IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/pep/journl/v1y1991i1p45-59.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

An Agency Perspective of Auditor Change in Small Firms

Author

Listed:
  • Kevin Keasey

    (Leeds University)

  • Robert Watson

    (University of Manchester Institute of Science & Technology)

Abstract

This paper uses an agency theory perspective to develop an understanding of the determinants of auditor change for small firms in the United Kingdom. The paper, therefore, extends the existing literature (see Williams [22] and Francis and Wilson [9]) from a consideration of auditor change for large firms in the United States to small firms in the U.K. The results indicate that small U.K. firms have a greater propensity to change their auditors subsequent to the receipt of a first-time audit qualification, to a change in the composition of their board of directors, to a change in their use of external loan capital, and when their existing loans are not secured. The results indicate some support for the agency arguments examined, though there is also evidence of auditor ‘accommodation’ being sought.

Suggested Citation

  • Kevin Keasey & Robert Watson, 1991. "An Agency Perspective of Auditor Change in Small Firms," Journal of Entrepreneurial Finance, Pepperdine University, Graziadio School of Business and Management, vol. 1(1), pages 45-59, Spring.
    • Handle: RePEc:pep:journl:v:1:y:1991:i:1:p:45-59
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://jefsite.org/RePEc/pep/journl/jef-1991-01-1-e-keasey.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Jensen, Michael C. & Meckling, William H., 1976. "Theory of the firm: Managerial behavior, agency costs and ownership structure," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 3(4), pages 305-360, October.
    2. Healy, Paul & Lys, Thomas, 1986. "Auditor changes following big eight mergers with non-big eight audit firms," Journal of Accounting and Public Policy, Elsevier, vol. 5(4), pages 251-265.
    3. Black, Fischer & Scholes, Myron S, 1973. "The Pricing of Options and Corporate Liabilities," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 81(3), pages 637-654, May-June.
    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. Storey, D. J., 2002. "Education, training and development policies and practices in medium-sized companies in the UK: do they really influence firm performance?," Omega, Elsevier, vol. 30(4), pages 249-264, August.

    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. Bettis, J. Carr & Bizjak, John & Coles, Jeffrey L. & Kalpathy, Swaminathan, 2018. "Performance-vesting provisions in executive compensation," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 66(1), pages 194-221.
    2. Jobst, Andreas A., 2014. "Measuring systemic risk-adjusted liquidity (SRL)—A model approach," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 45(C), pages 270-287.
    3. Alexander Reisz, 1999. "Temporal Resolution of Uncertainty, the Investment Policy of Levered Firms and Corporate Debt Yields," New York University, Leonard N. Stern School Finance Department Working Paper Seires 99-044, New York University, Leonard N. Stern School of Business-.
    4. Galai, Dan & Raviv, Alon & Wiener, Zvi, 2007. "Liquidation triggers and the valuation of equity and debt," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 31(12), pages 3604-3620, December.
    5. Luc Renneboog & Peter G. Szilagyi, 2008. "Corporate Restructuring and Bondholder Wealth," European Financial Management, European Financial Management Association, vol. 14(4), pages 792-819, September.
    6. Ravenscroft, Sue & Williams, Paul F., 2009. "Making imaginary worlds real: The case of expensing employee stock options," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 34(6-7), pages 770-786, August.
    7. Agarwal, Vikas & Daniel, Naveen D. & Naik, Narayan Y., 2009. "Role of managerial incentives and discretion in hedge fund performance," CFR Working Papers 04-04, University of Cologne, Centre for Financial Research (CFR).
    8. Peter Chinloy & James Musumeci, 1994. "Shopping Center Financing: Pricing Loan Default Risk," Journal of Real Estate Research, American Real Estate Society, vol. 9(1), pages 49-64.
    9. M. Dutordoir & L. Van De Gucht, 2004. "Are European Convertibles More Debt-Like than the US Issues? An Empirical Analysis," Review of Business and Economic Literature, KU Leuven, Faculty of Economics and Business (FEB), Review of Business and Economic Literature, vol. 0(4), pages 533-568.
    10. Hussein Abdoh & Yu Liu, 2021. "Executive risk incentives, product market competition, and R&D," The Financial Review, Eastern Finance Association, vol. 56(1), pages 133-156, February.
    11. Fich, Eliezer M. & White, Lawrence J., 2005. "Why do CEOs reciprocally sit on each other's boards?," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 11(1-2), pages 175-195, March.
    12. Cuypers, I.R.P., 2009. "Essays on equity joint ventures, uncertainty and experience," Other publications TiSEM 8dc79e86-c625-467f-a450-8, Tilburg University, School of Economics and Management.
    13. DeYoung, Robert & Huang, Minjie, 2021. "The external effects of bank executive pay: Liquidity creation and systemic risk," Journal of Financial Intermediation, Elsevier, vol. 47(C).
    14. Kenneth Shaw, 2012. "CEO incentives and the cost of debt," Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting, Springer, vol. 38(3), pages 323-346, April.
    15. Delgado, J. & Salas, V. & Saurina, J., 2007. "Joint size and ownership specialization in bank lending," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 31(12), pages 3563-3583, December.
    16. Muurling, Rutger & Lehnert, Thorsten, 2004. "Option-based compensation: a survey," The International Journal of Accounting, Elsevier, vol. 39(4), pages 365-401.
    17. Atif Ikram & Zhichuan (Frank) Li & Travis MacDonald, 2020. "CEO Pay Sensitivity (Delta and Vega) and Corporate Social Responsibility," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(19), pages 1-20, September.
    18. Gast¨®n S. Milanesi & Emilio El Alabi & Gabriela Pesce, 2015. "Continuity or Liquidation in Situations of Ambiguity: Fuzzy Binomial Model to Valuate Leveraged Firms," Research in Applied Economics, Macrothink Institute, vol. 7(1), pages 26-47, March.
    19. Min Jung Kang & Y. Han (Andy) Kim & Qunfeng Liao, 2020. "Do bankers on the board reduce crash risk?," European Financial Management, European Financial Management Association, vol. 26(3), pages 684-723, June.
    20. O’Connor, Matthew & Rafferty, Matthew & Sheikh, Aamer, 2013. "Equity compensation and the sensitivity of research and development to financial market frictions," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 37(7), pages 2510-2519.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Auditor; Small Firm; Auditor Change; Agency;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • L25 - Industrial Organization - - Firm Objectives, Organization, and Behavior - - - Firm Performance
    • M41 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting; Personnel Economics - - Accounting - - - Accounting
    • G32 - Financial Economics - - Corporate Finance and Governance - - - Financing Policy; Financial Risk and Risk Management; Capital and Ownership Structure; Value of Firms; Goodwill

    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:pep:journl:v:1:y:1991:i:1:p:45-59. 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: Craig Everett (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/bapepus.html .

    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.