Purpose –This paper aims to focus on economic consequences of audit outcomes by investigating the concept of audit quality operationalised as seven components of audit benefits to owner-managers of small companies. Design/methodology/approach –The authors analyse survey data collected in...

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate whether or not auditor gender has an impact on the magnitude of corporate earnings management in small- and medium-sized private Finnish firms. Design/methodology/approach – The paper examines the association between auditor gender and...

"This paper examines trade credit policies of small firms operating in a bank-dominated environment (Finland). We find that creditworthiness and access to capital markets are important determinants of trade credit extended by sellers. The level of purchases is positively correlated with the...

This paper investigates whether there are differences in cosmetic earnings management between firms audited by male vs. female auditors in a sample of private Finnish firms. We find that earnings cosmetics is more likely to appear in firms audited by male auditors. Our results also indicate that...

This article investigates, from an agency perspective, whether private family firms, compared to private nonfamily firms, are more tax aggressive. Moreover, for private family firms, the effect of the extent of separation between ownership and management on tax aggressiveness is studied....

Purpose -The purpose of this paper is to investigate lender evaluations of start-up success in a sample of Finnish firms that are customers of a state-owned financial institution. The database allows the authors to examine how qualitative information, based on the personal history, firm-specific...

This study examines the use and determinants of covenants in Finnish small firms' loans. The results show that 72 of the 642 loan contracts examined include at least one covenant. Negative covenants are more common than affirmative covenants in our sample. We use loan characteristics, firm...