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This study aims at investigating the effect of the qualified audit reports on shares prices and returns in Jordan.

A market‐based study conducted on the qualified audit reports of the shareholding companies in Jordan during the period 2000‐2005.

The conclusions of the study showed that there is no clear or significant effect of a qualified audit opinion on share prices and returns.

Based on the conclusions of the study, the researchers recommend there is a need for further educating users of the role of the audit report and the need for extending this study to investigate the effect of the qualified audit reports on share prices and returns during other periods and using different test periods other than the announcement date.

This study is original because it provides us with new evidence about the effect of qualified audit reports on shares prices and returns in a developing country.

This paper aims to investigate the impact of qualified audit opinions on the returns of stocks listed at Amman Stock Exchange (ASE) after the introduction of the recent amendments by the International Auditing and Assurance Standard Board (IAASB) on audits reporting and conclusions. It further investigates if results differ between first time qualified and sequenced qualifications, and between plain qualified opinion and qualifications with going concern.

Audit opinions’ announcements and stock returns data are collected from companies’ annual reports for the fiscal years 2016 to 2019 while stock returns are computed from stock closing prices published at ASE website. The authors apply the event study approach and use the market model to calculate normal returns. Cumulative abnormal returns (CARs) and average abnormal returns (AARs) are computed for all qualified audit opinions’ announcements.

The empirical evidence suggests that investors at ASE do not react to qualified audit opinions announcements. That is, the authors find an insignificant impact of qualified audit opinion announcements on stock returns using both CAR and AAR estimates. The results are robust to first time and sequenced qualifications, and for qualifications with going concern. Results are also robust to the use of risk adjusted market model.

The insignificant impact of qualified audit opinions on stock returns have two potential conflicting research implications. First, the new amendments introduced to auditors’ report made them more informative and reduce the negative signals contained in the qualified opinions. That is, investors are now aware of the real causes of qualifications and not overreacting to the qualified opinion. Second, the documented insignificant impact confirms that ASE is not a semi-strong form efficient.

The apparent excessive use of qualifications should ring the bell on whether auditors misuse their power or companies are really in trouble. Hence, the Jordanian regulatory bodies need to warn auditors against the excessive use of qualifications on the one hand, and to raise the awareness of investors on the implications of auditors’ opinions on the other hand.

This study is innovative in twofold. First, it explores the impact of qualified audit opinions on stock returns after the introduction of new amendments by IAASB at ASE. In addition, it uses event study approach and distinguishes between first time qualified and sequenced qualifications, and between plain qualified opinion and qualifications with going concern. The results are consistent with efficient market theory and behavioral finance explanations.

This chapter investigates whether earnings management activities increase the likelihood of receiving a qualified audit report. We have carried out this study with a sample of Spanish companies for the period 2001–2009. Previous research on the issue is not only scarce but also suffers from methodological pitfalls. In all cases, researchers have followed a matched sample approach without considering the implications of such approach for the statistical analysis. Despite its great popularity among researchers in accounting, the use of matched-based sampling is susceptible to produce technical errors in the statistical analysis. The main problem consists in the generalization of results obtained with a nonrandom sample to the whole population of firms. Our results do not show a significant relationship between EM and qualified audit reports. We have also addressed whether the international financial crisis has affected our results and concluded that Spanish companies seem to have used EM during the crisis to push down earnings, probably expecting to take advantage of the positive earnings surprises during the postcrisis period. Nevertheless, the financial crisis has not changed the nature of the EM-qualified opinions relationship.

The purpose of this paper is to review the archival literature on market reactions to qualified audit reports and to seek to identify the different approaches used in those studies. In addition, the paper discusses the strengths and weaknesses of different approaches, summarizes key findings, and provides suggestions for future research.

The paper reviews articles examining the relevance of qualified audit reports published between 1972 and 2010.

First, the review suggests that there are three main approaches used in the literature: the short‐window approach, the long‐window approach, and the indirect approach. Each approach has both strengths and significant weaknesses that should be acknowledged. Second, as a whole the empirical findings in this area are mixed. A more detailed analysis reveals that only the indirect approach has consistently found support for the relevance of qualified audit reports.

This paper shows that in future, researchers in this area should strive to identify the correct information release date, because it is the most critical step in conducting event studies. In addition to the event date identification, the effect of simultaneous information releases during the event period must be considered. Last, it is suggested that researchers include other stock market measures besides abnormal returns in their analysis, because measures like change in volatility, volume, bid‐ask spread, and systematic risk could provide information that abnormal returns do not offer.

This paper provides a review of the current state of knowledge on whether audit reports convey new information to the stock markets.

This paper has the objective of identifying the different types of qualifications in auditor's reports of companies in Malta, the extent of multiple and repeated qualifications in such reports and any significant relationships between such main types of qualifications and firm‐specific variables.

The study in this small Mediterranean island is designed to investigate the auditor's reports of 419 companies in the period 1997/2000. This is also complemented by an analysis of 12 interviews held with audit partners in different practices.

Results show that 19.9 per cent of sampled companies had a qualified auditor's report. The most common type of qualification was that of limitation‐on‐scope found in small companies and issued by non‐Big Four audit firms. Small companies were also prone to going concern qualifications in view of their more common net liability situations. Disagreement‐with‐management qualifications were found to be more likely in larger companies and to be mostly issued by Big Four audit firms.

The methodology adopted by the study may also be used in similar future studies in other small states and further research could possibly be undertaken on the motivation behind the issuance of such qualifications.

The study concludes that Maltese companies, which are as yet all required to be audited irrespective of size, have an apparently high rate of audit qualifications and also that the auditor's reports of non‐Big Four audit firms are often deficient or even incompatible with the wording of the International Standards on Auditing.

The objective of this paper is to test the extent to which combinations of financial information with non‐financial variables, such as audit fees and type of audit firm, can be used in predicting qualified and unqualified audit reports.

The data were taken from a sample of 185 Greek companies listed at the Athens stock exchange and were analysed using logistic and OLS regression models.

It is found that audit fees and the type of audit firm (Big five vs non‐Big five) do not affect auditors' propensity to qualify their opinions. Instead, the occurrence of audit qualifications is associated with financial metrics such as operating margin to total assets and the current ratio. The model developed was successful in classifying 90 per cent of the total sample.

This study has implications for external auditors, regulators and investors. Also contributes to auditing and accounting research by examining the suggested variables to identify those that can best discriminate cases of audit opinion.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the influence of financial variables and especially profitability, loss in current year, loss in previous year, leverage and liquidity in predicting audit report qualifications (qualified audit opinion) and audit report modifications (qualified opinion or unqualified but with an explanatory paragraph).

The authors used hand-collected data from financial statements and from auditors’ general reports of 76 non-financial publicly traded companies over a period of 11 years (2005-2015). A total of 545 audit reports were analyzed.

The results of panel logistic regression reported a positive relationship between liquidity, loss in the current year, loss in the previous year and a qualified audit report. A positive relationship was found between leverage and audit report modification. Also, the findings show that the Tunisian revolution did not affect the qualification or the modification of the audit report but qualifications decreased significantly during the period of the financial crisis.

The research has practical implications and can help auditors in identifying factors motivating audit report qualification or audit report modification, mainly in periods of instability.

This study contributes to auditing research, since the authors know very little about the determinants of audit opinion in emerging and African markets. It constitutes an addition to previous knowledge about audit opinion in the context of Tunisia during two important periods: the financial crisis and revolution. This research is one of the rare studies analyzing qualifications and audit report modifications by considering both qualifications and explanatory paragraphs.

This paper aims to determine whether audit opinions in Morocco, an emerging market, are value relevant to the stock market, through the investigation of the market reaction to the issuance of modified audit opinions (MAOs).

The event study approach is used. The data are derived from the financial reports of listed companies on the Casablanca Stock Exchange over a period of 10 years from 2010 to 2019.

This paper does not find evidence that the market reacts to the issuance of MAOs when grouped together. When partitioning the sample by types, there is an evidence of a stock market reaction to qualified audit opinions and the qualified audit opinions with observation paragraph when they are combined with a negative variation of earnings per share. Examination of the impact of different natures of qualifications shows no consistent results and that the market does not distinguish between natures of qualifications.

These results may be due to the fact that some investors have information about the audit opinion long before it is made public, due to privileged access to audit opinions, or that investors underestimate audit opinions relative to other financial indicators.

This study contributes to the existing literature by investigating an emerging market, not previously tested, after the introduction of several regulatory reforms in Moroccan market aimed at enhancing transparency in financial reporting. It refines the market reaction models used in previous studies by using both ordinary least squares and the Scholes–Williams techniques that correct for the effect of thin trading on the market index. In addition, special attention is given to studying the market reaction to each type of MAOs and to each natures of qualifications.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the association between audit opinion and earnings persistence of listed companies in Thailand from 2004 to 2008.

We use archival data and hand collected data in regression analysis. Content analysis was used to perform decomposition analysis of audit modifications.

Firms receiving modified opinions have lower earnings persistence than firms receiving unqualified opinions, and the degree of earnings persistence varies among types of modifications. We find that firms with a qualified opinion or a disclaimer have lower earnings persistence than firms receiving an unqualified opinion with an emphasis of matter (UEM). However, we find no difference in earnings persistence between firms receiving a qualification and a disclaimer. Content analysis reveals that there is information in certain types of modified opinions with respect to earnings quality. Firms receiving a scope limitation qualification and a going concern disclaimer have lower earnings persistence than firms receiving an UEM due to going concern issues.

Audit modifications reflect different degrees of problematic issues in clients’ firms, resulting in different impacts on earnings persistence. Thus, policymakers and regulators should emphasize the importance of using auditors’ reports. Strengthened enforcement by regulators makes individual auditors more aware of reputation risk and more likely to express appropriate audit opinions.

We examine a broader set of modified audit opinions than those used in prior research. Our study offers the opportunity to examine the association between earnings persistence and different types of modified opinions, especially a disclaimer, which has been rarely found in prior research.

The purpose of this paper is to examine investor reactions to auditor opinions containing qualifications or an emphasis of matter paragraph related to going concern uncertainty or financial distress. In particular, abnormal returns are analyzed around audit report dates.

The event study methodology, focusing on a short event window, was used to determine whether there is an immediate market reaction to the audit report announcement, as might be expected assuming efficient stock markets.

Overall, this analysis shows that the audit reports investigated have information content for investment decisions. In particular, the qualifications expressed in the audit report have a negative effect on stock prices. It is also shown that an unqualified opinion with an emphasis of matter paragraph regarding going concern uncertainty or financial distress has a positive effect on stock prices. These results also elucidate the distinction between different types of opinions in the Italian context.

This paper has attempted to limit the possible concurrent effects on stock prices using a short window event study methodology. However, the possibility that some other event may have occurred during this event window cannot be excluded. Among the policy implications coming from this research, it is argued that the authorities should regulate the public disclosure of audit reports, so that the information becomes available to the audited company and the other stakeholders on the same day, which, in theory, would be the day that the audit process concludes with the signing of the audit report.

The findings of this paper show the relevance of audit reports, distinguishing the different impacts based on the types of audit opinions issued in a specific jurisdiction (qualified and unqualified with an emphasis of matter paragraph).