We examine whether short sellers are interested in, and capable of, identifying firms with an upcoming revelation of Internal Control Material Weaknesses (ICMW). We show that short sellers accumulate positions in firms that are about to disclose ICMW under Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act...

Offshoring of accounting processes has become a common business practice, pursued by firms to reduce costs and focus on core competencies. However, our understanding about internal controls of these offshored processes is limited. Grounded in theory that is supported by prior literature and...

This study investigates whether material noncompliance (MNC) with laws and regulations and internal control deficiencies (ICDs) in a nonprofit charitable organization (NPO) affect the likelihood that the NPO receives a going concern audit opinion (GCO) and the viability of the NPO. I find that...

Advanced audit data analytics tools allow auditors to analyze the entire population of accessible client transactions. Though this approach has measurable benefits for audit efficiency and effectiveness, auditors caution that it does not incrementally increase the level of assurance expressed...

In this paper we investigate why auditors fail to report material weaknesses in internal controls (ICMWs) in advance of misstated audited financial statements. To address this question, we analyze Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB) proprietary data on audit clients' internal...

In most European countries, U.S.-owned subsidiaries are required by law to file separate entity financial statements in local GAAP. We use this unique institutional setting to examine whether the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 (SOX) had a flow-through effect on the earnings quality of local GAAP...

Because internal control audits never existed before the passage of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX), and these audits became mandatory for all U.S. accelerated filer companies at the same time, it has been difficult to assess the extent of investor demand for these audits. To understand whether...

Financial restatements have significant implications for auditor-client relationships. We estimate that a restatement increases the odds of an auditor resignation dramatically. Restatements involving fraud, reversing profit to loss and those disclosed in press releases appear to drive the...

Post-SOX (Sarbanes–Oxley Act) academic research on internal control focuses on the characteristics of publicly listed companies disclosing material control weaknesses or the consequences experienced by these companies. However, to date, limited research has empirically examined whether these...

We examine the relevance of the disclosure of internal control weaknesses (ICWs) by target firms for acquirers in making their merger-and-acquisition (M&A) decisions. Based on a sample of M&A transactions in 2005–2018, we find that acquirers offer lower premiums for targets that disclose ICWs...