• The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business
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• v.7 no.4
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• pp.41-50
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• 2020

The paper aims to investigate auditors, auditing firms and other external factors that affect quality of information technology audit in Vietnam. We conducted 2 types of data collections including direct and on survey. For direct survey, we sent directly to auditors at the training classes organized by State Securities Exchanges Commission. An online survey was established and Google doc link was provided to the Big4 and non-Big4 auditors. We received 138 survey responses in that 90 auditors came from Big4 and 48 auditors from non-Big4 firms. The data are analyzed using a factor analysis and compare means approaches to illustrate the potential IT audit quality factors and identify differences between two groups of auditors. The results show that independence and accounting knowledge and audit skills are the most important factors. And since external auditors perform many assurance services, the independence is critical. The result also shows that the auditors need to have enough competent and professional skills when conducting an audit, especially within an IT environment that requires high quality. The findings suggest a similar pattern of two groups in the context of Vietnam and some factors of auditors and auditing firms appear to have a statistically significant impact on quality of IT audit.

• The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business
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• v.9 no.4
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• pp.251-259
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• 2022

This study investigates the impact of ownership structures and audit quality on carbon emission disclosure. It also examines how audit quality affects the relationship between ownership structures and carbon emission disclosure. This research includes 106 standalone sustainability reports from non-financial companies that were listed on the Indonesia Stock Exchange (IDX) between 2015 and 2018. Our findings show that family and concentrated ownerships convey less information about carbon emissions. Our results fail to demonstrate that disclosure of carbon emissions could be a corporation's approach to respond to stakeholder pressure and public visibility and to provide legitimacy for its existence. We also find a positive and significant association between high-quality (Big4) auditors and carbon emission performance. Our further result suggests that Big4 auditors seem to compromise their high standard quality on auditing family and concentrated ownership firms. They fail to influence their family and concentrated ownership clients to be socially responsible. Policymakers should support the existence of Big4 auditors as a driver of carbon emission performance. Top management should be proactive to tackle carbon emission issues by adopting stakeholder-driven mechanisms and establishing legitimacy with society. Nevertheless, the involvement of family and highly concentrated shareholders in decision-making processes and information disclosure should not be encouraged.

• The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business
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• v.6 no.2
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• pp.45-54
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• 2019

This study examines whether auditors restrain the analysts' opportunistic behavior as reviewing the companies' interim reports. Analysts' forecasts show a walkdown pattern in which their optimism has decreased as the earnings announcement date has approached. At the beginning of the year, there is a lack of high-quality benchmark information that enables information users to judge the accuracy of analyst's earnings forecasts. Thus, early in the year, analysts are highly inspired to disseminate optimistic forecasts in order to gain manager's favor. In this study, we examine adequate benchmarks prevent analysts from disclosing optimistically biased forecasts. We conjecture that auditors' efforts might mitigate analysts' walkdown pattern. To test this hypothesis, we use data from Korea, where it is mandatory to disclose auditor's review hours. We find that the analyst forecast's walkdown decreases with the ratio as well as the number of audit hours. It implies that an auditor's effort in reviewing interim financial information has a monitoring function that reduces analysts' opportunistic optimism at the beginning of the year. We conjecture that the tendency will be more pronounced when BIG4 auditors review the interim reports. Consistent with the prediction, BIG4 auditors' interim review effort is more effective in suppressing the analysts' walkdown.

• The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business
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• v.7 no.2
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• pp.89-97
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• 2020

This study was conducted to examine how independent audit firms in Vietnam understand and use risk based audit approach (RBAA) in audit practice. To answer the research questions, the researchers used primary and secondary data collected from 2018 to 2019. The results from the interview survey showed that audit firms were aware of the advantages of adopting RBAA. However, RBAA is practiced to a moderate extent by audit firms in Vietnam. Big 4 audit firms use RBAA more popularly than Non-Big 4 audit firms. The causes of the difference are the disadvantages of adopting RBAA and client's characteristics such as relevant guideline, audit fees, auditors' knowledge and experience. Besides, the study investigated factors impacting on the RBAA adoption by distributing a questionnaire to 246 auditors of 126 audit firms in Vietnam. A set of statistical appropriate methods where used through SPSS software version 22.0. The results indicated that there were six factors influencing RBAA adoption including: Auditor's ability, Technological development, Audit fees, auditors' motivation, Audit time and client's risk. Of which, auditor's ability and technological development are factors that have the most significant and positive impacts on the adoption of RBAA. Additional implications were argued in the final section of this study.

• The Journal of Industrial Distribution & Business
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• v.12 no.8
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• pp.7-19
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• 2021

Purpose: This paper aims to investigate (1) whether the interviewed auditors conduct higher quality audit than the non-interviewed auditors and (2) whether the frequency of audit engagement interviews has an impact on audit quality. Research design, data, and methodology: Using a sample of Chinese A-share listed firms between 2011 and 2019, this paper empirically tests the effect of audit engagement interviews on auditor's behavior. We collect the data of audit engagement interviews on the CICPA's website. We use OLS regression, fixed-effect model and random-effect model to examine the association between audit engagement interviews and audit quality. Results: Findings indicate that the audit quality of the interviewed auditors is significantly greater than that of the non-interviewed auditors. The frequency of the audit engagement interviews is positively associated with audit quality. The interviewed auditors spend significantly more time on the audit. Furthermore, the positive association between audit engagement interviews and audit quality only exists in non-Big 4 auditors. Conclusions: Our findings provide evidence for the effectiveness of audit regulation enforcement. The results suggest that in an emerging market with weak legal systems, preventive regulations such as audit interviews have a deterrent effect and are necessary in alleviating information asymmetry and improving information environment.

• Asia-Pacific Journal of Business
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• v.12 no.3
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• pp.193-212
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• 2021

Purpose - This study investigates the effect of auditor change on client firm's accounting (financial statement) comparability. Design/methodology/approach - The comparability of accounting information is measured by the difference in accruals between the two firms. Additionally, the study uses earnings-stock return relationship as another proxy of accounting comparability. In particular, the paper examines whether there is a systematic difference between initial audit years and the other years with respect to the client firm's accounting comparability. Moreover, current study tests how changes in auditor size or industry expertise before and after the switch of auditors affect the accounting comparability. Findings - The results show that the level of accounting comparability is lower in the year of auditor change than in the other years. Furthermore, this lower level of comparability is derived by the observations that switch their auditors from non-Big4 to non-Big4 or from non-specialist to non-specialist. These results are consistent when accounting comparability is measured by different proxies. Research implications or Originality - The findings of this study provide important policy implications for the regulations related with auditor selection.

• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.15 no.8
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• pp.47-54
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• 2017

Purpose - According to agency theory, managers have incentives to adjust firm revenues to meet earnings expectations or delay bad news disclosure because of performance-based compensation and their reputation in the market. When the bad news accumulates, stock prices fail to reflect all available information. Thus, market prices of stocks are higher than their intrinsic value. After all, bad news crosses the tipping point, it comes out all at once. That results in stock crashes. Auditors can decrease stock crash risk by reducing agency costs through their informational role. Especially, stock price crash risk is expected to be lower for firms adopting high-quality audits. We focus on distribution and service industry to examine the relation between audit quality and stock price crash risk. Industry specialization and auditor size are used as proxies for auditor quality. Research design, data and methodology - Our sample contains distribution and service industry firms listed in KOSPI and KOSDAQ during a period of 2004-2011. We use a logistic regression to test whether auditor quality influences crash risk. Auditor quality was measured by industry specialist auditor and Big4 / non-Big4 dichotomy. Following the approach in prior researches, we use firm-specific weekly returns to measure crash risk. Firms experiencing at least one stock price crash in a specific week during year are classified as the high risk group. Results - The result of analyzing 429 companies in distribution and service industry is summarized as follows: Above all, it is shown that higher audit quality has a significant negative(-) effect on the crash risk. Crash risk is alleviated for firms audited by industry specialist auditors and Big 4 audit firms. Therefore, our results show that hypotheses are supported. Conclusions - This study is very meaningful as the first study which investigated the effects of high audit quality on stock price crash risk. We provide evidence that high-quality auditors reduce stock price crash risk. Our finding implies that the risk of extreme losses can be reduced through screening of high-quality auditors. Therefore investors and regulators may utilize our findings in their investment and rule making decisions.

• Journal of East Asia Management
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• v.4 no.1
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• pp.23-51
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• 2023

We investigate whether the association between management overconfident tone and the level of audit effort measured by audit fees and hours differs depending on the level of earnings management. Prior studies suggest that firms led by overconfident managers are likely to initiate risky investments, report low quality financial statements, and have material weaknesses in internal control system. These characteristics, combined together, result in higher audit risk. At the same time, auditors assess audit risk based on the quality of financial reporting, measured by level of earnings management. As a result, the assess audit risk is likely to reflect the combined effect of management overconfidence and the level of earnings management. In this paper, we investigate whether auditors differentiate the effects of real earnings management (REM) and accrual-based earnings management (AEM) when they assess the audit risk related management overconfident. Using the CEO's letter published in 2018, we measure the CEO's tone representing the degree of overconfidence (i.e., activity). Based on this measure, we find that the positive association between managerial overconfident tone and audit effort is more pronounced as the level of REM is higher. However, we find that the baseline association does not vary depending on the level of AEM. These results suggest that auditors consider the managerial overconfident severer when such characteristic accompany the higher level of REM, which can be outcome of aggressive business decisions possibly leading to the higher audit risks. We further find that these results are stronger for Big 4 auditors and continuing auditors. This paper contributes to the literature and practice as follows. First, we provide contextual evidence on how auditors reflect managerial characteristics in the audit process by documenting that auditors actively increase their audit efforts only when overconfident managerial characteristics are highly likely to lead to audit risk. This result suggests that auditors conduct external auditing considering both the efficiency and effectiveness of the audit process. Second, we suggest that auditors use information obtained from a wide range of sources to identify audit risks. Our results provide evidence of how the auditing standards, which do not provide detailed guidelines for audit risk assessment, are being applied in practice. Finally, our results also enhance the understanding of how audit fees are determined. Combined with the studies related to audit pricing, we provide the important reference for discussion between the auditor and the auditee about the audit fee that has created acute tension after the enforcement of the new External Audit Act.

• Journal of the Korea Convergence Society
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• v.10 no.6
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• pp.203-218
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• 2019

Using the sample of 104 mutual savings banks inspected by the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS) on June 2011, this study examines if mutual savings banks manage BIS capital adequacy ratio using allowance for bad debts through comparison of BIS capital adequacy ratio before and after the 2011 when mutual savings banks experienced a large-scale restructuring by financial supervisory authorities. We find that mutual savings banks mainly use the allowance for bad debts to manage BIS capital adequacy ratio. It also shows that mutual savings banks with a business suspension order by FSS manage BIS capital adequacy ratio more than the others. Lastly, we find that Non Big4 auditors as well as Big 4 auditors don't effectively audit the use of the allowance for bad debts for mutual savings banks to manage their BIS capital adequacy ratio.

• Journal of Industrial Convergence
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• v.21 no.4
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• pp.65-72
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• 2023

This study's purpose is to verify how the periodically designated auditor in the recently implemented periodic auditor designation system affects audit quality. In this study, hypotheses were established by reviewing previous studies, and 980 samples of 2019 and 2020 were selected for KOSPI-listed companies. Dechow & Dichev (2002)'s accrual quality was used as the dependent variable, and the effect of whether or not a company was periodically designated as an auditor and whether or not a Big 4 auditor was selected was empirically analyzed. As a result of the analysis and correlation analysis, a statistically significant difference was confirmed in the quality of the dependent variable accrual and the independent variable designated auditor (PA). However, as a result of the regression analysis model 1, it was found that the designated auditor was not significant, but it was confirmed that there was a significant difference in the control variables. Further analysis confirmed the difference in audit quality according to the Big 4 auditors. This study is significant in that it is a study that uses empirical data to study the effect of audit quality and the selection of regularly designated auditor companies after the introduction in 2019 and 2020. Due to the non-disclosure of government-designated companies, there is a limit that there may be a difference from the selection based on the researcher's published selection criteria.