IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/riibaf/v66y2023ics0275531923001812.html

The presence of local CEO, clan culture and audit pricing: Evidence from China

Author

Listed:
  • Yang, Rumeng
  • Li, Jingjing
  • Guo, Yingwen
  • Li, Shuo
  • Wu, Delin

Abstract

This paper examines whether the presence of local CEOs affects audit risk assessment and audit fees. Using a sample of Chinese listed firms, we find that firms managed by local CEOs pay lower audit fees and stronger clan culture weakens the relationship between the presence of local CEOs and audit fees. We show that the presence of local CEOs is associated with lower performance volatility and higher accounting information quality. Moreover, the firms managed by local CEOs are more likely to have local major clients. These findings suggest that lower business and audit risks are reasons for auditors charging lower audit fees to firms managed by local CEOs. Our results are robust after conducting a variety of endogeneity tests. Overall, our findings suggest that CEO locality is an important non-contractual factor affecting audit pricing.

Suggested Citation

  • Yang, Rumeng & Li, Jingjing & Guo, Yingwen & Li, Shuo & Wu, Delin, 2023. "The presence of local CEO, clan culture and audit pricing: Evidence from China," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 66(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:riibaf:v:66:y:2023:i:c:s0275531923001812
    DOI: 10.1016/j.ribaf.2023.102055
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0275531923001812
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.ribaf.2023.102055?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to

    for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Cronqvist, Henrik & Makhija, Anil K. & Yonker, Scott E., 2012. "Behavioral consistency in corporate finance: CEO personal and corporate leverage," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 103(1), pages 20-40.
    2. Hau L. Lee & Kut C. So & Christopher S. Tang, 2000. "The Value of Information Sharing in a Two-Level Supply Chain," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 46(5), pages 626-643, May.
    3. Stephen, Andrew T. & Coote, Leonard V., 2007. "Interfirm behavior and goal alignment in relational exchanges," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 60(4), pages 285-295, April.
    4. Kimberly J. Cornaggia & Gopal V. Krishnan & Changjiang Wang, 2017. "Managerial Ability and Credit Ratings," Contemporary Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 34(4), pages 2094-2122, December.
    5. Francis, Bill B. & Hasan, Iftekhar & Shen, Yinjie (Victor) & Wu, Qiang, 2021. "Do activist hedge funds target female CEOs? The role of CEO gender in hedge fund activism," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 141(1), pages 372-393.
    6. Greif, Avner & Tabellini, Guido, 2017. "The clan and the corporation: Sustaining cooperation in China and Europe," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 45(1), pages 1-35.
    7. Chyz, James A., 2013. "Personally tax aggressive executives and corporate tax sheltering," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 56(2), pages 311-328.
    8. Khan, Mozaffar & Watts, Ross L., 2009. "Estimation and empirical properties of a firm-year measure of accounting conservatism," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 48(2-3), pages 132-150, December.
    9. Amy Dittmar & Ran Duchin, 2016. "Looking in the Rearview Mirror: The Effect of Managers' Professional Experience on Corporate Financial Policy," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 29(3), pages 565-602.
    10. Antoinette Schoar & Luo Zuo, 2017. "Shaped by Booms and Busts: How the Economy Impacts CEO Careers and Management Styles," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 30(5), pages 1425-1456.
    11. Scott E. Yonker, 2017. "Do Managers Give Hometown Labor an Edge?," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 30(10), pages 3581-3604.
    12. Wang, Qian & Wong, T.J. & Xia, Lijun, 2008. "State ownership, the institutional environment, and auditor choice: Evidence from China," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 46(1), pages 112-134, September.
    13. Avner Greif & Guido Tabellini, 2010. "Cultural and Institutional Bifurcation: China and Europe Compared," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 100(2), pages 135-140, May.
    14. DeFond, Mark & Zhang, Jieying, 2014. "A review of archival auditing research," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 58(2), pages 275-326.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Yanli Li & Shengxi Xue & Xiajun Yi & Bin Zou & Stavros Sindakis, 2025. "The Clan Effect: Exploring the Nexus Between Organizational Culture, Trust, and Audit Economics," Journal of the Knowledge Economy, Springer;Portland International Center for Management of Engineering and Technology (PICMET), vol. 16(1), pages 3175-3213, March.
    2. Zhong, Xi & He, Xinming & Zhang, Wei, 2025. "Your potential knows no bounds: Do local CEOs influence firms’ overseas R&D activities?," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 192(C).
    3. Tang, Chun & Lai, Xiaobing & Liu, Xiaoxing, 2024. "Unlocking the power of roots: Local CEOs and corporate maturity mismatch," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 86(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Enkhtaivan, Bolortuya & Davaadorj, Zagdbazar, 2021. "Do they recall their past? CEOs’ liquidity policies across firms as they switch jobs," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Finance, Elsevier, vol. 29(C).
    2. Xingqiang Du & Yiqi Zhang & Shaojuan Lai & Hexin Tao, 2024. "How Do Auditors Value Hypocrisy? Evidence from China," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 191(3), pages 501-533, May.
    3. Zhong-qin Su & Yiting Zhu & Wunhong Su & Zuoping Xiao, 2025. "A fall into the pit, a gain in your wit: Top managerial career setback experience and accounting conservatism," Australian Journal of Management, Australian School of Business, vol. 50(2), pages 524-570, May.
    4. Ulrike Malmendier, 2018. "Behavioral Corporate Finance," NBER Working Papers 25162, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    5. Mariya N. Ivanova & Henrik Nilsson & Milda Tylaite, 2024. "Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery: Directors’ and CEOs’ prior bankruptcy experiences and the financial risk of their current firms," Journal of Business Finance & Accounting, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 51(1-2), pages 595-630, January.
    6. Cronqvist, Henrik & Yu, Frank, 2017. "Shaped by their daughters: Executives, female socialization, and corporate social responsibility," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 126(3), pages 543-562.
    7. Clark Liu & Johan Sulaeman & Tao Shu & P Eric Yeung, 2023. "Life is Too Short? Bereaved Managers and Investment Decisions," Review of Finance, European Finance Association, vol. 27(4), pages 1373-1421.
    8. Jeffrey Pittman & Baolei Qi & Yi Si & Zi-Tian Wang & Chongwu Xia, 2024. "Individual Auditor Social Responsibility and Audit Quality: Evidence from China," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 194(1), pages 119-144, September.
    9. Yu, Gloria Yang, 2025. "Do bank CEOs learn from banking crises?," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 166(C).
    10. DeFond, Mark & Li, Zengquan & Wong, T.J. & Wu, Kaiwen, 2024. "Competence vs. Independence: Auditors' connections with members of their clients’ business community," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 78(1).
    11. Xiao, Bingyu & Gong, Guangming & Xiao, Liang, 2025. "Does the work experience of regulatory leaders at local companies affect the productivity of state-owned enterprises? Evidence from China," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 145(C).
    12. Ke Na & Wenjia Yan, 2022. "Languages and corporate tax avoidance," Review of Accounting Studies, Springer, vol. 27(1), pages 148-184, March.
    13. Liao, Shushu & Nguyen, Nhut H. & Truong, Cameron, 2024. "Does CEO extraversion pay off when in need? Evidence from the global financial crisis," The British Accounting Review, Elsevier, vol. 56(4).
    14. Thomas R. Kubick & Yijun Li & John R. Robinson, 2020. "Tax-savvy executives," Review of Accounting Studies, Springer, vol. 25(4), pages 1301-1343, December.
    15. Long, Wenbin & Tian, Gary Gang & Hu, Jun & Yao, Daifei (Troy), 2020. "Bearing an imprint: CEOs' early-life experience of the Great Chinese Famine and stock price crash risk," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 70(C).
    16. Gunratan Lonare & Gene Lai & Sangyong Han & Chia‐Ling Ho, 2024. "CEO past distress experience and risk‐taking: Evidence from US property–liability insurance firms," Risk Management and Insurance Review, American Risk and Insurance Association, vol. 27(1), pages 5-39, April.
    17. Sebastian Kronenberger & Volker Laux, 2022. "Conservative Accounting, Audit Quality, and Litigation," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 68(3), pages 2349-2362, March.
    18. David S. Koo & Isabel Yanyan Wang & Shuting Wu, 2026. "Memory, Retrieved Context, and Bias in Management Earnings Forecasts," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 72(3), pages 2451-2476, March.
    19. Yongjun Tang & Qi Li & Fen Zhou & Mingjia Sun, 2024. "Does Clan Culture Promote Corporate Natural Resource Disclosure? Evidence from Chinese Natural Resource-Based Listed Companies," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 192(1), pages 167-190, June.
    20. Liwei Shan & Albert Tsang & Xiaoxue Zhang, 2024. "Transporting Audit Quality Across Countries: Returnee CEOs and Audit Fees," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 192(4), pages 845-874, July.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:riibaf:v:66:y:2023:i:c:s0275531923001812. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/ribaf .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.