We exploit the technological closeness among clients of the same auditor to examine whether auditors accumulate knowledge from their clients’ technological proximity. We find that a client firm’s technological proximity to other clients of its audit office improves audit quality and results...

We examine whether auditors respond to cybersecurity risks by investing more heavily in cybersecurity human capital. Additionally, we explore auditors’ role in helping their non-breached clients in raising cybersecurity awareness and investing in cybersecurity personnel. We find that audit...

We examine which of two opposing financial reporting incentives that group-affiliated firms experience shapes their accounting transparency evident in auditor choice. In one direction, complex group structure and intra-group transactions enable controlling shareholders to pursue diversionary...

We extend prior research by exploring the importance of social ties among auditors' clients to audit quality. On one hand, social ties foster communication among clients concerning how to deal with an auditor, helping clients negotiate against proposed audit adjustments. On the other hand,...

Capitalizing on a unique setting in China where auditors disclose their prosocial activities, we examine the role that auditor social responsibility (ASR) plays in shaping their performance. In one direction, the behavior consistency theory implies that individual auditors exhibiting more social...

This study shows that auditors are more likely to charge higher audit fees, issue false-positive going concern opinions (i.e., Type I error), and resign from high asset redeployability (AR) firms. In supplemental tests, we use path analysis to show that the significant associations between AR...

We examine the importance of analysts covering firms with common audit partners to analyst earnings forecast performance (hereafter, we term the analyst, auditor, and the firm as being “common”). We find that analysts issue more accurate and less optimistically biased earnings forecasts for...

We analyze whether information asymmetry affects three major aspects of the audit process using an instrumental variables research design that exploits exogenous increases in information asymmetry stemming from brokerage house mergers and closures. Consistent with our predictions, we find that a...