Audit effort and fees under concentrated

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Auditeffortandfeesunderconcentratedclientownership:EvidencefromfourinternationalauditfirmsB

LasseNiemiDepartmentofAccountingandFinance,HelsinkiSchoolofEconomics,POBox1210,FIN-00101Helsinki,Finland

AbstractUsingproprietaryaudithourandfeedatafromtheinternalrecordsoffourBigSixfirmsinFinland,thisstudyexaminestheinfluenceofauditclientownershiptypeonauditeffortandfees.Theprimaryargumentisthattherearedifferentialeffectsofownershipconcentrationdependingontheparticularnatureofconcentratedownership(i.e.,firmsinwhichthemajorityofsharesaremanager-ownedversusforeign-ownedversusstate-owned).Consistentwiththis,thepaperdocumentsthataudithoursandfeesarelowerforcompaniesmajority-ownedbytheirmanagementandhigherforsubsidiariesofforeigncompaniesthanforotherfirms.However,nodifferencebetweencompaniesownedbythestateormunicipalitiesandcompanieswithamorediverseownershipstructurecanbefound.Thissuggeststhatgovernmentalownershipisactuallyclosertoadispersedthanaconcentratedownershipstructureintermsofauditquality.Theresultsshowthatreplacingthevariableindicatingmajority-ownershipwiththevariablescapturingthetypeofacontrollingownerincreasestheexplanatorypowerofthemodelssignificantly,whichdemonstratestheimportanceofownershiptypeintheproductionandpricingofanaudit.Thefindingshaveimportantimplicationsforthoseexaminingauditmarketswithclientfirmsownedbydifferenttypesofcontrollingshareholders.D2005UniversityofIllinois.Allrightsreserved.

Keywords:Auditfees;Auditcosts;Auditeffort;Auditproduction;Ownershipstructure;Managerialownership

0020-7063/$30.00D2005UniversityofIllinois.Allrightsreserved.doi:10.1016/j.intacc.2005.09.006

BTheearlierdraftofthispaper,entitledasbClient’sownershiptypeasadeterminantofauditeffortandaudit

fee:EvidencefromFinlandQ,receivedtheBestPaperAwardatthe2001EuropeanResearchNetworkSymposiumheldinWuppertal,Germany.E-mailaddress:Lasse.niemi@hkkk.fi.

TheInternationalJournalofAccounting40(2005)303–3231.Introduction

Thepurposeofthisstudyistoexaminetheinfluenceofauditclientownershiptypeonauditeffortandfees.Thepaperarguesthatauditeffortandpricingdependonwhethertheclient’sownershipstructureischaracterizedbymanagerialornon-managerialownership.Morespecifically,auditeffortandfeesarehypothesizedtobelowerforcompaniesmajority-ownedbytheirmanagementandhigherforsubsidiariesofforeigncompaniesandcompaniesownedbythestateormunicipalities.Thestudyismotivatedbytwogapsintheliterature.First,theextantresearchhasfocusedprimarilyonmarketswherebuyersareassumedtohaveasufficientlyhomogeneousownershipstructure,resultinginthelackofresearchonclientownershipasadeterminantofauditeffortandfees.AnothermotivationarisesfromthefactthatonlyalimitednumberofstudiesfocusonauditmarketsinContinentalEuropeancountries.Forexample,accordingtoCobbin’s(2002)review,onlytwoaudit-feestudiesexaminethemarketforauditservicesinContinentalEuropeancountries(Firth,1997;Langendijk,1997).Finland,amemberstateoftheEuropeanUnion,providesagoodsettingforthestudyastheFinnishinstitutionalsettingresemblesthoseinotherContinentalEuropeancountries.SimilarinstitutionalcharacteristicsincludebthinQequitymarkets,alegalsystembasedoncodelaw,andrelativelylowauditors’exposuretolitigationrisk.ThisstudyfocusesontheauditsoflargeclientsofBigSix(then)auditfirmsinFinland,excludingfinancialandinsurancecompanies.Concentratingonlargeclientsincreasesthecomparabilitytothepreviousresearchwhichhasmainlyexaminedtheupperendofthemarket.LimitingtheanalysistotheBigSixauditsshouldreducethepossibleimpactofnationalidiosyncrasiesand,hence,furtherincreasethecomparabilityoftheresultstotheothercountries.CombininguniqueaudithourandfeedatacollecteddirectlyfromtheinternalbillingrecordsoffourBigSixfirmswithproprietaryownershipdatahandpickedfromthefilesofamajorcreditanalystfirminFinland,thepaperdemonstratestheimportanceofownershiptypeintheproductionandpricingofanaudit.Thefindingthattheimpactofhavingacontrollingownerdependsonthetype[ofit]isimportantforthoseexaminingtheauditmarketscharacterizedbyconcentratedownership.Thepaperisorganizedasfollows.Thenextsectionprovidesabriefreviewofpreviousresearch.Section3describestherelevantfeaturesoftheauditingenvironmentinFinland,followedbySection4whichdevelopsthehypothesesofthestudy.Section5presentstheresearchdesignandsampleselectionproceduresfollowedbyadiscussionoftheresults.Thefinalsectionsummarizesthestudyanditsmainconclusions.

2.PriorresearchBuildingonSimunic(1980),twodecadesofaudit-feestudiesintheUnitedStatesandmanyothercountriesshowthatmajorfeedeterminantsincludeclientsize,complexityofclientoperations,variousclientrisks,andthesupplieroftheaudit(Chan,Ezzamel,&Gwilliam,1993;Cobbin,2002;Hay,Wong,&Knechel,2003;Walker&Johnson,1996).Theauditfeemodelingresearchhasexaminedvariouscountriesintwophases(Cobbin,