Search results

This paper aims to evaluate policymakers’ concerns about the lack of competition in highly concentrated markets for public company audits by examining the association between audit fees and the inequality of Big 4 market shares at both the USA national-industry and city-industry levels.

Using publicly available data, this paper uses regression analysis to examine publicly available data to test research hypotheses related to the association between audit market inequalities and audit fees at both the USA national-industry and city-industry levels.

The findings support a U-shaped association between national-industry inequality and audit fees. As inequality initially increases, fees decrease; however, as inequality becomes increasingly large fees increase. The city-industry level analysis shows the opposite pattern. The results are consistent with capacity constraints at the national-industry level that are less binding at the city-industry level.

This study provides evidence that market inequality has a non-linear association with audit price and contributes to the limited findings in industrial organization research on the importance of market share inequality in highly concentrated markets.

This study provides new insights into the growing body of research on audit market structure by documenting that national-industry and city-industry analysis provides different insights into the market structure. In addition, the sample period for this study (2004-2017) addresses the General Accounting Office (GAO) concern about the lack of a stable audit market in the period it examined (GAO, 2008, p. 94) and finds evidence of market structure effects not present in the earlier GAO studies (GAO, 2003, 2008).

The purpose of this paper is to provide insight regarding past, present, and future research in behavioral auditing to Ph.D. students and other researchers seeking to identify productive opportunities for future research. Our analysis is informed by recent publication trends and interviews with twenty-one active researchers likely to shape behavioral auditing research in the next decade. The results demonstrate a shift in research interest toward topics including auditor independence, corporate governance, emerging audit approaches, and new assurance services. This shift highlights a growing popularity of research motivated by emerging practice trends and issues receiving attention by the SEC, AICPA, and ASB. Our interviewees stressed the importance of integrating multiple methodologies in future research. Overall, our results demonstrate that behavioral auditing research remains an active and successful area of literature.

This paper reviews academic literature related to the consequences that outside directors and boards may face in the wake of earnings restatements and suggests directions for future research. We examine loss of board seats; recruitment of new directors; proxy recommendations and shareholder support; pre-emptive director departures; director wealth effects; director reputation, litigation, and sanction risks; international evidence; and legal proposals for reform. The overall picture that emerges from the literature is that directors’ primary risk in the wake of earnings restatements is loss of board seats, in part through adverse proxy advisor recommendations and reduced shareholder support. Directors typically face little risk of legal liability or SEC sanctions, and some directors pre-emptively leave a problem company’s board and reduce their loss of interlocked board seats. Some legal scholars have called for director liability to be increased so as to promote more vigilant board oversight. Companies often focus on increasing the independence of the board in the wake of a restatement in an effort to repair organizational reputation. While researchers have revealed a host of important findings to date, much more can be learned about the effects of restatements on outside directors and boards.

In 1978, the West German based company, Sachtleben, celebrated its century in the pigment business. The terms lithopone and blanc fixe are, of course, inextricably linked with the name Sachtleben for in addition to being the products on which the company was founded, they are both generic descriptions used throughout the world's paint, paper, plastics and colouring industries.

Officers and Council of the British Colour Makers Association for the year 1979/80 will be:— Chairman; Mr. M. A. Kerr, Ciba‐Geigy (P&A) Co. Pigments Division. Vice‐Chairman; Mr. G. R. Streatfield, Blythe Colours Ltd. Honorary Treasurer; Mr. F. B. Mortimer‐Ford, Horace Cory & Co. Ltd. Members: Mr. W. B. Cork, Reckitts Colours Ltd. Mr. A. R. Dauwe, Imperial Chemical Industries Ltd. Dr. M. Hill, Manox Ltd. Mr. B. R. Howe, Burrell Colours Ltd. Mr. E. H. Leadbeater, E. P. Bray & Co. Ltd. Mr. A. Pearce, Williams (Hounslow) Ltd. Mr. P. Perkin, Ellis Jones & Co. (Stock‐port) Ltd. Secretary; Mr. A. G. Wyatt.

This paper synthesizes existing experimental research in the area of investor perceptions and offers directions for future research. Investor-related experimental research has grown substantially, especially in the last decade, as it has made valuable contributions in establishing causal links, examining underlying process measures, and examining areas with little available data. Within this review, I examine 121 papers and identify three broad categories that affect investor perceptions: information format, investor features, and disclosure credibility. Information format describes how investors are influenced by information salience, information labeling, reporting and accounting complexity, financial statement recognition, explanatory disclosures, and proposed disclosure changes. Investor features describes investors’ use of heuristics, investor preferences, and the effect of investor experience. Disclosure credibility is influenced by external and internal assurance, management credibility, disclosure characteristics, and management incentives. Using this framework, I summarize the existing research and identify areas that would benefit from additional research.