To gain insight into the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board's (PCAOB) impact on audit quality, this study investigates the association between PCAOB inspection exposure (akin to the threat of a PCAOB inspection) and auditor reporting decisions. Certain foreign governments prohibit PCAOB inspections of their domestic auditors of U.S. SEC registrants citing sovereign control. This unique setting provides an opportunity to observe variation in the reach of the PCAOB inspection program and isolate its' effect on auditor reporting. I find that auditors in jurisdictions allowing PCAOB inspections are more likely to report going concern opinions and material weaknesses relative to auditors in jurisdictions barring PCAOB inspections. I find no difference in these auditor reporting propensities in the pre-PCAOB regulatory. This study provides evidence that PCAOB inspection exposure is associated with auditor reporting incentives, and ultimately audit quality, which is the fundamental purpose of the PCAOB inspection program.

Universiẗat, 2006--Münster (Westfalen).

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)

M.Comm. / The purpose of this dissertation is to determine the role and responsibility of the auditor in assessing the going concern status of South African companies implementing buybacks. The provisions of current legislation in this regard, including the Companies Act and the JSE Listing Requirements will be discussed and the question of whether the current status of the auditor's involvement in the buyback process is sufficient will be explored. Furthermore, since no specific requirement regarding the going concern assessment with regard to buybacks is placed on the auditor in terms of the Companies Act or the JSE Listing Requirements, the responsibility of the auditor with regard to the going concern concept within the scope of a normal statutory audit will be explored. A workable guideline will be developed to assist the auditor in assessing the impact of a buyback on the company's ability to continue as a going concern and consideration will be given to the process that the auditor should follow in reaching a conclusion on whether a buyback raises a material uncertainty surrounding the company's ability to continue as a going concern. However, before the issue of the auditor's responsibility with regard to the going concern concept in relation to share buybacks can be addressed, it is necessary to obtain an understanding of the legislation, financial, accounting and taxation implications of buybacks. These factors will be addressed in this study before the auditor's involvement in the buyback process is evaluated.

The financial statements represent a comprehensive and standardized document including financial information about the company. The companies need to publish this document in the Collection of Deeds, and since the documents are submitted to the Collection of Deeds in electronic form and are subsequently freely available, any financial statements are generally available to a wide range of potential users. Users of the financial statements can be divided based on their relation to the financial statements and based on level of their knowledge of accounting. The confidence of users in information disclosed in the financial statements is higher, in case the financial statements were subject to audit. The user of the financial statements does not have a possibility of detailed verification of the information presented in it (he cannot inquire the management of the company, inspect the original accounting documents, etc.). In this case, the audit represents ensuring correctness of the information presented in the financial statements and also assurance that the financial statements were subject to the independent verification. These facts enhance the degree of confidence of intended users in the financial statements and this is also the purpose of an audit as defined by the International Standards on Auditing. In accordance with the International Standards on Auditing the auditor expects that the user of the financial statements has reasonable knowledge of accounting and is willing to study the financial statements with reasonable effort. Auditor performs his testing based on certain materiality level that does not have to agree to the materiality level of the user. The risk represents in this case the situation, when the materiality level of the user is lower than the materiality level determined by the auditor. The user of the financial statements has limited possibilities to verify the information in it, however, he is able to verify the link among information presented in different parts of the financial statements and confront the financial statements with other relevant information available. My dissertation consists from theoretical and practical part. In the theoretical part, there are possible verifications described that can be performed by the user of the financial statements and in the practical part, there are the mentioned procedures applied to financial statements of four domestic companies. The subject of my research was financial statements for the years 2006 to 2009. The aim was not only the identification of the risks in the financial statements from the users' point of view, but also monitoring of the development of financial statements in time. The subject of the dissertation was also the verification of the formal correctness of audit reports issued to the selected financial statements (I am registered as Czech statutory auditor by the Chamber of Auditors of the Czech Republic and therefore I am able to perform this verification). The subject of the dissertation was not the verification of the factual correctness of the audit report, this verification is in principle not possible without possibility to look into the audit file. During analysis of selected financial statements I have identified several areas that represent risk of misstatement in the financial statements from the users' point of view. It related mainly to going concern issues, issues relating to completeness of reserves and provisions and risk of possible overvaluation of finance investments and related receivables to subsidiaries. The user of the financial statements should for his better understanding therefore look for other information relating to the company from freely available resources and perform comparison with financial statements of other companies in the same industry. The risks mentioned above were not sufficiently commented in the notes to the financial statements and that subsequently gives a rise to questions on financial statements users' side and lowers his confidence in information presented in the financial statements. I think that there is a change in the audit approach necessary, it should not be enough just that the financial statements are free from material misstatement; the financial statements should not give a rise to additional questions from their users.

Bankruptcy is a highly significant worldwide problem with high social costs. Traditional bankruptcy risk models have been criticized for falling short with respect to bankruptcy theory building due to either modeling assumptions or model complexity. Genetic programming minimizes the amount of a priori structure that is associated with traditional functional forms and statistical selection procedures, but still produces easily understandable and implementable models. Genetic programming was used to analyze 28 potential bankruptcy variables found to be significant in multiple prior research studies, including 10 fraud risk factors. Data was taken from a sample of 422 bankrupt and non-bankrupt Norwegian companies for the period 1993-1998. Six variables were determined to be significant. A genetic programming model was developed for the six variables from an expanded sample of 1136 bankrupt and non-bankrupt Norwegian companies. The model was 81% accurate on a validation sample, slightly better than prior genetic programming research on US public companies, and statistically significantly better than the 77% accuracy of a traditional logit model developed using the same variables and data. The most significant variable in the final model was the prior auditor opinion, thus validating the information value of the auditor's report. The model provides insight into the complex interaction of bankruptcy related factors, especially the effect of company size. The results suggest that accounting information, including the auditor's evaluation of it, is more important for larger than smaller firms. It also suggests that for small firms the most important information is liquidity and non-accounting information. The genetic programming model relationships developed in this study also support prior bankruptcy research, including the finding that company size decreases bankruptcy risk when profits are positive. It also confirms that very high profit levels are associated with increased bankruptcy risk even for large companies an association that may be reflecting the potential for management to be "Cooking the Books".

Under the going-concern concept, an entity is assumed to be a going concern when it is able and willing to continue operations in the foreseeable future. Although substantial agreement exists as to the meaning and role of the going-concern concept, it is difficult to make going-concern assessments in the course of an audit. In particular, existing auditing guidelines contained in SAS No. 34 are inadequate and existing going-concern prediction models are flawed. In view of this, the objective of the dissertation is to construct a going-concern prediction model (hereafter called the Koh model) that is based upon improved statistical techniques and methodology. A sample of 165 companies that filed for bankruptcy during the period 1980 to 1985 and a matched sample of 165 non-bankrupt companies are used to construct and test the Koh model. Following the lead taken by the proposed SAS on going-concern assessments, a non-going concern is operationalized as a bankrupt company. For each of the sample companies, six financial ratios as specified by the proposed theory of bankruptcy are obtained. Probit analysis with the weighted exogenous sample maximum likelihood procedure is used to estimate the coefficients of the Koh model. Using the Lachenbruch U method, the hold-out accuracy rates of the Koh model are computed. They are 85.45% for non-going concerns, 100.00% for going concerns, and 99.91% overall. With these accuracy rates, the Koh model compares favorably with other going-concern prediction models suggested in the literature and the auditors. The effects of misclassification costs of Type I and Type II errors on the Koh model are also considered. It is found that the optimal cut-off probability for the Koh model is very insensitive to varying relative misclassification costs. Coupled with its high predictive ability and stability, the Koh model can be an effective prediction model, analytical tool, and defensive device for auditors. Further, the methodology developed and employed in the dissertation can contribute to the current state-of-the-art in constructing prediction models such as going-concern or bankruptcy prediction models, takeover/acquisition prediction models, and loan default prediction models. / Ph. D.

Bakgrund Av bolag som omfattas av frivillig revision väljer 75 procent bort revision trots att den genomsnittliga kostnaden endast uppgår till 10 000 SEK per år för mindre bolag. Syftet med avskaffandet av revisionsplikten år 2010 var att minska småbolagens kostnader för att på så sätt underlätta verksamhetsdriften. Trots att forskning visar att revisorn hjälper till att förbättra och utveckla bolaget väljer majoriteten av bolagen bort den externa kompetensen om möjlighet finns. Resursberoendeteorin säger samtidigt att revisorn är en värdefull resurs som är nödvändig för småbolags överlevnad. Syfte Denna uppsats syftar till att förklara sambandet mellan revision och risken för konkurs för småbolag. Metod Denna kvantitativa studie utgår från en deduktiv ansats. Hypoteser har formulerats med utgångspunkt i resursberoendeteori. En tvärsnittsdesign används med syfte att undersöka risken för konkurs vid en viss tidpunkt. Det empiriska underlaget utgörs av sekundärdata. Slutsats Det finns ett negativt samband mellan revision och risken för konkurs bland svenska småbolag. Revisorn minskar risken för konkurs med 10,42 % varför revision bör ses som en nödvändig resurs för småbolagens överlevnad. / Introduction Despite the fact that the average cost of auditing for SMEs only amounts to 10 000 SEK per year, 75 percent of the SMEs refrain from voluntary audit. The purpose of the abolition of mandatory audit in 2010 was to reduce costs for SMEs in order to benefit their operations. Although research has shown that the auditor helps to improve and develop the company, the majority of the SMEs in Sweden refrains from this external resource. At the same time, according to resource dependence theory, the auditor is a valuable resource that is essential for SMEs. Purpose This study seeks to explain the relationship between auditing and the risk of bankruptcy for SMEs. Method This quantitative study is based on a deductive approach, where hypotheses have been formulated on the basis of resource dependence theory. A cross-sectional design is used in order to study the risk of bankruptcy at a given time. The empirical data consists of archival data. Conclusion There is a negative relationship between auditing and the risk of bankruptcy among SMEs in Sweden. The auditor reduces the risk of bankruptcy with 10.42 %. Hence, the auditor should be seen as essential for the survival of SMEs.

Antagandet om fortsatt drift utgör den grundläggande princip som skall tillämpas då företag värderar sina tillgångar. Om det föreligger osäkerhetsfaktorer beträffande företagets förmåga att fortleva under en överskådlig framtid ger däremot inte värderingen en rättvisande bild och skall därför frångås. Vidare skall revisorn, som en del i granskningen, beakta företagets fortsatta levnadsförmåga och vid tvivel om den framtida existensen skall en anmärkning göras i revisionsberättelsen. I och med att det är en förutsägelse om framtiden är det dock ett av de svåraste ställningstaganden en revisor måste göra. Tidigare studier indikerar på att företag, trots tilldelad going-concern varning (GC-varning), fortlever i cirka 90 procent av fallen. Bland de resterande tio procenten, som torde utgöra korrekta bedömningar, finns det dessutom forskare som hävdar att varningen fungerar självförverkligande och påskyndar, eller rent av orsakar konkursen. Andra forskare redovisar emellertid belägg för att en självuppfyllande profetia inte alls existerar. Bristande empiriskt material finns dock rörande det faktum att det skulle vara företagsspecifikt huruvida GC-varningen tenderar att utfalla. Aktuell studie ämnar ge ett bidrag till denna kunskapslucka genom att undersöka, och således erhålla kunskap om, faktorer som påverkar ett företags levnadstillstånd efter tilldelad GC-varning. Sammankopplade resultat från tidigare studier indikerar på att ålder, kapitalstruktur, bolagsstruktur, nettoomsättningsstorlek samt storlek på reviderande byrå kan antas vara påverkande faktorer. Genom statistisk hypotesprövning, baserad på data från företagens årsredovisningar, undersöktes korrelationen mellan dessa faktorer och levnadsstatus. Urvalet bestod av aktiebolag som sin enda eller allvarligaste anmärkning erhållit en GC-varning för första gången 2012. Efter viss bortsållning kom 188 bolag att utgöra studiens urval. Resultaten påvisade att de bolag, inkluderade i aktuell studie, som fortlevde var äldre, hade lägre total skuldandel, tillhörde en koncern samt blev granskade av en större revisionsbyrå 2012. I motsats till vad hypotesen predikterade hade de också högre räntebärande skuldandel. Avseende nettoomsättningens storlek uppvisades ingen nämnvärd skillnad mellan grupperna. I många fall var emellertid differenserna för små, med hänsyn till den stora variation som förelåg, för att med statistisk säkerhet fastställa skillnaderna. Den enda slutsats som kan generaliseras är att koncernbolag med högre räntebärande skuldandel fortlever i större utsträckning. / The accounting is prepared with the assumption that the companies will continue as a going concern. However, the principle will be waived if the assumption is unwarranted. The auditor will, as part of the examination, consider the companies' living ability. If the auditor is in doubt about the companies' going concern, they are obligated to report it in the audit report. Due to the fact it is an assessment about future events, it is one of the most difficult parts for an auditor to consider. Recent research indicates that 90 percent of the companies receiving a going concern-warning (GCW) do not subsequently fail. Among the remaining ten percent, which should compose correct judgements, some researchers claim that the warning is self-fulfilling and accelerates or even causes the bankruptcy. On the other hand, there are also researchers who report that no such self-fulfilling prophecy exists. Limited empirical material exists concerning the fact that it may be specific for each company whether it survives or ceases after receiving a GCW, a gap that this paper aims to fill. The aim will be met by investigating, and thus obtain knowledge about, factors that affect a company's state of living after receiving a GCW. Merged results from recent research indicate that age, capital structure, company structure, net sales and size of the auditing firm are influencing factors. By statistical hypothesis testing, based on data from the companies' annual reports, the correlation between these factors and life status was investigated. The sample consisted of limited companies which, as its only or most serious remark, received a GCW for the first time in 2012. After some screening, 188 companies were left to constitute the sample of the study. The obtained results were that the companies which continued as a going concern, were older, had lower debt to total asset ratio, belonged to a concern and were audited by a big audit firm in 2012. Opposite to predicted hypotheses, they also had higher interest-bearing debt to total asset ratio. No difference of matter was discerned regarding net sales. However, in many cases the differences were too small to statistically prove the differences, given the large variation which existed. The only conclusion that can be generalized is that group companies with higher interest-bearing debt to total asset ratio continue as a going concern to a greater extent.

<p>In the beginning of the 21^th century several successful companies filed for bankruptcy. These bankruptcies have been known as large accounting scandals and the largest scandals did Enron and Worldcom stand for. These bankruptcies arose without any warning signal from the auditors about the companies’ financial problems and their inability to continue as a going concern. The bankruptcies damaged the reputation of auditors and broad criticism has developed at the auditors’ inability to discover companies’ financial problems and their unwillingness to reveal a going concern opinion in the audit report. The going concern assumption developed during the 17^th century and it has become one of the most fundamental and important accounting principles when making an annual report. The accounting principle implies that the companies will continue as a going concern in the foreseeable future. The investing publics have questioned whether auditors take enough responsibility for evaluating companies going concern uncertainties for a long time. Their defective confidence is reflected in the expectation gap, which means there are a difference between what the investing publics believes auditors are responsible for and what the auditors believe their responsibilities are. Several researchers have showed that even if auditors find out about companies’ financial problems, the auditors might not choose to issue a going concern opinion in the audit report due to predicted costs the opinion might have to both the companies and the auditors. Therefore, the primary purpose of this study is to investigate Swedish companies that have gone bankrupt in the period between 2006-01-01 and 2006-12-31, to see if the auditors have disclose a going concern opinion in the audit report in the companies latest annual report. The study also intend to investigate if there are geographical differences in Sweden, differences between audit firm size, differences between auditor’s competence, and differences between client size according to number of going concern opinions. We have made a quantitative study by collecting data from the companies’ annual reports. 354 companies which filed for bankruptcy during 2006 were selected by a systematic choice. In fact, our study found that only 19.8 % of all companies had received a going concern opinion in their latest annual report before they failed for bankruptcy. We made a chi-square test for all variables. These statistical tests did not show any significant correlation between the numbers of going concern opinions and the independent variables. A normal distribution shows that it is only in the geographical division there are a significant difference from the total average value. The average value for “Norrland” differs significantly from the average value for all the companies that had a going concern opinion in the audit report. But there are percentage differences between all variables that indicates that auditors with a higher competence issue more going concern opinions than auditors with a lower competence, smaller audit firms issue more going concern opinions than “the big four”, and client companies with a low turnover get more going concern opinions than companies with a medium and high turnover.</p><p> </p> / <p>I början på 2000-talet gick flera framgångsrika företag i konkurs vilket gav upphov till stora redovisningsskandaler. De två största skandalerna stod Enron och Worldcom för. Dessa konkurser uppkom utan att företagens revisorer hade lämnat någon varningssignal om företagens fortlevnadsproblem till intressenterna. Konkurserna skadade revisorernas rykte och det har vuxit fram en stark kritik mot revisorernas oförmåga att upptäcka företags finansiella problem samt deras ovilja att lämna ett going concern utlåtande i revisionsberättelsen. Fortlevnadsprincipen växte fram under 1600-talet och har därefter utvecklats till att bli en av de mest grundläggande och viktiga redovisningsprinciperna vid upprättandet av årsredovisningen. Redovisningsprincipen innebär att företagen ska förutsättas fortsätta sin verksamhet under en överskådlig framtid. Intressenterna har under en lång tid ifrågasatt om revisorerna verkligen tar ett tillräckligt stort ansvar i utvärderingen av företagens fortlevnadsförmåga. Samhällets bristande förtroende återspeglas i det förväntningsgap som finns som innebär att det är en skillnad mellan vad intressenterna tror att revisorerna är ansvariga för och vad revisorerna tror att deras ansvar är. Tidigare studier har visat att även om revisorerna upptäcker att klientföretag har finansiella problem kan de välja att inte utfärda ett going concern utlåtande i revisionsberättelsen på grund av förutspående kostnader som utlåtandet kan ha både för klientföretagen och för revisorerna. Vårt huvudsakliga syfte med studien är därför att undersöka svenska aktiebolag som har gått i konkurs mellan perioden 2006-01-01 och 2006-12-31 för att se om revisorerna har lämnat ett going concern utlåtande i revisionsberättelsen i aktiebolagens senaste årsredovisning. Studien ämnar också undersöka om det finns geografiska skillnader i Sverige, skillnader med anledning av revisionsbyråernas storlek, skillnader mellan godkända och auktoriserade revisorer samt skillnader till följd av klientföretagens storlek och i vilken utsträckning going concern utlåtanden lämnas i revisionsberättelsen. Vi har genomfört en kvantitativ studie genom att ha granskat konkursdrabbade aktiebolags senaste årsredovisningar och revisionsberättelser. Studien grundar sig på en dokumentstudie då 354 konkursdrabbade företag valdes ut genom ett systematiskt urval från Internetsidan konkurs.se. Därefter hämtades de utvalda aktiebolagens årsredovisningar från databasen Affärsdata. Studiens resultat visar att endast 19,8 % av de undersökta aktiebolagen hade fått ett going concern utlåtande i den senaste årsredovisningen innan de gick i konkurs. Vi upprättade chi-två test för samtliga variabler som uppvisade att det inte finns något signifikant samband mellan andelen going concern utlåtanden och de oberoende variablerna. Vi beräknade även en normalfördelning som uppvisade att det endast är i den geografiska indelningen som det finns en signifikant avvikelse från det totala medelvärdet. Det gäller för Norrlands medelvärde som signifikant avviker från medelvärdet för samtliga konkursdrabbade aktiebolag som hade fått ett going concern utlåtande.  Det finns dock procentuella skillnader mellan samtliga variabler som uppvisar att auktoriserade revisorer lämnar fler going concern utlåtanden än godkända revisorer, att små revisionsbyråer lämnar fler going concern utlåtanden än ”the big four” samt att aktiebolag med en liten omsättning erhåller fler going concern utlåtanden än aktiebolag med en medelstor och stor omsättning.</p><p><strong> </strong></p>