，本研究發現，財務長之任期較審計委員會長時，財務報表越有可能重編，顯示財務長相對於審計委員會影響力較大時，會降低財務報表品質。本研究亦發現，前述情況並不因為客戶重要性較高而更加明顯，顯示財務長與審計委員會相對影響力與財務報表重編之關係，不會受到客戶重要性的影響。 / This thesis uses the relative tenures of CFO and audit committee as an indicator of the relative power between CFO and audit committee, and examines the relation between the relative power of CFO versus audit committee and the probability of financial restatement. Based on a sample of A-share stocks listed in Shanghai and Shenzhen during 2007-2014, the empirical result shows that when CFO has relative higher tenure than audit committee, the incidence of financial restatement increases. This result suggests that CFO who has more power than audit committee tends to compromise the quality of financial statement, at least in terms of financial restatement. The empirical result also shows that the effect of the relative power of CFO and audit committee does not vary among clients’ importance.

在市場競爭不斷加劇之環境下，會計師事務所究竟要如何因應？削價競爭固然為一種經營策略，但並非長久之計。過去文獻指出，會計師事務所可藉由發展產業專業化以因應市場競爭，且會計師產業專精對審計公費有正向之影響。然而，過去文獻亦指出客戶產業特性對審計公費訂價有一定之影響力，故本研究目的乃在探討會計師產業專精對審計公費影響力之大小，及是否會計師產業專精對審計公費之影響力會大於客戶產業特性對審計公費之效果。實證結果顯示會計師產業專精與客戶產業特性兩者對審計公費皆有相當之影響力，但客戶產業特性對審計公費訂價之影響較大。另外，在將樣本區分為高科技產業與傳統產業後可發現，會計師在高科技產業之專長對客戶而言較具有價值，產業專精會計師在高科技產業對審計公費訂價之影響力較大、能夠收取較高之審計公費。 / How can accounting firms build up competitive advantages when they face increased competition? One way is to cut costs and decrease prices, but this may not be the best strategy in the long run. Casterella et al.(2004) suggest that product differentiation based on industry expertise may be a more sustainable solution because auditor specialization shows a significantly positive association with audit fees. Prior researches also indicate that client industry characteristics influence audit fees. Therefore, the main objective of this study is to examine whether auditor specialization and client industry characteristics influence audit fees and which one has greater effect. We find evidence that auditor specialization and client industry characteristics both have an influence on audit fees, while client industry characteristics exhibit even greater impacts. Furthermore relative to conventional industries, auditor specialization in high technology industries demonstrates greater value, and contributes to higher audit fees.