Auditors have come under increased scrutiny over the past several years about the growing number of client failures without a warning in the form of a going-concern modified (GCM) audit opinion. Statement on Auditing Standards No. 59 requires auditors to evaluate whether substantial doubt exists on an audit client’s ability to continue as a going concern (AICPA 1988). My dissertation consists of three essays. For the three essays, I empirically investigate issues related to GCM audit opinions and executive characteristics. Specifically, I examine the impact of executive tenure and gender on the issuance of GCM audit opinions. In addition, my dissertation addresses two other unique issues. Given that the Sarbanes-Oxley Act represents an important watershed event in the history and regulation of the accounting profession, I provide evidence about auditors’ propensities to issue GCM audit opinions in the post-SOX period. Further, I also expand extant research in this area by using multiple outcomes and thus go beyond the traditional use of bankruptcy alone as a tool to evaluate auditors’ GCM opinion. The results indicate that, after controlling for other financial characteristics, GCM audit opinions are significantly more likely for firms that have CFOs with short tenure and/or for firms with a female CFO or CEO. However, when examining the association between executive characteristics and two types of reporting errors, the results vary with the type of reporting error. Overall, the results provide evidence that executive characteristics are associated with auditors' reporting decisions.

Eftersom intressenter visat sig använda revisionsberättelsen som beslutsunderlag, kan en reaktion på den orena revisionsberättelsen innebära en negativ följd för företaget. Därmed har vi undersökt hur det reviderade företagets organisatoriska outcomespåverkas av den orena revisionsberättelsen. Vidare syftar även studien till att förklara hur vidtagna åtgärder begränsar effekten av den orena revisionsberättelsen. Med utgångspunkt från tidigare forskning och teori skapadesegna hypoteser. Hypoteserna menar att den orena revisionsberättelsen påverkar organisatoriska outcomes och att dessa effekter kan dämpas genom vidtagna åtgärder.För att realisera syftet genomfördes en dokumentstudie. Först undersöktes 4220 aktiebolag i Skåne för att finnabolagenmed orena revisionsberättelse. Vidare bidrog den första undersökningen i 333 aktiebolag som kommed i vår undersökning. Uppsatsen speglar aktiebolagspopulationen i Sverige.Resultaten har bearbetats statistiskt för att kunna pröva de hypoteser som tagits fram.Studien har påvisat att företagets fortlevnad, betalningsförmåga, omsättning och antal anställda påverkas av en oren revisionsberättelse. Dessutomvisarresultaten att en oren revisionsberättelse leder tillfler orenaoftare än till renade följande åren. Studien har endast påvisat en väldigt svag indikation på att åtgärder dämpareffekten av de orena revisionsberättelserna. / Since stakeholders proved to use the auditor’s report for decision-making, reactions to the qualified audit opinion implya negative result for the firm. Thus, we investigated how the audited firm’s organizational outcomes are influenced by the qualified audit opinion. Furthermore, the study aims to explain how the measure taken limits the effect of the qualified audit opinion.Based on previous research and theory, we created our own hypothesis. The hypothesis saysthat the qualified audit opinionaffectsorganizational outcomes and that these effects can be limited by the measures taken. To realize the purpose, we conducted a document study. We investigated 4220 firms in Skåne to find firms with qualified audit opinions. Furthermore, the first survey contributed 333 firms that brought in our survey. The results reflect the entire population of firms in Sweden. The results were statistically processed in order to test the developed hypothesis. The study has demonstrated that the firm’s survival, solvency,turnover and number ofemployees are affected by a qualified audit opinion. Furthermore, the results show that a qualified audit opinionleads more qualified audit opinions than unqualified audit opinions the following years. The study shows a very weak indication that measure taken limits the effect of the qualified audit opinion.

The research paper explores the value of information content incorporated in the first-time going concern opinion from the perspective of investors. The signaling effects of the auditors’ opinion with going concern remark issued to financially distressed companies are of a great value in case the auditor statements deliver new information content which has not been incorporated in the previously disclosed financial information. Otherwise a going concern audit opinion remains not relevant for the purpose of investors’ decision making. If the going concern audit opinion adds new information content, we gain an ability to detect a stock market reaction to the relevant public announcement. The paper examines the Australian stock market reaction to public announcements of going concern audit opinion in a short term period for the sample of the 29 first-time going concern listed companies during the 2007 to 2009 years observation period. High sample criteria are determined in order to avoid contamination effects of other price sensitive information. The impact of both the preliminary financial report and the final annual report is examined by means of the parametric and non-parametric tests aligned with the event study methodology. Consistent with previous studies in Australia, no significant financial market reaction to the final going concern audit opinion announcements inherent to the Australian environment has been found. We document that the more negative impact on the market reaction is caused by the preliminary financial report rather than the final report, which contains an audit opinion note. Correspondently, the audit opinions with going concern qualification do not add new information content for the Australian stock market participants, who base their expectations on the previously disclosed financial information.

Information transparency enhances corporate governance. In an attempt to reduce the information asymmetry between business insiders and outsiders and to allow outsiders to have more information for decision making by disclosing more corporate information voluntarily, the Taiwan Stock Exchange Corporation (TSEC) and Over-The-Counter Securities Exchange (OTCE) requested the Securities & Futures Institute (SFI) to implement an information disclosure and evaluation system for all publicly traded and OTC companies listed in TSEC. This study investigates the effects of the system on decision behavior of the investors, analysts, and auditors. Empirical results indicate that investors¡¦ ability of future earnings evaluation increases, analysts¡¦ earnings forecasts are more accurate, and the earnings forecasts dispersion among the analysts decreases after the system has been implemented. However, the implementation of the system has no effects on the types of audit opinion issued by auditors. Besides, the analysts¡¦ earnings forecasts are more accurate for the ¡§more transparent¡¨ companies. However, the differences of future earnings evaluation, earnings forecasts dispersion among the analysts and types of audit opinion between ¡§more transparent¡¨ and ¡§less transparent¡¨ companies are not significant. These results may provide implication to authorities for making related policies.

Revision används som ett medel för att utomstående intressenter, exempelvis aktieägare, ska få en kvalitetsstämpel på den information som förmedlas av ett företags ledning. Om revisorerna vill påpeka någonting angående företagets redovisning eller förvaltning utfärdar de en så kallad oren revisionsberättelse. I denna studie undersöker vi om denna orena revisionsberättelse får någon effekt på företagets aktiekurs. Den problemformulering som besvaras är: Har en oren revisionsberättelse någon effekt på svenska publika företags aktiekurser? Tidigare forskning på området har nästan enbart genomförts i utlandet. Denna forskning har dock inte kommit fram till något entydigt resultat. Viss forskning hävdar att en oren revisionsberättelse har en negativ effekt på aktiekursen medan annan gör gällande att den inte påverkar. Ytterligare forskning menar att effekten en oren revisionsberättelse har på aktiekursen beror på faktorer som exempelvis informationsmiljö eller vilken typ av revisorsanmärkning det rör sig om. De teorier vi använder oss av berör främst förhållandet mellan aktieägarna och företagsledningen. Bland dessa teorier kan nämnas agentteorin och teorin om informationsasymmetri. Vi använder oss av en kvantitativ metod och gör en händelsestudie. En händelsestudie går förenklat ut på jämföra en akties verkliga avkastning med dess förväntade avkastning under en tidsperiod runt en specifik händelse. Händelsen i vår studie är offentliggörandet av den orena revisionsberättelsen. Vårt slutliga urval består av 101 observationer av orena revisionsberättelser från 64 svenska börsnoterade aktiebolag som fått minst en oren revisionsberättelse mellan 2004-2013. Vi testar först om det finns någon signifikant effekt på aktiekursen för samtliga observationer. Därtill testar vi även om det finns effekt på aktiekursen för olika branscher, börslistor, typer av orena revisionsberättelser och om den orena revisionsberättelsen inträffar för första gången. Resultaten visar att den orena revisionsberättelsen generellt inte har någon signifikant effekt på svenska publika företags aktiekurser. Vi finner en viss nedåtgående trend under dagarna efter händelsen. Trenden är dock inte statistiskt signifikant. Det väcks därmed ett visst tvivel kring om revisionsberättelsen uppfyller sitt syfte för aktieägarna. Resultaten visar också att effekten på aktiekursen inte nämnvärt skiljer sig åt mellan upprepade orena revisionsberättelser och de som kommer första gången. Inga andra test av hela händelseperioden rörande exempelvis bransch visar på statistisk signifikanta negativa effekter på aktiekursen. Dock finns det enskilda dagar under händelseperioden som visar på signifikans. Några direkta slutsatser av detta är emellertid svåra att dra utan vidare undersökning.

Diplomová práce Ekonomické a právní aspekty auditorské činnosti se zabývá činností auditora. První kapitola se věnuje právní regulaci auditorské činnosti, tj. zákonu č. 93/2009 Sb. Jelikož zákon nabyl účinnosti dne 14.4.2009, jedná se o téma navýsost aktuální. Práce detailně popisuje jednotlivé instituty nového zákona jako je Rada pro veřejný dohled nad auditem, subjekty veřejného zájmu, zabývá se podmínkami pro výkon auditorské činnosti. Pozornost je věnována i zvýšeným nárokům na chování auditora jako jsou etika, nezávislost a mlčenlivost. Významný prostor je věnován i Komoře auditorů ČR jako jediné samosprávné organizaci zastřešující všechny auditory či auditorské společnosti. Závěr právní části je věnován zhodnocení současného právního stavu a nástinu možného dalšího vývoje, kde autor zaujímá stanovisko k této úpravě. Druhá kapitola, nazvaná Ekonomické aspekty auditorské činnosti, se zabývá popisem auditorské činnosti doprovázený mnoha praktickými příklady, tj. popisem práce auditora na jednotlivých zakázkách. V této práci nejsou popsány všechny aspekty auditorské činnosti. Pozornost je zaměřena na nejdůležitější z nich. Struktura této kapitoly kopíruje sled auditorských prací. Postupně popisuje obecné cíle auditora, plánování auditu, identifikace a vyhodnocení rizik při auditních zakázkách,...

本研究以中國大陸2013年至2015年的A股上市公司為研究對象，探討總、分所審計對審計品質之影響。審計品質則以審計意見與可操縱應計盈餘衡量。研究結果發現，本土八大會計師事務所總所比分所出具非標準無保留意見的概率更高，被審計公司的可操縱應計盈餘更小。本研究藉此結果推論，本土八大會計師會計師事務所總所比分所提供更好的審計品質。另外本研究也用Heckman 模型和PSM 模型來克服回歸式的自選擇問題。另外研究進行了的敏感性測試和增額測試，實證結果是穩健的。 / The objective of this thesis is to examine the association between headquarter office auditors and audit quality. This paper uses audit opinion and discretionary accruals to proxy for audit quality. Using a sample of firm-year observations in China during 2013-2015, I find that headquarter office auditors of local “Big 8” is positively associated with higher audit quality. More specifically, the empirical results indicate that firms audited by headquarter office auditors of local “Big 8” experience lower discretionary accruals and are more likely to issue modified audit opinion than branch offices of local “Big 8”. The results are robust after controlling for self-selection bias issue, alternative measures of headquarter office auditors and alternative proxies for audit quality. In sum, this paper provide strong evidence on the notion that head office of local Big8 audit firms have better audit quality than branch office.

According to the efficient market hypothesis the stock price for a company should be evoked immediately when new and unpredicted information about the company’s value is published. A publishing of a qualified audit opinion that disclose previously unknown negative aspects of a limited liability company, should thus result in a negative impact on its share price. Previous studies in the field, on the other hand, show conflicting results. In some cases, a negative impact has been found, in other cases a positive impact has been found while in some cases no impact could be observed. The study's selection framework consists of 223 Swedish listed limited companies which have received a qualified audit opinion during the fiscal years 2011-2018. A stratified random sample was made where 142 companies were examined. This study aims to examine what relationship can be found between an audit opinion and abnormal returns for the company's share. Abnormal returns indicate the difference between expected returns and observed returns. The study is performed according to an event study with event windows of three different extents, from 1 day up to 21 days. The abnormal return on the shares has been studied according to the Market model. The results of the study are in line with previous research and show conflicting results. Over event windows of 21 days and 3 days, the majority shows a positive abnormal return and in contrast, the majority shows a negative abnormal return in terms of the event day only. It can be stated that investors on the Stockholm Stock Exchange react negatively only to going concern opinions. The results may further indicate that the Swedish market is efficient where reactions to new information in auditor opinions are immediate, rather than over time. The results may also indicate that investors are not the primary stakeholders to which the auditing profession should be adapted to in Sweden.

The overall purpose of this study is to establish whether auditors in South Africa also fail to issue the appropriate audit opinion on the going concern assumption underlying financial statements the reasons for auditors' failure to issue the appropriate audit opinion on the going concern assumption The hypotheses of this study are tested by examining professional auditing standards and secondary data on the going concern assumption conducting an empirical study of listed industrial compames whose listings were terminated because of financial failure This study provides evidence that auditors in South Africa fail to Issue the appropriate audit opinion on the going concern assumption advances specific reasons for this failure / Auditing / M. Comm. (Auditing)

Text in English / This study explores the phenomenon of auditor switching. The purpose of this study is to further contribute to the auditor switching literature by examining the reasons client companies in South Africa switch auditors, where the topic has not previously been studied and following a period of rapid and significant change in the auditing profession. Using previous literature as a foundation, forty-four variables that contribute to auditor switching are presented and tested based on empirical data elicited by means of a questionnaire survey of sample companies that experienced auditor switching during the period 1 January 1998 to 30 June 1999 as obtained from Practitioners in the KwaZulu-Natal Region. The factors motivating auditor switching were based on a questionnaire response of seventy-five companies (response rate 67% ). The empirical study also tested whether or not the switch variables thus identified are statistically related to auditor switching. The findings of this study revealed that audit fees are both the most frequently cited reason for switching auditors and found to be statistically significant at the 0.05 level of significance. Dissatisfaction over the overall quality of services provided by the auditor, lack of communication including the lack of responsiveness to client needs, poor working relationship with audit partner followed as switch factors but were not found to be statistically significant at 0. 05 level. The findings of this study revealed that two other variables, namely, management change and the need for group auditor rationalisation, appear to be significantly related to auditor switching at the 0.05 1evel of significance. / Auditing / M. Comm. (Auditing)