In recent years, considerable interest has been stimulated concerning potential conflicts of interest between a company's management and their independent auditors. Many researchers examined the association between corporations who changed their present auditors, and factors such as auditor's opinion on the financial statements, management changes, mergers, financial distress, etc. Some of these research efforts resulted in findings that were inconsistent with each other. The current research was therefore undertaken with the objective of developing a theoretical model of auditor change process and to explain the justification for considering certain specific factors that may be present in an auditor-client relationship. The research design and the methodology for analyses were developed on the basis of the theory on power conflicts found in political science literature and by the use of Wrong's power model on authority relationship. Sources of power such as the size of an audit firm, size of a corporation, the stock exchange membership, the ability of an auditor to qualify the opinion on the financial statements, the ability of the management of a corporation to terminate the audit contract following the issue of a qualified opinion, and change of a corporation's CEO were identified and converted into independent variables. Data were collected from secondary sources on a sample of 200 corporations, 100 companies that had changed their audit firm at least once during the period 1983-85, and 100 corporations that did not change their audit firm during this period. The resulting data were analyzed using the MDS-ALSCAL procedure and logit regression with maximum likelihood estimators. The findings of this research support the power model and its relevancy to the study of auditor-client relationship. The variables, client size, stock exchange membership, and audit firm size were found to have a significant association with corporations who changed their audit firms. However, the variable, change of CEO, was not found to be a significant cause of audit firm changes.

Titel: Relationen mellan Revisor och Kund- en Idealbild: En empirisk kundperspektivstudie med fokus på ideal kontra lagstadgade ramar Nivå: C-uppsats i ämnet företagsekonomi Författare: Maria Mejstedt och Marthina Tedesund Handledare: Jan Svanberg Datum: 2016 – januari Bakgrund och Syfte: Tidigare forskning utifrån ett revisorperspektiv tyder på att relationen mellan revisorn och kunden är central vid hot mot oberoendet och revisionskvaliteten. Däremot efterlyses mer forskning från ytterligare perspektiv. Syftet med denna studie är därmed att studera relationen från ett kundperspektiv och kontrastera dennes idealbild av sin revisor ur ett flerdimensionellt perspektiv mot de lagstadgade kraven på objektivitet i revision. Metod: Studien antar ett hermeneutiskt och konstruktivistiskt perspektiv. Forskningsansatsen är abduktiv med tillämpning av en kvalitativ undersökningsmetod och semistrukturerade intervjuer som datainsamling. Den teoretiska referensramen bygger på tidigare forskning, vidare sker tematisk analys där teman söks i intervjusvaren som fördelas i grupper. Svaren tolkas med förankring i tidigare forskning samt genom bearbetning av oss som författare där vi reflekterar/diskuterar över det framkomna resultatet. Resultat & slutsats: Studien tyder på att kundens idealbild av relationen till sin revisor är kopplad till revisorns insatthet och förståelse i kundens verksamhet, dock endast till den grad revisionskvaliteten inte äventyras. Vid anlitandet av större revisionsbolag tycks förhållandet vara transaktionellt fokuserat, vid mindre kan en närmare personlig och social kontakt skönjas. Dock framkommer en överensstämmande bild av hur idealbilden gällande revisor-kundrelationen framställs; en närmare relation anses vara önskvärd. Förslag till fortsatt forskning: Till vidare forskning finns ett behov av att undersöka hur studiens framtagna idealbild skiljer sig mellan olika kundbranscher samt vilken påverkan kundens idealbild av relationen har på revisorns beteende. Vidare är konkurrenssituationen på revisorsmarknaden intressant att koppla till kundens idealbild och revisorns villighet att anpassa sig för att inte förlora kunder i en konkurrenskraftig marknad. Studiens bidrag: Denna studie bidrar med ett nytt perspektiv på revisor-kundrelationen, vilket är av intresse för såväl revisorer som intressenter och redovisnings-/revisionslitteratur. Revisorer gynnas av en djupare förståelse kring relationen för möjligheten att förstå och tillmötesgå kundens idealbild. Detta bidrar till ökad revisionskvalitet vilket även tredje part främjas av. / Title: The Ideal Relationship between the Auditor and the Client: An empirical client perspective study focusing on ideals versus legislation Level: Final assignment for Bachelor Degree in Business Administration Authors: Maria Mejstedt and Marthina Tedesund Supervisor: Jan Svanberg Date: 2016 – January Aim: Previous research from an auditor perspective indicates that the relationship between the auditor and the client is a central factor in concerns regarding objectivity threats and the quality of audit. This research field will greatly benefit from new perspectives. This study therefore aims to investigate this relationship from the client’s perspective in a multidimensional manner, as well as put the client’s ideal relationship in contrast to the auditor’s legislative requirements regarding objectivity. Method: This study adopts a hermeneutic and constructivist perspective alongside an abductive research approach. A qualitative research method is used including semi-structured interviews for the empirical segment of the study. The theoretical part of the study is connected to, and based on, earlier research. When analyzing the results, a thematic analysis approach is applied. The results are then discussed and interpreted by us as authors where we put them in relation to earlier research and theories to generate new conclusions. Result & Conclusions: The results of this study indicate that the client’s ideal image of the relationship is closely connected to the auditor’s insertion in and understanding of the client’s business. However, this only applies as long as the audit quality is not compromised. Differences based in the size of the audit firms has also appeared; clients with large auditing firms seem to have a transactional approach whereas clients with smaller auditing firms seem to have a more relational approach. However, a consistency appears regarding the ideal relationship; that it would be closer and have a more relational focus. Suggestions for future research: For future research, there is a need to examine how the ideal image concluded from this study differs between client sectors, as well as the impact the client's ideal image would have on the auditor behaviors. Furthermore, future research could also cover the effect of the auditor’s competitive situation and the willingness to adapt towards the client’s ideal image in order to keep their clients in an increasingly competitive market.   Contribution of the thesis: This study provides with a new perspective of the auditor-client relationship, which should be of interest for as well practitioners and standardization authorities as stakeholders and accounting/audit literature. A more extensive understanding concerning the relationship in contrast to the legislation should be considered beneficial in legislation updating as well as for all parties affected by the threats to impartialness by the auditor.