Much of the contemporary accounting literature has focused on Big 4 firms. Yet, mid-size and smaller firms are also important actors in the accounting field and are increasingly competing with Big 4 firms for market share. Rooted in a theoretical framework based on Bourdieusian scholarship, we...

Recent research in other disciplines suggests that range (i.e., a broad base of experience in more than one domain) may lead to higher performance under certain conditions. We apply this idea in the context of auditing, examining how audit partner range impacts audit outcomes and how industry...

We examine the association between professionally qualified human capital and office audit quality. Using hand-collected data from 2009 to 2014 on Big 4 audit firm office CPA levels from 30 U.S. cities, we find that offices with relatively more professionally qualified human capital deliver...

This study investigates accounting firm office mergers and acquisitions (M&A). It explores whether office M&A affect post-acquisition office audit quality, particularly whether there is a spillover effect on the existing client base of the acquiring office. We capitalize on a unique...

This study investigates how non-Big 4 firm audit partners' Big 4 experience is valued by the audit market. The Big 4 audit firms have differentiated themselves as nationally recognized firms for whose services companies are willing to pay a premium. It is unclear, however, whether this...

We conduct a 2x2x2 between-subjects experiment with over 200 accounting and finance managers and executives to examine how perceptions of partner fit in terms of professional experience and prior knowledge of the partner vis-à-vis company preferences affect recommendations of the audit partner....

During the time surrounding the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, the Big 4 firms either spun-off or downsized their consulting practices. However, in recent years, consulting service lines of the large accounting firms have seen a dramatic resurgence and growth. Regulators have taken notice and...

Prior literature on auditor choice in the nonprofit market has largely focused on auditor size as a measure of audit quality. We extend this literature by examining a more refined definition of nonprofit audit quality which incorporates the twelve mission industries defined by the National...

This paper examines the demand and supply side factors associated with audit partner selection and assignment in the United States. First, we examine whether audit partner gender and experience are associated with board and management gender and experience. Second, we investigate whether...

We examine auditors' use of in-house specialists (employed by auditors). We use data from PCAOB inspections of global network audit firms during 2006 to 2018, a period in which the use of specialists in audits increased from 50% to 90%. We document that the use of specialists is predictably...