Internal audit quality and earnings management: evidence from the UK

Purpose This study aims to examine the association between internal audit quality and the involvement of UK companies in earnings management practices. Design/methodology/approach To measure the internal audit quality, this study uses 115 responses for a postal questionnaire that was addressed to the heads of internal audit departments in a sample of non-financial listed companies in the UK context. The other financial and governance data for the respondent companies were collected from the Datastream and the companies’ annual reports. The present study uses the signed abnormal accruals as a proxy for earnings management and uses both logistic and ordinary least squares regression models to test the research hypothesis. Findings This study finds a negative relationship between the internal audit quality and the abnormal accruals, implying the prominent role of internal audit in reducing the upwards earnings management. The study also finds a significant impact of the internal audit competence on reducing the engagement of UK companies in income-increasing earnings management compared to the internal audit independence. This remarkable result suggests the companies need to focus more on enhancing the internal audit competence to reduce the opportunistic management’s behaviour. Practical implications This study has important implications for the internal audit’s practice, regulation and research. Originality/value This is the first study that investigates the relationship between internal audit quality and earnings management in the UK context. Furthermore, it uses a comprehensive measure for the internal audit function (IAF) quality covering different aspects of IAF quality based on the global Institute of Internal Auditor standards and prior internal audit literature.

Does Mandatory IFRS Adoption Affect Audit Hours and the Effectiveness to Constrain Earnings Management? Evidence from Italy

We examine the effect IFRS adoption has had on audit effort and the effectiveness of greater audit effort on constraining earnings management. While prior studies have examined the costs of IFRS adoption, it is unclear whether IFRS adoption affects audit effort and whether extra audit effort results in higher audit quality. We find that following Italy's adoption of IFRS, audit hours (but not the hourly rate) increased, suggesting that audit effort (in audit hours) increased following IFRS adoption. We then examine whether more audit hours are associated with improved audit quality in the IFRS regime. Consistent with prior literature (Caramanis and Lennox 2008), we find that more audit effort is associated with lower abnormal accruals in the period before IFRS adoption. Interestingly, after Italy adopted IFRS, abnormal accruals are lower, but audit hours were less associated with lower abnormal accruals, implying that more audit hours are needed to constrain earnings management. Collectively, our empirical analysis suggests that while audit effort increased with mandatory IFRS adoption, the effectiveness of audit effort to constrain earnings management decreased.

Earnings quality and the cost of debt for SMEs under severe information asymmetry

The banking system has undergone substantial changes that boosted the relevance of transaction-lending technologies and the role of financial reporting in the bank-firm relationship. Due to the growing emphasis on accounting data, this study investigates the impact of earnings quality on the cost of debt for a sample of SMEs during the global financial crisis. Relying on a sample of Italian non-financial SMEs, empirical findings show a positive relationship between discretionary accruals and the cost of loans, highlighting the negative consequences of low-quality earnings. Further analysis reveals the different impacts that negative and positive abnormal accruals can have on the cost of debt: low values of the former can convey private information and positively affect the response variable, which shows a positive and quadratic relationship with the latter. These findings confirm the increasing importance of hard information in credit markets and point out the significant impact of the quality of the borrowers’ earnings on the cost of debts. However, the distinctiveness of the study from the previous literature relies on evidence that, even during a credit crunch period, financial institutions weigh up the expected return from lending transactions, relying on both the sign and the magnitude of discretionary abnormal accruals as a vehicle to get firms’ private information.

Customer–Supplier Relationships and Abnormal Accruals

We investigate the relationship between customer and supplier firms’ abnormal accruals to examine whether the supply chain is an important transmission channel of abnormal accruals. We propose “earnings management” hypothesis and “customer demand shock” hypothesis. Empirically, we examine the relation between a supplier’s estimated abnormal accruals and those of its major customers using Compustat Business Segment Files over the period 1987–2015. To further explore the demand shock channel, we directly test the impact of the bullwhip effect (BWE) on the linkage in abnormal accruals along the supply chain. Following the literature in operation management, we construct the amplification ratio, measured as the coefficient of variation of a firm’s orders divided by the coefficient of variation of the firm’s demand. We find that customer firms’ demand shocks link customer and supplier abnormal accruals as they propagate along the supply chain, via the BWE. Our evidence supports “customer demand shock” hypothesis. Consistent with the view that improving predictions on orders from their customers would mitigate this BWE, we find that a customer’s abnormal accruals have a much smaller impact on those of its suppliers whose auditors have expertise in the customer’s industries. Overall, our results suggest that the supply chain is an important transmission channel of abnormal accruals, and auditor expertise serves to reduce information opaqueness during this process. Our paper contributes to the literature examining the impact of BWEs on firms’ financial performance and the role of auditors’ expertise in reducing information opaqueness in supply chain.

Shareholder Dissatisfaction and Subsequent Audit Outcomes

SYNOPSIS This study examines the association between shareholder dissatisfaction, as proxied using auditor ratification voting, and subsequent auditor effort and audit quality. We document that increases in shareholder dissatisfaction are associated with (1) higher audit fees and longer audit report lags, and (2) lower abnormal accruals and reduced likelihood of financial statement misstatements, in the subsequent period. These findings inform the debate about auditor ratification voting, as governance activists and some regulators argue to increase the role of shareholders in auditor selection despite opposition from some firms and the staff of the Securities and Exchange Commission. We provide empirical evidence that increases in shareholder dissatisfaction with the auditor are associated with increases in subsequent auditor effort and audit quality. This suggests that shareholder action (even nonbinding) may potentially influence subsequent audit outcomes.

Female audit partners and accruals quality: evidence from Indonesia

PurposeThis study examines the association between accruals quality and gender of the firm's audit engagement partner in Indonesia. Specifically, prior studies provide evidence that gender-based difference in diligence, conservatism and risk tolerance, it is plausible that female auditors may improve audit quality. Indonesia provides a valuable research setting to investigate the issue, as it is mandatory to disclose the identity of the audit partners in the audit reports.Design/methodology/approachThis study employs multivariate regression model to test the hypothesis, which examines the association between accruals quality and audit partners gender. Using a sample of Indonesian publicly listed firms, we run a panel of regression of audit quality measure proxied by abnormal accruals on female auditor variable and firm-specific controls. To triangulate the results, we also conduct sensitivity analysis using high and low category of abnormal accruals, an alternative measure of accruals quality (i.e. Beneish's M score) and propensity score matching (PSM).FindingsWe find that firms with female audit engagement partners are not associated with smaller abnormal accruals, thereby implying that female auditors may not constrain effects on earnings management. In other words, gender is not an important predictor for audit quality in Indonesia.Research limitations/implicationsWe are not able to use broader measures of audit quality such as GAAP violations/restatement, litigation or audit fee. This is because the Indonesian setting somewhat limits us to collect them due to lack of regulatory actions and/or database availability.Practical implicationsThis study will contribute to the regulators (such as Financial Service Authorities/OJK) and professionals, on the effectiveness of female audit partners in improving audit quality. The study can be used as an evidence to support the gender equality in the accounting and audit industry.Social implicationsOur findings suggest that auditor gender does not lead to the improvement of accruals quality in Indonesia. Given the fact that only 14% of firms in our sample audited by female audit partners, it is plausible that the positive traits of female top managers may not transmit to the overall audit process. As such, it is important to encourage more female involvement in top position of auditing and accounting industry is required to advance the profession and its positive impact to the society.Originality/valueThere are no prior studies in Indonesia examining the effect of audit partner gender on accruals quality using archival data. As such, this research will be the first to document such evidence and therefore can improve our understanding on the role of auditor characteristic on audit quality. We also respond to the call from DeFond and Zhang (2014) to push analysis of audit quality to the individual auditor level by examining the gender of audit partner.

Assessing the impact of the new auditor’s report

Purpose Changes to the auditor’s report have been proposed and issued internationally to provide more relevant information to users and enhance the perceived value of financial statement audits. This paper aims to investigate the impact of audit reporting changes on audit quality and audit fees in the New Zealand context. Design/methodology/approach The authors examined audit quality measured by absolute abnormal accruals and audit fees for New Zealand listed companies. Findings The evidence suggests the enhanced audit reports were followed by an improvement in audit quality as proxied by a reduction in absolute abnormal accruals upon the adoption of the new audit reporting requirements. There was also a significant increase in audit fees. Practical implications Although the new auditor reporting requirements are associated with improvements in audit quality, such benefit does not come without cost. Originality/value The study provides evidence about the impact of this recent substantial reform to auditing.

Abnormal accounting accrual Management by internal and external Market Discipline: The case of Tunisian banks in the context of the ‘Arab Spring’

Problem/Relevance: This paper deals with such market disciplinary factors as shareholder ownership, audit committee composition and Basel III prudential regulation affecting accounting manipulation measured by abnormal accruals in Tunisian banks in the event of managerial deviation from regulatory requirements Research Objective/Questions : The aim of this study is to estimate the abnormal accruals that measure the accounting manipulation, and to test the effect of disciplinary and regulatory factors accordingly to The spring Arab revolution, on accounting Manipulation. Methodology: We propose to construct abnormal accruals as an endogenous variable, using the classic Kothari model (2005), in order to explain them by means of the “difference-in-difference” estimation approach (DID), understand the significance of the evolution of the manipulation, and explain these accruals using internal and external disciplinary factors. On the other hand, we use the credit risk portfolio manipulation theory advocated by Nessim (2003) and Repullo (2007), to understand the concept of actual venture capital of Tunisian banks after the Arab Revolution. Major Findings : The results show that the situation of Tunisian banks has dramatically worsened since the Tunisian Revolution. The DID approach showed an exacerbation of abnormal accruals and a manipulation transfer from net income smoothing to credit portfolio value smoothing in order to reach a healthy financial situation. This aggravation is linked to the market discipline deterioration, the shareholders, the external auditors and the supervisory board. Implications : Before the Revolution, accounting manipulation was mainly caused by banking undercapitalization that led managers to offer more risky credit in a diluted ownership market and in an informational asymmetry situation characterized by the absence of the audit committee. After the Revolution, accounting manipulation resulted from an overcapitalization situation, which led managers to grant more risky credit. To circumvent the shareholders’ supervisory power, managers manipulated credit portfolio values, offering a low level of credit risk, and circulating false beliefs for shareholders and depositors. This was done when prudential supervision was weak, leading to an information asymmetry and long-term conflict of interest between external auditors and managers through abnormal remuneration and a long relationship.