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The purpose of this paper is to examine the short‐term reactions of stock prices to the announcement of earnings restatement by the public companies listed in the Toronto stock exchange in Canada.

The paper conducts an empirical study. For the purpose conducting the empirical study, a standard event study methodology has been utilized to examine the effect of restatement announcements on the stock returns. The dates of the announcement of restatement by each company have been collected and the effect of the announcement has been studied surrounding the announcement dates.

The results of empirical works indicate that, in general, the financial market reacts negatively to any restatement of earnings. This is evident from the fact that irrespective of the reasons for restatement, all restatements show a negative effect on the stock price. The impact of the restatement announcements is significant for all the prediction intervals. However, the long‐term reaction is more pronounced compared to short‐term reaction. In addition, the negative reaction is much higher for those reasons that are directly related to the earnings management than those that do not involve any active earnings management.

Since the paper investigates only one stock exchange, it may have a limited application in other financial markets. Similar researches can be undertaken for other financial markets different in size, scope or geographical location.

The findings of the paper may have broad implications both for individual investors and corporate executives. The decisions made by executives on restatements affect stock price and hence the investors' rate of return. Since the general effect of such restatement is negative on the stock returns, it may portray a negative perception about the company. Therefore, the paper has implications on the decisions made by both the investors and the corporate executives.

The paper studied the Canadian stock market which was not studied in the past to examine the reactions of restatement.

The purpose of this study is to explore the economic impact of financial restatements by major customers on the audit opinion of their suppliers, showing that non-financial information disclosure potentially helps auditors make better assessments.

Using a sample of China’s listed firms from 2007 to 2021, the authors aim to find the relationship between customers’ financial restatements and their suppliers’ audit opinions. Heckman selection model, placebo tests and other robustness checks are used as well.

The findings reveal that customers’ financial restatements have a significant effect on the likelihood of suppliers receiving modified audit opinions. This relationship is pronounced when suppliers face a higher level of financial constraints, exhibit poorer accounting conservatism or receive more negative media coverage. Additionally, this effect occurs through increased business risk and information risk, which heightens auditors’ perceived audit risk. Moreover, the study highlights the influence of switching costs, auditor expertise and restatement severity on this relationship.

Risks originating from customers can spread along the supply chain, emphasizing the necessity for auditors to give heightened attention to both the audited firms and their customer information. Moreover, regulators should carefully consider the important impact of customer information disclosures to maximize the protection of the interests of external information users.

This study not only confirms the crucial role of customer information disclosures in annual reports for stakeholders and auditors but also contributes to the existing literature on customer–supplier relationships.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the association between nonaudit services (NAS) and out-of-period adjustments (OOPAs). Over the years, the number of OOPAs has risen while the number of restatements has decreased. This could indicate an improvement in financial reporting quality. It could also indicate the use of a type of stealth restatement for opportunistic purposes. These less prominent restatements are more likely to go undetected and could perpetuate opportunistic disclosure and mitigate the likelihood of unfavorable market reactions.

The authors use a two-stage multivariate regression analysis to examine the relationship between NAS and the reporting of an OOPA. The authors use prior research on NAS to guide the model development. The authors perform several robustness checks including different types of NAS and different characteristics of OOPAs.

The results indicate that NAS has a significantly negative association with the existence of OOPAs. The core findings suggest that NAS does not impair auditor independence. Rather, greater amounts of NAS may contribute to knowledge spillover, which leads to higher financial reporting and audit quality. The results are robust to several additional tests.

The results raise interesting implications for regulators, executives, auditors, investors and future research. The authors provide insight into the relationship between NAS and auditor independence.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, prior research has not considered the effect of NAS on OOPAs. The authors contribute to the literature by providing evidence that OOPAs, a form of stealth restatements, is an important consideration in audit quality research.

Purpose – This study examines both the short- and long-term share price reaction to announcements of financial restatements cited in the U.S. General Accounting Office (2006) database.

Methodology – It uses the augmented four-factor Fama-French model for assessing share price reaction.

Findings – The study finds that the average cumulative abnormal return (CAR) for a sample of 553 restatements (by 437 companies) is significantly negative (−1.58) for the three-day window surrounding the day of announcement. The average CAR for the one-year period prior to the announcement (−9.6%) and for each of the four years after the announcement is negative as well, with the average CAR for the four years adding up to −22%. The study also documents differences in CARs based on the entity prompting the restatement (company, auditor, and Securities and Exchange Commission), the reason behind the restatement (revenue, cost, reclassification of item, etc.), and for one-time versus repeat offenders.

Social implications – Taken together, the findings indicate that financial restatements impose significant short-term as well as long-term costs on shareholders.

Originality/Value – The evidence about long-term share price reaction to financial restatements is missing in prior research. The relationship between long-term and short-term share price reaction to financial restatements fails to suggest systematic over/underreaction by the market.

We investigate how firms’ responses to misconduct change when the institutional environment becomes more stringent. Organizational theory offers conflicting perspectives on whether new legislation will increase or decrease pressure on firms to take remedial action following misconduct. The dominant perspective posits that new legislation increases expectations of firm behavior, amplifying pressure on them to take remedial action after misconduct. A more recent perspective, however, suggests that the mere necessity to meet more stringent regulatory requirements certifies firms as legitimate to relevant audiences. This certification effect buffers firms, reducing the pressure for them to take remedial action after misconduct. Using a temporary, largely arbitrary exemption from a key provision of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, we show that firms that were not required to meet all the regulatory standards of good governance it required became 45% more likely to replace their CEOs following the announcement of an earnings restatement after Sarbanes-Oxley. On the other hand, those that were required to meet all of Sarbanes-Oxley’s provisions became 26% less likely to replace their CEOs following a restatement announcement. Ironically, CEOs at firms with a legislative mandate intended to increase accountability for corporate misconduct shoulder less blame than do CEOs at firms without such legislative demands.

Prior research finds evidence that audit quality is positively associated with the joint purchase of tax nonaudit services (NAS) and concludes that jointly provided tax services result in audit-related knowledge spillovers that lead to improved audit quality. We extend this line of research. We examine the relation between auditor-provided tax services and restatements and determine whether this relation differs when the auditor is a small or large accounting firm. We also examine whether the Securities Exchange Commission’s restrictions on certain tax consulting practices (SEC, 2006) altered this relation. Specifically, we measure whether the probability of financial statement restatements varies with (1) variation in accounting firm size (measured as PCAOB annually inspected firms versus PCAOB triennially inspected firms), and (2) the joint provision of audit and tax services. We find a negative relation between auditor-provided tax services and restatements which is consistent with prior research. We also find that this relation is significantly more negative when the auditor is a small accounting firm. Finally, we find that the lower probability of a restatement associated with the joint provision of audit and tax services persists regardless of auditor size after the SEC-imposed restrictions on certain tax consulting services in 2006. Our study provides evidence that accounting firms, and particularly small accounting firms, benefit from knowledge spillovers when jointly providing audit and tax services and these benefits lead to improved audit quality. Prior research concludes that large auditors provide higher audit quality and that the provision of tax services improves audit quality. Our results provide evidence that audit quality improvements are greater for small auditors and their clients. This improvement narrows that audit quality gap between large and small auditors. We do not find evidence that the SEC’s restrictions on certain tax consulting services altered the relation between audit quality and tax services.

Prior research shows that after financial restatement, firms' corporate governance practices are strengthened (Farber, 2005; LaGore, 2008) as firms respond by increasing their disclosure practices and making executives more accountable (Arthaud-Day, Certo, Dalton, & Dalton., 2006). Nevertheless, it has not been established whether the impact of restatement extends to the domain of voluntary corporate social responsibility (CSR) disclosures. To address this question, we compare firms CSR scores and the association between executives' compensation and firms CSR scores before and after restatement. We use a sample of 44 U.S. firms in the two-year period before and after a financial restatement announcement. In firms that had undergone restatement, we found a significant increase in CSR strengths and CSR weaknesses that resulted in a net decrease in total CSR. In addition, we found a stronger association between bonus and CSR after restatement. This contributes by furthering our understanding by suggesting that voluntary CSR disclosures are indirectly impacted by restatement. Our findings are useful in understanding the pervasiveness of restatement on a firm's disclosures and operations and also in gaining insight into the comparability of CSR disclosures after restatement.

This paper aims to examine the link between audit(or) type and restatements in Egypt, a complex and multifaceted auditing market. The usual big 4 versus non-big 4 comparison is insufficient as Egypt has a unique mix of private audit firms, one governmental agency (Accountability State Authority) and mandatory/nonmandatory audit services, including single, joint and dual audits.

The study uses a sample of listed companies in Egypt and analyzes the impact of auditor type and audit type on explicit, implicit and total restatements. The study uses logistic regression model to examine the underlying relationship.

Results show no relationship between auditor type and audit quality, positive association between non-big foreign CPA firms and total/implicit restatements and mixed results for the impact of dual audits on audit quality. The study found no link between auditor type and audit quality in Egypt. Egyptian audit firms linked to non-big 4 foreign Certified Public Accounting firms were positively linked to total and implicit restatements. Joint audits did not improve audit quality and were directly related to total and explicit restatements. Dual audits showed mixed results, positively associated with implicit restatements but inversely associated with explicit restatements.

The study provides valuable insights into the complexities of the auditing market in emerging markets and offers valuable insights for stakeholders in the financial statement users, audit firms and governmental agencies.

This study tests the effect of accounting standards precision on financial restatements and the influence of accounting standards precision on different types of restatements (including errors and irregularities). What is more, the heterogeneity between accounting standards precision and financial restatements is verified in this paper. In the further analyses, the authors also examine the mediating roles and moderating roles on the correlation between accounting standards precision and financial restatements.

The focus is placed on an unbalanced panel of 18,766 samples over the period of 2007–2017.

The authors find that firms' restatements decrease when standards are more principles-based (low accounting standards precision). Especially, irregularities significantly decrease when firms' standards are more principles-based. What's more, the negative relationship between principles-based standards and restatements is more significant in “big four” accounting firms. Moreover, from the mediating effect results, the authors find that low accounting standards precision decreases a firm's financial reporting complexity and increases equity restriction, which in turn can help decreasing its financial misreporting. From the moderating effect results, the authors find that the higher the TOP1 and the more analysts following the firm, the higher the benefit of accounting standards precision to misstatements.

The results of this study provide a theoretical reference for accounting standard setters and are helpful to inform investors and regulators about the influence of Chinese accounting standards on restatements.

This paper seeks to examine the effects of Malaysian Code on Corporate Governance on the nature of financial restatements in Malaysia and whether corporate governance characteristics are associated with financial restatements.

Data for this paper are obtained from annual reports that had been restated for the period of 2002‐2005 with firm‐years being the unit of observation. A control group comprising non‐restating firms is formed using match‐pair procedures where restated and non‐restated firms are matched by size, industry, exchange board classification, and financial year end. The data are subsequently analyzed using a t‐test, the Pearson correlation and logistic regression.

The results show that the primary reason for misstating the accounts is to inflate earnings. The nomination committee of the firms that restated is found to be less independent with higher managerial ownership. The logistic regression analysis indicates that the extent of ownership by outside blockholders deters firms from misstating accounts. Surprisingly, audit committee independence is associated with the likelihood of financial misstatement. Financial restatements, nevertheless, are not found to be associated with board independence, managerial ownership, and CEO duality. Finally, the results show that firms with high level of debts are more likely to commit in financial misstatement.

The research is significant as it provides evidence on the role of corporate governance, especially the independence of the nomination committee and extent of ownership by outside blockholders in Malaysia. It shows that outside blockholders is effective in disciplining managers so that the accounts so prepared are not misleading. The move in 2007 by the Malaysian Government to require companies audit committee to be composed of only independent and non‐executive directors, as well as requiring audit committee members to be financially literate, should be seen as important in ensuring the effectiveness of the audit committee.

This research is considered as the first study which examines the effects of corporate governance variables on the incidents of financial restatements in a developing country. The findings of this paper would be useful for policy makers in evaluating the importance of corporate governance in emerging countries, specifically on the issue of quality financial reporting.