Professional Documents
Culture Documents
INTRODUCTION
I
nvestor reliance on audited financial information is so crucial that it garners substantial legal
liability for auditors under the 1933 and 1934 Securities Acts. However, very little
information is provided to the investor about the audits performed or the nature of the
relationship between
the auditor and client. Although potential investors can observe extreme instances of audit failures
We thank Jack Kiger for allowing us to survey his students. We also thank two anonymous referees and Theresa Libby
(editor) for helpful comments that have greatly improved the paper. All authors contributed equally to the paper and are
listed alphabetically according to last name.
Theresa Libby, Accepting Editor.
characterized by financial restatements, such direct and strong evidence of inferior audit quality
would only be obtained ex post, after an audit opinion is issued and financial statements are filed
with the SEC. Unfortunately, financial statement users have little interim information at their
disposal to develop ex ante expectations about audit quality or other related aspects of an audit
engagement, whose levels typically lie somewhere within a continuum, rather than at an extreme
endpoint.
It is difficult for investors and other external constituents to observe important qualitative
aspects of an audit engagement such as the experience level, technical competence,
conscientiousness, or objectivity of audit personnel. These and similar attributes can be expected
to vary considerably across audit engagements and may ultimately have ramifications for audit
quality. A company’s audit quality may, in turn, impact its future riskiness as an investment. Yet,
despite having the potential to be quite heterogeneous, audit quality remains an opaque concept
that can be difficult for investors to assess in the absence of such information.
Currently, the only audit-related disclosures that are routinely made to investors include the
audit fees and the audit report. The typical information presented in the audit report is quite
limited and seldom distinguishes the audit report of one company from that of another. When
faced with decisions about how to allocate their funds across companies, potential investors
should know something about the quality of a company’s audit due to potential impacts on the
reliability of the company’s financial information(Hodge 2003)and its riskiness as an investment.
Lacking other meaningful information, we anticipate that audit fees can or should provide an
important basis upon which investors form perceptions about an audit.
Previous research affirms the importance of audit fee data, indicating that audit fee
disclosures confer incremental, forward-looking information about a company’s future risks and
also impact a company’s ex ante cost of capital(Khurana and Raman 2006; Stanley 2011;
Hackenbrack et al. 2011).Numerous archival studies explicitly use audit fees and ratios of audit
fees as surrogates for audit-related attributes such as auditor independence, auditor effort, and
financial reporting audit quality(Ahmed et al. 2006; Hribar et al. 2010; Bentley et al. 2011).Other
studies assert that the magnitude of a company’s audit fees is associated with auditor
independence, auditor reporting decisions, and a company’s ex post financial reporting
quality(Simunic 1984; Davis et al. 1993; Srinidhi and Gul 2007).Several studies conclude that
abnormally large fees impair auditor independence, thus adversely impacting auditor reporting
decisions and reducing the quality of reported financial information(Gunny et al. 2007; Hoitash et
al. 2007).Finally, some evidence indicates that unusually low audit fees are associated with
impaired audit quality(Hribar et al. 2010; Gupta et al. 2012; Brandon et al. 2012).However,
despite extensive empirical-archival research that imparts various characteristics to audit fees
and/or documents associations between audit fees and audit-related outcomes, it is unclear what
investors ascertain about an audit engagement based on a given audit fee, and we are unaware of
any prior behavioral research that investigates how investors perceive audit characteristics in
light of an individual company’s audit fee.
The objectives of this research are two-fold. First, we investigate whether the provision of
additional referent information about audit fees ( percentile rank data relative to other firms in the
industry that establish a comparative benchmark) alters user perceptions of audit characteristics.
This enables us to determine what investors perceive, based on audit fees, about the audit
characteristics, and whether their perceptions coincide with the audit fee–audit characteristic
relationships identified in previous archival research. Second, we contrast the perceptions of
investors who are merely supplied with the total dollar amount of the audit fees with the
perceptions of investors who are told that a company’s audit fee is approximately average in
comparison to the audit fees of other companies within the same industry. Making this latter
comparison offers insights as to how investors perceive audit and company characteristics when
lacking additional information, consistent with the current state of audit fee disclosures.
Behavioral Research In Accounting
Volume 25, Number 2, 2013
This study reports the results of an experiment designed to assess the impact of audit fee
disclosures on investor perceptions of audit characteristics. Specifically, we manipulate the
content of audit fee disclosures to examine how investors perceive audit characteristics under
various alternative scenarios—when the audit fee presented is approximately average, abnormally
high, or abnormally low compared to the industry average, or when no benchmark information is
provided. The five audit characteristics of interest consist of: (1) auditor independence, (2) auditor
effort, (3) financial statement error, (4) audit quality, and (5) business risk.
Study participants were provided with financial information and data indicating the audit fees
paid by a fictitious company. Some of the participants also received additional information that
indicated the relative size of the audit fees compared to similar organizations. This information
was designed to aid investors in assessing the ‘‘representativeness’’ of the organization’s audit
fee. This relative size was indicated as high (96th percentile), average (52nd percentile), or low
(6th percentile) in relation to other companies in the same industry. The dollar amount of the fee
presented to the participants was the same, regardless of the relative size specified to participants.
After reviewing the financial information, participants were then surveyed about their perceptions
of the company, the audit, and the firm performing the audit.
Overall, the results of our study suggest that investors do develop perceptions about a
company and its audit based on audit fees, as we find that providing supplemental audit fee
disclosures indicating the relative magnitude of a company’s audit fees significantly influences
investor perceptions of auditor independence, auditor effort, and audit quality. Specifically, we
present evidence that when fees are presented to investors as low, average, or high (as compared
to industry averages), investors commensurately perceive audit quality and auditor effort as being
low, average, or high, respectively. When not provided with any additional information
concerning the audit fee (similar to the present state of disclosures), investors assess audit quality
and auditor effort as being average. However, we find that while investors perceive auditor
independence as low, average, and high when fees are presented as high, average, or low,
respectively, investors not provided with any relative fee information assess auditor independence
as low.1 This latter finding provides important insight into investors’ current perceptions of
auditor independence, particularly in the absence of relative or comparative information, and
suggests that it might be useful for regulators, when contemplating additional disclosure
requirements, to allocate some attention to disclosures that have the potential to enhance investor
perceptions of auditor independence. The findings of our study contribute to the forum of debate
concerning the current state of audit-related disclosures and their value for investors.
The remainder of the paper is organized as follows. In the next section we discuss the
regulation of audit fee disclosures and other initiatives designed to enhance the information set
available to investors about public company audits. Next, we provide background information on
cognitive biases and magnitude perceptions that may influence investor perceptions of audit
characteristics, and we review the relevant literature about the information content of audit fee
disclosures and formulate our hypotheses. We describe the research undertaken to test the
hypotheses. We then present the results of our analysis, concluding with a discussion of the
implications of this research, its limitations, and opportunities for future research.
INSTITUTIONAL BACKGROUND
Audit Fee Disclosures
Effective in 2001, the SEC implemented a mandatory disclosure requirement for audit fees in
response to fears that the provision of large-scale consulting services, which generated sizeable
1
This is similar to investor perceptions of independence in the high relative fees scenario.
streams of revenue for audit firms, might impair auditor independence(Markelevich et al. 2005).
The typical consulting fees derived from a client were often considerably larger in magnitude than
the audit fee revenue an accounting firm generated from the same client, exacerbating concerns
that auditors might cave in to client pressure during an audit, out of fear of losing the consulting
relationship. In order to make the relative magnitudes of audit and non-audit fees more transparent
to investors, the SEC began requiring all registrants to disclose in the proxy statements the dollar
amounts of their audit and non-audit fees, with detailed breakouts of the amounts in specific
categories. The new rule was effective for proxy statements filed after February 5, 2001(SEC
2001).2 At present, companies must disclose the dollar magnitudes of their audit fees, subdivided
into four categories: audit fees, audit-related fees, tax fees, and all other fees.
2
Thus, for companies with December 31 year-ends, the 2001 proxy included fee disclosure information for the
fiscal year ending December 31, 2000 (the initial disclosure year).
During the inspection process, the PCAOB evaluates the adequacy of the audit tests performed
and, upon conclusion, issues inspection reports documenting any specific instances in which the
auditor failed to adhere to professional standards (e.g., lacked auditor independence, failed to
conduct appropriate or sufficient testing in the circumstances at hand, or arrived at improper
conclusions from the testing performed).Lennox and Pittman (2010)conclude that PCAOB reports
do not significantly impact a client’s choice of auditor because they lack disclosure of audit
quality control weaknesses and overall audit firm quality.3
In 2007, the AICPA voluntarily launched the Center for Audit Quality (CAQ)—a self-
contained, autonomous, nonprofit organization whose mission is to enhance investor confidence
and help fortify and stabilize the capital markets vis-a`-vis initiatives to enhance the reliability
of financial information. Recently, the CAQ wrote a letter to the International Auditing and
Assurance Standards Board expressing apprehension about the lack of publicly available
information pertaining to audits and the audit process. 4 Overall, these recent initiatives highlight
concerns from the public and regulators about audit quality, auditor independence, related audit
characteristics, and the need for supplemental and enhanced information to be made available to
investors.
3
In response to more recent concerns about the lack of audit information available to investors, the PCAOB is
currently considering four potential modifications to the current format of the auditor’s report.
4
The letter was dated September 15, 2011, and is available at:http://thecaq.org/pub licpolicy/CommentLetter/
CAQCommentLetter-IAASBConsultationPaperonValueofAuditorReporting.pdf
object is in fact a member of that group, based on the limited data provided about the group
(Tversky and Kahneman 1974; Arnott 2006).Prior research demonstrates that the representative-
ness bias can significantly affect decision making, causing individuals to incorrectly base
perceptions on a limited data set and ascribe certain value to it(Uecker and Kinney 1977).Thus, in
the audit fee setting, if individuals perceive an audit fee as being ‘‘representative’’ of the audit fees
for similar organizations, they may incorrectly ascribe certain characteristics (e.g., average audit
quality) to the audit. In the absence of additional information to suggest that the size of an audit fee
is atypical, we conjecture that investors will, by default, assume that the audit fees presented and
their associated characteristics are about average. If users fail to identify ‘‘outlier’’ situations in
which a fee is abnormally high or low, they may also consequently fail to associate such an
unusually high or low audit fee with its related consequences, thus assuming that the levels of
various associated audit characteristics are about average.
Second, not only do individuals often unknowingly rely on limited information when
associating objects to groups, but prior research also indicates that individuals are frequently
overconfident in their ability to assess and estimate values due to their inability or unwillingness to
use all available information available to them(Joyce and Biddle 1981). Block and Harper (1991)
find that individuals frequently do not realistically assess their own ability to estimate, and thereby
make poor ascriptions about data. In the presence of information that helps identify the appropriate
base rate for comparison of a value, individuals can make better assessments of a value(Lim and
Benbasat 1997).However, in the absence of ad ditional information, individuals remain
overconfident in their estimates due to an unawareness of the gaps in their available information,
exacerbating the extent of any incorrect inferences about the magnitude of data. Thus, investors
who fail to recognize that they have significant gaps in their knowledge about audit characteristics
may tend to make even less accurate attributions of audit fee data.
Hypotheses
Investors develop perceptions of company and auditor attributes through disclosures provided
in the financial statements, including audit fee disclosures(Khurana and Raman 2006; Ghosh et al.
2009).At various times, supplementary disclosures have been suggested or mandated to increase
the information set available to investors, magnifying the importance of understanding how added
disclosures might impact investor decision making. The PCAOB recently requested public
comments on proposed modifications to the current audit report format. However, at times,
regulators have actually gravitated away from requirements to present additional disclosures (e.g.,
audit partner signatures). In these situations, it becomes imperative to understand investor
perceptions in the absence of additional information or disclosures. In this section, we develop
hypotheses about how investors will perceive various audit characteristics in light of audit fee
information, both with and without additional relative fee information. These hypothesized
relationships are explained next.
RESEARCH METHOD
To address our research questions, we utilized a 1 3 4 factorial design, randomly assigning
participants to one of three levels of audit fee relative size or to a control group receiving no
additional relative size indication other than the audit fee itself. The relative magnitude of the
audit fee differed among participants having the additional benchmark information. While one
treatment
group was presented with a company that had an average audit fee relative to its industry, the
second treatment group was assigned to a company with an abnormally low audit fee, and the
third treatment group was given a company that had an unusually high audit fee. We examine how
the perceptions of participants differ across the treatment groups (3) and also contrast perceptions
of the treatment group having the average relative fee with the perceptions of a control group (1)
that did not receive additional disclosures.
Participants
One hundred and fourteen accounting students were recruited to participate in the experiment.
These students were enrolled in an undergraduate auditing course and were therefore familiar with
the basic premises of auditing. The instrument was administered in two different semesters, but in
the same course. The participants were randomly assigned to groups, and an initial ANOVA
verified that there were no differences between the four groups in terms of age, gender, or
investing experience.
Task
The task performed by the participants required them to provide their perceptions about an
audit derived from viewing the financial statements of a fictitious company as part of information
presented in a case. Participants were provided with case materials that included basic financial
information about the company and an audit fee disclosure similar to that which would be found
in an annual financial statement. After reading the information in their case materials and
reviewing the audit fee disclosure, the participants were then surveyed regarding their perceptions
of the audit and the company. Through a series of specific questions, participants were asked to
provide their perceptions of auditor independence, auditor effort, financial statement error, audit
quality, and business risk.
Independent Variable
The independent variable is the audit fee relative size in the disclosure information that was
provided to the participants. Each of the four cases had the same financial information for the
scenario company, as well as the same audit fee. The audit fee paid and the financial information
provided about the company were taken from the most recent 10-K filing of a company traded on
the New York Stock Exchange. The relative size for each audit fee as compared to its industry
was arbitrarily created, with the low fee ranking in the 6th percentile, the average fee ranking in
the 52nd percentile, and the high fee ranking in the 96th percentile. 6 We selected percentiles that
were further from the center than the first and third quartiles for several reasons. First, this design
ensures that if there is no difference in perception between the average (52nd percentile) and the
tails (6th percentile and 96th percentile), we can be confident that we did not fail to detect a
change in perception simply because our rankings were too close together. Second, we
specifically designed our percentiles to be more extreme to force separation among the groups that
were given percentiles. This allows for a better comparison with the group that received no
additional information (no percentiles), which is the primary group of interest. Finally, the goal of
our study is to find differences in perceptions, not to identify the specific fee threshold where
differences in perceptions begin to emerge. Future research may seek to examine at what
percentiles investor perceptions begin to change. The audit fee was taken directly from the 10-K
filing so that it would be proportional to the size of the company that we described.7
6
The audit fee remained the same in all cases. The only change was the disclosed percentile ranking.
7
The company whose audit fee we selected is a Fortune 500 company. The average audit fee for Fortune 500 companies
is ‘‘almost $10M,’’ according to a report byAlvarez & Marsal (2007).The audit fee used of $9.8M is representative.
The manipulation of disclosure information was similar to that performed byDopuch et al.
(2003).While the audit fee dollar amount was the same for all participants, the indication
regarding the relative size of an audit fee in comparison to other companies in the same industry
differed across the treatments. Prior research indicates that the size and complexity of the client
are significant cost drivers in an audit, as they are the largest determinants of the number of hours
spent in the auditing process(Davis et al. 1993; Stein et al. 1994).Similarly,Hay et al. (2006)find
that company size alone explains more than 70 percent of the variation in audit fees. Accordingly,
we control for a company’s industry by supplying a percentile ranking for audit fees relative to
other firms in the industry whenever additional audit fee information is presented. We do not
explicitly state in our instrument that the auditor is independent in fact or appearance. The
Securities Act of 1933 requires financial statements to be certified by an independent accountant,
so we only explain that this is a Big 4 auditor auditing a company that is publicly traded on the
New York Stock Exchange (NYSE).
Dependent Variable
The hypotheses make predictions concerning investor perceptions of five characteristics
related to the audit and the company: auditor independence, auditor effort, financial statement
error, audit quality, and business risk. Investor perceptions of these attributes serve as the
dependent variables for our analysis. All variables were measured using items employing a seven-
point Likert scale (1 ¼ Strongly Disagree, 7 ¼ Strongly Agree).
Perceived auditor independence is defined as the perception that an auditor is objective and is
not willing to be persuaded by audit fees or a close relationship with the client(SEC 2001).After
viewing the various audit fee relative size indicators, participants were asked questions to
determine their perceived level of auditor independence. The literature often tests auditor
independence based on audit and/or non-audit fee measures(Chung and Kallapur 2003; Kinney et
al. 2004; Larcker and Richardson 2004).Five items were used to measure this perception. The
items focused on investor perceptions of auditor independence (auditor independence in
appearance). The items exhibited adequate reliability for a newly developed measure (alpha ¼
0.64)(DeVellis 1991).Appendix A contains the items for each construct.
Perceived auditor effort is defined as an investor’s perception of the energy and resources that
the auditor has expended on the execution of the audit. Audit fees are based on the time that the
auditors spend auditing the client. Generally, audit hours should be reflected in the audit fees, and
audit hours are correlated with auditor effort. Furthermore, research has also indicated that auditors
can increase auditor effort by elevating the experience level of the personnel assigned to an
engagement, which also increases fees(Schelleman and Knechel 2010).Fees have served as the
primary proxy for auditor effort in the literature(Liu and Wang 2006).Three items were used to
measure this variable. The items focused on investor perceptions of the amount of auditor effort
expended in the audit. The items exhibited acceptable reliability (alpha ¼ 0.86).
Perceived financial statement error is defined as the extent to which financial statement
errors are perceived by an investor to exist in the financial statements and withstand correction by
the auditor. Previous research has examined the relation between audit judgments and financial
statement errors(Kinney 1979; Butt 1988).While participants have no real indication of financial
statement error, they are able to develop perceptions of financial statement error based on the
audit fee relative size. Three items were used to measure participants’ perception that errors
existed in the financial statement information. The focus of the items was to assess participants’
perceptions of the financial statements after the audit has been performed and to assess what
impact various audit fee relative size indicators have on perceptions of error in the financial
statements. The items exhibited adequate reliability for a newly developed measure (alpha ¼
0.67)(DeVellis 1991).
Perceived audit quality is defined as the perception that the auditor will both discover a
material misstatement and report it(DeAngelo 1981).Audit quality has frequently been measured
using abnormal accruals, financial statement restatements, or other surrogates for accounting
‘‘irregularities’’ developed in the archival literature(Reynolds and Francis 2000; Romanus et al.
2008; Francis and Yu 2009).Four items were used to measure audit quality from a broad
perspective. The items focused on perceptions of the overall quality of the audit. The focus was
not the quality of the company or investment. The items exhibited acceptable reliability (alpha ¼
0.91).
Perceived business risk is defined as the perception that the company’s economic condition
will deteriorate in either the short or long term(Huss and Jacobs 1991).The impact of the external
audit function on business risk has been assessed previously(Johnstone 2000; Stanley 2011).
However, our focus is to measure investor perceptions of business risk based on the audit fee
relative size. Four items were used to measure investors’ perception of business risk. The items
exhibited acceptable reliability (alpha ¼ 0.84).
Control Variables
Data collection period was included as a control variable to factor out any differences due to
participants providing data during the two different collection periods. The factor was coded as
1,0, indicating whether the data were collected in the first or second time period.
Invests was also included as a control variable to account for the influence of participant
investing experience on outcomes. This factor was coded as 1,0, indicating whether the participant
had investing experience.
Procedures
Participants were recruited through announcements in an undergraduate auditing course.
While no monetary reward was provided, participants were incented to participate via bonus
points in the course. Participants were awarded points based on participation rather than monetary
incentives based on performance. Our focus is on participant perception, not performance. We did
not want to cloud perceptions by incentivizing some type of performance. Participants were
provided with brief instructions of the study process. They were then provided with an
information sheet, the case, and the corresponding questionnaire all clipped to the front of an
envelope. All participants were presented with the same questions to measure perceptions for each
of the five dependent variables. The participants were instructed that once the questionnaire was
completed, it should be placed in the envelope and not be referenced. Participants were observed
while completing the questionnaires to ensure that they did not deviate from the directive. After
reviewing the case and completing the questionnaire, participants were instructed to complete a
separate questionnaire. This second set of items included questions to determine the participants’
perceptions of the riskiness of the current stock market, their likelihood of investing in the market,
their perceptions about the role of audits and auditors, as well as a manipulation check for the
independent variable. Participants took approximately 20 minutes to complete both phases of the
study. A time limit was not imposed on the participants.
RESULTS
Descriptive Statistics
One hundred fourteen participants completed the experiment. To verify the success of the
treatment, participants were asked a manipulation check question to determine whether they had
accurately recognized their treatment group. Only two participants incorrectly identified their
treatment group and were subsequently dropped from the analysis, resulting in 112 cases for
analysis. Table 1 displays the number of participants (n) by data collection period, audit fee
relative
TABLE 1
Between-Subject Factors
n
Data collection period 1 49
2 63
Audit fee relative size None 30
Low 26
Average 28
High 28
Invests 0 64
1 48
size (treatment), and investing experience (invests). The average age of the participants was 22.8,
and 41.2 percent were female. The majority of the participants were accounting majors (89.4
percent), and 42 percent of the participants reported that they were currently or had been investors
in the stock market. Table 2 displays the descriptive statistics for the dependent variables by
treatment and construct.
The descriptive statistics for auditor independence show the most variation. The participants
assigned to the low relative audit fee group were neutral (mean ¼ 19.08, assuming a neutral score
of 20 [rating of 4 3 5 items]) when it came to their perceptions of auditor independence. They
neither agreed nor disagreed with the statements assessing auditor independence. However, all
other groups were skeptical of auditor independence. The group with the high relative audit fee
was most skeptical of auditor independence, as its participants indicated that they disagreed that
the auditor was independent (mean ¼ 12.00). The group with the average relative audit fee was
skeptical of
TABLE 2
Descriptive Statistics
Auditor Auditor Financial Audit Business
Independence Effort Statement Error Quality Risk
(5 Items) (3 Items) (3 Items) (4 Items) (4 Items)
Group Mean (SD) Mean (SD) Mean (SD) Mean (SD) Mean (SD)
No additional information 12.90 (3.3) 14.77 (3.1) 11.26 (3.1) 17.57 (4.2) 19.50 (3.9)
n ¼ 30
Low relative audit fee 19.08 (4.0) 10.77 (4.2) 10.73 (3.0) 14.35 (5.9) 18.54 (4.8)
n ¼ 26
Average relative audit fee 14.96 (4.3) 14.29 (3.0) 10.46 (2.6) 17.57 (4.1) 20.46 (3.2)
n ¼ 28
High relative audit fee 12.00 (3.6) 15.00 (3.3) 10.75 (3.5) 18.61 (5.1) 19.64 (4.7)
n ¼ 28
Descriptive statistics are displayed by group and construct. The audit fee for each group remained unchanged while the
relative range presented in addition to the fixed audit fee did change—no relative range (no additional information), low
relative audit fee, average relative audit fee, and high relative audit fee. The data were coded such that an increase in
magnitude for any construct would indicate an increase in perception of that construct. The mean is calculated by
summing the seven-point scale scores for all observations and dividing by the total observations.
TABLE 3
Multivariate ANOVA
Effect Value F Hypothesis df Error df Sig.
Intercept 0.994 3338.825 5 102 0.000
Group 0.498 4.137 15 312 0.000
Data collection period 0.129 3.013 5 102 0.014
Invests 0.126 2.947 5 102 0.016
Multivariate tests were performed to test for significance of the model and for significant differences between groups.
The measured perceptions of the constructs serve as the dependent variable. The independent variable is the fee-level
treatment. The model controls for data collection time as well as investing experience. Both control variables are binary
variables as data were collected only twice and investing experience is a yes or no answer. ‘‘Value’’ represents the test
statistic for each effect.
auditor independence, but not to the extent of the high relative audit fee group (mean ¼ 14.96).
Interestingly, the perceptions of the group that was given no additional information were similar
to those of the group with the high relative audit fee (mean
¼ 12.90). These participants indicated
that they disagreed with the statement regarding auditor independence.
Regarding perceptions of auditor effort, Table 2 indicates that the group with no additional
information ‘‘slightly agreed’’ with items indicating that the auditors exerted sufficient auditor
¼
effort on the engagement (mean 14.77, assuming a neutral score of 12 [rating of 4 3 3 items]).
The group with the low relative audit fee was most skeptical of auditor effort (mean ¼ 10.77). As the
relative audit fee levels increased, perceptions of auditor effort increased, as expected.
The statistics for financial statement error are fairly similar across all four groups. The
statistics for each group are just below the neutral value of 12.00 (rating of 4 3 3 items). This
indicates that they did not perceive financial statement error to change as a result of changes in
relative audit fee levels. All groups similarly perceived that the business risk of the company was
higher rather than lower regardless of relative audit fee (all above neutral value of 16.00 [rating of
4 3 4 items]). Finally, all groups other than the low relative audit fee group had a slightly positive
perception of audit quality (above the neutral value of 16.00 [rating of 4 3 4 items]). The low
relative audit fee group had a slightly negative perception of audit quality (mean ¼ 14.35).
TABLE 4
Univariate ANOVAs
Type III Sum Mean
Source Dependent Variable of Squares df Square F Sig.
Corrected model Auditor independence 821.973 5 164.395 11.328 0.000
Auditor effort 440.861 5 88.172 8.252 0.000
Financial statement error 49.702 5 9.94 1.078 0.377
Audit quality 312.552 5 62.51 2.653 0.027
Business risk 61.713 5 12.343 0.688 0.634
Data collection period Auditor independence 0.305 1 0.305 0.021 0.885
Auditor effort 89.219 1 89.219 8.35 0.005
Financial statement error 27.89 1 27.89 3.025 0.085
Audit quality 9.437 1 9.437 0.401 0.528
Business risk 0.241 1 0.241 0.013 0.908
Group Auditor independence 798.966 3 266.322 18.352 0.000
Auditor effort 331.012 3 110.337 10.327 0.000
Financial statement error 9.077 3 3.026 0.328 0.805
Audit quality 283.325 3 94.442 4.008 0.010
Business risk 42.642 3 14.214 0.792 0.501
Invests Auditor independence 20.676 1 20.676 1.425 0.235
Auditor effort 42.962 1 42.962 4.021 0.047
Financial statement error 10.421 1 10.421 1.13 0.290
Audit quality 31.012 1 31.012 1.316 0.254
Business risk 11.268 1 11.268 0.628 0.430
Error Auditor independence 1538.277 106 14.512
Auditor effort 1132.559 106 10.685
Financial statement error 977.361 106 9.22
Audit quality 2497.724 106 23.563
Business risk 1901.965 106 17.943
Total Auditor independence 26316 112
Auditor effort 22831 112
Financial statement error 14121 112
Audit quality 35485 112
Business risk 44786 112
Corrected total Auditor independence 2360.25
Auditor effort 1573.42
Financial statement error 1027.063
Audit quality 2810.277
Business risk 1963.679
Univariate tests were performed to test for significant difference between groups by dependent variable. The measured
perceptions of the constructs serve as the dependent variable. The groups are defined by the fee-level treatment. The
ANOVA procedure tests the effect of the group and is based on the linearly independent pair-wise comparisons among
the estimated marginal means.
8
Table 5 only provides the pair-wise comparisons for auditor independence, auditor effort, and audit quality. We
have no reason to believe that pairwise comparisons would provide any insight for financial statement error and
business risk, given the lack of significance for these variables in our univariate tests.
88 Beck, Fuller, Muriel, and Reid
TABLE 5
Pair-Wise Comparisons
Comparison Mean
Dependent Variable Treatment Group Group Difference Sig.
Pair-wise comparisons were performed for each dependent variable that was found to have significant differences within
groups from the univariate ANOVA analysis. The measured perceptions of independence, effort, and quality are presented
along with the groups defined by the fee-level treatment.
and audit quality. However, we find that perceptions by participants not provided the audit fee
relative size information were significantly different from those with lower audit fee relative size
for auditor independence (p ¼ 0.000), auditor effort ( p ¼ 0.000), and audit quality ( p ¼ 0.077).
This provides partial support for our hypothesis, indicating that the participant perceptions of
auditor
Discussion
The results indicate that as the relative size of the audit fee increases from low to high,
perceived auditor effort and perceived audit quality increase, while perceived auditor
independence decreases. More importantly, in the absence of an indication of audit fee relative
size, investors perceive audit effort and audit quality similarly to investors who are told that the
audit fee relative size is average to high, but their perceptions of auditor independence are similar
to those of investors who are told that the audit fee relative size is low.
Participants who were not given any additional information concerning the audit fee
perceived auditor effort similarly to participants provided with the average audit fee size indicator.
In the absence of information, they perceived auditor effort as slightly greater than did the
participants provided with average audit fee relative sizes, but perceived effort as lower than did
participants provided with the high relative audit fee. The same pattern is found with the audit
quality construct. As the relative audit fee increases from low to high, perceptions of audit quality
increased from low to high. This also makes intuitive sense based on the same reasoning as
described for auditor effort. In the case of no information, the perception of audit quality is the
same as it was for participants receiving the average relative audit fee. Like auditor effort, audit
quality is perceived as somewhat average in the absence of additional audit fee information.
Auditor independence was perceived differently, however. Participants perceived the low
relative audit fee as indicating the highest level of auditor independence. Perceived auditor
independence decreased as the relative size of the audit fee increased. This is similar to the finding
ofDavis and Hollie (2008),who examine non-audit fee disclosures in an experimental market and
find that as the ratio of non-audit fees to audit fees increases, potential investors perceive less
auditor independence. Interestingly, in our study, in the absence of information, participants
perceive relatively low auditor independence. Based on the findings of the other constructs, we
would expect this group to look somewhat average in its perceptions. This finding helps
supplement our understanding of investor perceptions of auditor independence by showing that, in
the absence of any other data, investors tend to be skeptical of auditor independence.
The other two constructs, business risk and financial statement error, show no results. For the
business risk construct, the mean perceptions do not significantly differ based on the relative size
of the audit fee provided. Even as perceived auditor effort and audit quality increase with higher
relative sizes of audit fees, investors do not perceive similar decreases in business risk. This
suggests that investors only view audit-related risk as a small component of business risk. The
method used to measure perceptions of business risk was more focused on company than audit
risk or financial statement risk. Investors likely properly assessed that high audit quality does
not
90 Beck, Fuller, Muriel, and Reid
necessarily reduce the inherent business risk faced by the company or the numerous risks that are
external to the company and unaffected by the audit.
The level of perceived financial statement error also did not vary based on the relative size of
the audit fee provided. Table 2 shows that perceptions of financial statement error were not
significantly different across the various relative sizes of audit fee treatments. Given that users,
meanwhile, perceived differences in audit quality, this suggests that users define audit quality in a
broader realm than as a mere absence of financial statement errors after an audit, recognizing that
there can be differences in the quality of companies’ accounting estimates, even absent accounting
treatments that are blatantly erroneous. Not surprisingly, it seems that other factors may more
strongly impact perceptions of financial statement accuracy than the relative size of audit fees.
Limitations
As in all research, there are some potential limitations to the generalizability of the study’s
findings that should be acknowledged. The first limitation is the use of students as subjects.
Although 42 percent of the students reported some investing experience, their experience is likely
limited and not representative of that of individuals with more investment experience. However,
these students are likely representative of non-professional investors, who have less time and less
knowledge about financial statements and the ramifications of the information provided through
these statements.Elliott et al. (2007)provide an analysis of the effects of the use of students
(M.B.A.) as proxies for non- professional investors. The analysis rests on the integrative
complexity of the task being performed. Our participants were merely asked to report their
perceptions of given constructs. Given the low level of integrative complexity of this task, we feel
that our participants were fully capable of performing the tasks. Furthermore, given our interest in
the manner in which non-professional investors develop perceptions about an organization and
audit work performed on the basis of financial statement information, these participants likely go
through similar assessment processes to develop these perceptions and are likely valid
representatives of that investing group. We have no reason to believe that using graduate students
or ‘‘professional’’ investors would have dramatically improved our external validity given our
focus on perceptions. While different groups such as M.B.A.s or analysts may have resulted in
different mean observations by construct, the variations between groups (our primary focus)
should remain unchanged. However, this is certainly an avenue for future research. As our control
variable for investing experience indicates that prior investment experience does influence results,
additional research is warranted to determine the nature of this influence and the extent to which it
is strengthened or weakened with varying degrees of investment experience.
Another limitation is that the participants were mostly accounting majors in an auditing
course. This may have caused them to overweight the importance of the audit fee because they
were more aware of its implications. Our subjects should be at least as informed, if not more so,
than the population to which this study strives to generalize. As a result, the results should be
considered tentatively in regard to generalization of specific portions of the results to the investing
public. However, we feel that the assessment and perceptual processes exhibited by our subjects
are likely similar to the population at large. Again, the participants’ heightened awareness of the
audit fees may have affected the magnitude of the means tabulated for each construct; however, it
is less likely to affect the differences between groups. Future research could examine the degree to
which various levels of experience with accounting constructs influences investor behavior and
perceptions about the organizations represented in the financial statements they examine.
A limitation of our study, compared toDopuch et al. (2003)andDavis and Hollie (2008),is
that we do not control for independence in fact. These studies manipulate independence in fact by
stating whether reports provided to participants are biased (unbiased reports indicate that the
auditor is independent in fact). We do not provide any such information because two of the
constructs we
CONCLUSION
This study analyzes investor perceptions of audit engagement attributes based on the
presentation of audit fee relative size. The results indicate that users of financial information make
different assessments of audit quality, auditor effort, and auditor independence based on the way
that an audit fee is presented. Investors perceive commensurate increases in both auditor effort
and audit quality as the relative magnitude of the audit fee increases. Perhaps most importantly,
our study indicates that when additional contextual information is presented to indicate that audit
fees are unusually high, investors exhibit concerns about auditor independence. Interestingly,
when audit fee data are presented in a format that follows current disclosure rules and does not
provide additional benchmark information, investors also appear to exhibit similar concerns about
auditor independence.
This study also contributes to the literature in three primary ways. First, this study adds
breadth to the extant disclosure literature. While some would argue that more disclosure is better,
we should continue to investigate the quality of disclosures and investor perceptions of or
reactions to those disclosures. While we do not necessarily propose a superior framework for
disclosure, this issue should be studied further. Additionally, this paper contributes to existing
literature about the information contained in audit fees. An important conclusion emerges from
our study, which is that investors do appear to make a distinction between overall audit quality
and a mere absence of specific financial statement errors. Audit fees are one of the few proxies
that researchers and investors have for various audit characteristics. The results indicate that
investors can use audit fees to gather information about audit characteristics. Finally, this paper
contributes to the auditor independence literature. Auditor independence is one of the fundamental
requirements of a quality audit. Based on the results, when no additional benchmark data are
provided about the magnitude of the audit fee, we find that investors are skeptical of auditor
independence, perceiving it as low. Auditors may want to work with regulators to provide
information to investors that can be more useful for evaluating auditor performance and help
eliminate this bias.
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APPENDIX A
CONSTRUCT QUESTIONS
Construct Item
Auditor independence I believe that this client is economically important to the audit firm.
I believe that the audit firm would be willing to end its relationship with this
client.
I believe the auditors are independent evaluators of the financial information
for Company X.
The audit firm is reliant upon having Company X as a client.
I believe that the auditor’s work was not inappropriately impacted by pressure
from the client.
Auditor effort The auditors put forth sufficient effort to properly audit this client.
Based on the fee information, I believe the auditors spent the sufficient
number of hours to audit this client.
The company is receiving the proper amount of attention from its auditor.
Financial statement error I believe that the financial information presented for Company X is accurate.
Based on the audit fee information, I believe this company’s financial
information did not contain errors subsequent to the audit.
Based on the audit fee information, the company’s financial information
presented is a fair representation of the company’s actual financial
condition.
Audit quality I believe the company received a quality audit.
The company received an audit that can be relied upon.
The audit of Company X was performed thoroughly.
The audit should have been performed better for the company.
Business risk This investment is a risky investment.
I feel confident in the continued performance of this investment.
I would keep this stock in my portfolio.
This stock provides a stable return.
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