Our study aims to investigate the effect of transition from Big 4 to Big 3 audit market on audit pricing competitiveness using a sample of Japanese listed firms from 2004 to 2014. First, we compare Big N audit fee premium earned from clients in large and small market segments. We find an...

This paper examines the materiality guidance for eight of the largest U.S. and international public accounting firms. Knowledge of how materiality guidance is integrated into a firm's methodology is important for accounting and auditing researchers as well as for practitioners, regulators, and...

While contemporary auditing standards such as ISA 315 provide broad categories of client risks, prior research regarding audit resource allocation decisions has been based on individual client risks. This study contributes to the literature by using factor analysis to examine how individual...

The Japanese Institute of Certified Public Accountants (JICPA) formerly issued a standard audit fees table in accordance with the Certified Public Accountants Law. This table was intended to serve as a reference for the determination of audit fees, but in practice, the standard fees were applied...

We study events surrounding ChuoAoyama’s failed audit of Kanebo, a large Japanese cosmetics company whose management engaged in a massive accounting fraud. ChuoAoyama was PwC’s Japanese affiliate and one of Japan’s “Big Four” audit firms. In May 2006, the Japanese Financial Services...

This study provides evidence on how local office growth affects audit quality. We predict that significant recent growth will temporarily stress office resources, leading to a negative relation between office-level growth and audit quality. To test this prediction, we examine a sample of 17,062...

We study events surrounding ChuoAoyama’s failed audit of Kanebo, a large Japanese cosmetics company whose management engaged in a massive accounting fraud. ChuoAoyama was PwC’s Japanese affiliate and one of Japan’s largest audit firms. In May 2006, the Japanese Financial Services Agency...

I examine that relationship between audit partner rotation and audit quality using 4,232 Japanese listed companies from 2003 to 2006. Firstly, I find that audit-partner rotation over seven years and lead audit-partner rotation over five years have a negative relationship with abnormal accruals...