Empirical Evidence on the Implicit Determinants of Compensation in Big 4 Audit Partnerships

This study investigates the implicit financial incentives of individual Big 4 audit partners by examining the association between a partner's compensation and characteristics of the audit firm, audit partner, and individual partner clientele for Big 4 firms in Sweden. Using tax and financial data for individual audit partners and clients, our empirical findings indicate that there is significant variation in the implicit determinants that are associated with compensation across the Big 4. We find that audit partners’ compensation is positively associated with the size of their clientele or the number of publicly traded clients, both of which represent revenue‐generating opportunities. Similarly, compensation and developing an industry specialization are positively related. In three firms, gaining clients is clearly related to an increase in compensation, while losing a client is associated with a reduction in partner income in only one firm. We find that audit partner income is more sensitive to performance‐related incentives, such as attracting new clients, as partners progress in their career. Finally, we find evidence that audit failures, proxied by reporting errors related to issuing a going concern opinion, are associated with lower compensation. These results should be of interest to the auditing profession, audit firms, and regulators when they consider the effects of implicit incentives of partner compensation on audit quality.     

The impact of M&A and joint ventures on the value of IT and non-IT firms

This paper aims to study and provide empirical evidence on the impact of mergers and acquisitions (M&A) and joint ventures on the value of IT and non-IT firms. Using the event study methodology, we investigate the effect of such strategic alliance announcements on firm value in a sample of 170 firms. The results show that such strategic alliance announcements create significant gains in firm value. When the sample is divided into IT and non-IT firms, we find stronger support for positive impact on gains in firm value among non-IT firms than among IT firms. We also find that the smaller strategic alliance partners perform better than their larger partners. However, we fail to find any significant difference in impact on firm value between merger/acquisition and joint venture announcements. This work was supported by the research fund of Hanyang University (HY-2004). JEL Classification L1 · G14 · G34     

International Taxation and the Direction and Volume of Cross-Border M&As

We show that the parent-subsidiary structure of multinational firms created by cross-border mergers and acquisitions is affected by the prospect of international double taxation. Specifically, the likelihood of parent firm location in a country following a cross-border takeover is reduced by high international double taxation of foreign-source income. At the same time, countries with high international double taxation attract smaller numbers of parent firms. A unilateral elimination of worldwide taxation by the United States is simulated to increase the proportion of parent firms locating in the United States following cross-border mergers and acquisitions from 53% to 58%.     

会计师事务所合并与审计定价——基于2003—2009年十起合并案面板数据的研究

会计师事务所合并究竟是会提高还是会降低审计收费,取决于合并后事务所声誉及市场势力提升所带来的审计溢价与规模效应所导致的审计成本降低两方面孰者相对占优。文章以我国2003—2009年间十起事务所合并案为对象,利用其上市公司客户在事务所合并前后各2年的面板数据,检验了事务所合并对审计定价的影响。结果发现,事务所合并后,其审计收费显著提高。对所有事务所客户审计费用的横向比较也印证了上述结论。研究还发现,事务所合并后第一年审计收费的提升较第二年更为明显;就稳定客户数据而言,本土事务所之间合并对审计定价的影响不如涉及"四大"的合并显著;此外,新设合并与吸收合并对审计定价的影响没有显著差异。     

Information sharing between mutual funds and auditors

This paper examines whether there is information sharing between mutual funds and their auditors about the auditors’ other listed firm clients. Using data from the Chinese market, we find that mutual funds earn higher profits from trading in firms that share the same auditors. The effects are more pronounced when firms have a more opaque information environment and when the audit partners for the fund and the partners for the listed firm share school ties. The evidence is consistent with information flowing from auditors to mutual funds, providing mutual funds with an information advantage in firms that share the same auditors. Our findings are robust to the use of audit-firm mergers and acquisitions (M&As) as exogenous shocks and several other robustness checks. We further find that auditors benefit by charging higher audit fees for mutual fund clients and by improving their audit quality for listed firm clients. Our study provides evidence of bi-directional information sharing between two important market intermediaries.     

The effect of accounting firm mergers on international markets for accounting services

The purpose of this paper is to examine the effect of the accounting firm mergers on competition in the market for accounting services. This paper investigates accounting firm concentration both before and after the accounting firm mergers in ten countries. Large firms were found to dominate the market before the mergers and this dominance was extended further following the mergers, particularly in the European market. When the performance of large and small firms was compared, large firms were found to be significantly superior both before and after the merger in some European countries, possibly indicating reduced competition. Performance of large and small firms did not significantly differ in several other countries, suggesting that high levels of concentration do not necessarily mean low levels of competition.     

Bankruptcy spillover effects on strategic alliance partners

This paper examines whether a party to a strategic alliance or joint venture suffers from spillover effects when the other partner files for bankruptcy. We find that the non-bankrupt strategic alliance partners, on average, experience a negative stock price reaction around their partner firm's bankruptcy filing announcement. This negative effect is strongest for longer partnerships and those with higher returns at the announcement of the initial alliance formation. Furthermore, horizontal alliance firms in declining industries have lower returns, indicating that industry conditions can exacerbate expected problems for the non-bankrupt firm. Non-bankrupt partners also experience drops in profit margins and investment levels in the subsequent two years with the worst performance concentrated among the longer-term agreements. There is very little impact on the returns or performance for joint venture partners, which suggests that these agreements are more insulating for the partner firm.     

Firm value and investment policy around stock for stock mergers

We study a sample of publicly traded firms that expand by acquiring other firms in pure, stock-for-stock mergers. After these mergers, we find that the diversification premium decreases for the acquiring firm due to having added a target firm trading at a discount. Furthermore, the acquiring firm experiences a decrease in investment opportunities and a decrease in leverage. This is an effect confined only to non-diversifying mergers. Our results indicate that the acquirer’s investment efficiency at the firm level remains unchanged after the merger.     

Real Estate Mergers: Corporate Control &; Shareholder Wealth

This study contributes new evidence to distinguish why mergers occur in the real estate industry by quantifying the combined firm return for nearly three decades of real estate mergers. As a measure of the overall change in shareholder wealth created by a merger, the combined firm return plays a key role in differentiating competing merger theories and is quantified for the real estate industry for the first time. Findings from this study are consistent with the notion that real estate mergers occur because firms with superior management acquire other firms that possess unexploited opportunities to cut costs and increase earnings (the inefficient management hypothesis). Furthermore, the results indicate that real estate mergers generally create wealth, as shareholders at best realize modest gains and at worst break even.     

Does ownership matter in mergers? A comparative study of the causes and consequences of mergers by family and non-family firms

Although the family firm is the dominant type among listed corporations worldwide, few papers investigate the behavioral differences between family and non-family firms. We analyze the differences in merger decisions and the consequences between them by using a unique Japanese dataset from a period of high economic growth. Empirical results suggest that family firms are less likely to merge than non-family firms are. Moreover, we find a positive relationship between pre-merger family ownership and the probability of mergers. Thus, ownership structure is an important determinant of mergers. Finally, we find that non-family firms benefit more from mergers than family firms do.     

Audit firm merger and the strategic response by large audit firms

We examine the impact of a change in the audit industry structure in China as a result of two recent mergers involving large non-Big 4 audit firms. The ‘New Big’ audit firms, Ruihua and BDO Lixin, became the third and fourth largest audit firms in China following audit firm mergers, outranking both EY and KPMG in terms of total audit revenues in 2013. We find a significant audit fee and audit quality increase for the New Big audit firms relative to the Big 4 audit firms following the mergers. While this finding could be interpreted as an increase in quality as a result of audit firm consolidation, we find that this net effect is due to a decrease in audit fees and audit quality for the Big 4 following the mergers, rather than an increase in audit fees and audit quality by the New Big audit firms. We discuss the implications of our findings for various regulators.     

Understanding partial mergers in Japan

Since the late 1990s, Japan has witnessed a substantial increase of partial mergers where two or more firms spin off whole operations in the same business and combine them into a joint venture (JV). This paper provides the first academic evidence on this phenomenon. I find that partial mergers normally occur as a response to negative economic shocks by firms that are larger and more diversified than firms in total mergers. An event study identifies positive and significant returns to partial merger announcements. Unlike total mergers whose value accrues mostly to the shareholders of small (acquired) firms, large and small firms in partial mergers receive comparable returns, which are particularly large to firms forming an equally owned JV. This study also finds that partial mergers are often ex post transformed, with equity sale between partners being the main source of change.     

Firm characteristics and long-run stock returns after corporate events

The well-documented abnormal long-run buy-and-hold returns to firms issuing equity in initial public offerings and seasoned equity offerings, firms bidding in mergers, and firms initiating dividends can be attributed to imperfect control-firm matching. In addition to firm size and market-to-book ratio, event firms on average differ from control firms in terms of idiosyncratic volatility, liquidity, return momentum, and capital investment, each of which also explains returns. We propose a simple regression-based approach to control for differences in firm characteristics across event and control firms, and we show that long-run abnormal returns do not differ significantly from zero for event firms in the 1980 to 2005 period. The returns to event firms are, therefore, consistent with patterns known to exist for the broad stock market and do not require event-specific explanations.     

Public Oversight of Audit Firms: The Slippery Slope of Enforcing Regulation

This study uses the slippery‐slope framework to understand how an oversight regulator's enforcement style influences audit firm compliance. Using data from interviews with audit regulators and audit partners, we find that partners perceive the regulator's enforcement style has shifted from being more collaborative to being more coercive. A consequence of this shift is that partners believe the development of trust between the two parties has been inhibited and a forced compliance climate has emerged. In response, firms have mandated strategies to increase the visibility of compliance, such as increasing mandatory use of checklists. Audit partners express some concern that oversight of the profession has resulted in firms adapting their audit process in ways aimed at minimizing inspection risk and not necessarily improving audit quality.     

Managerial Motives and Merger Financing

We examine how managerial motives influence the choice of financing for a sample of 209 completed mergers from 1981–1988. Our evidence indicates that bidding firm management is more likely to finance mergers with cash when target firm ownership concentration is high, preventing the creation of an outside blockholder. This suggests bidding firm managers prefer to keep ownership structure widely diffused to reduce external monitoring. We also find that bidding firm management is more likely to finance mergers with stock when the variance of bidding firm's stock return is high. This suggests managers of risky firms prefer leverage‐reducing transactions to reduce their personal risk.     

Effects of audit partners on clients’ business risk disclosure

We empirically investigate audit engagement partners’ involvement in business risk disclosure. Specifically, we examine whether the quality of business risk disclosure is influenced by engagement partner tenure and knowledge. We also examine whether the effects of partner tenure and knowledge are similar for Big 4 audit firms and non-Big 4 firms. Since fiscal year 2003, listed companies in Japan have been required to disclose business risk information. Although the business risk information is not audited, auditors concerned about their audit quality may seek to influence clients’ business risk disclosure practices. Giving advice to management on the narrative business risk disclosure can contribute to improving the perceived value of the auditor’s services which can be a competitive advantage. Using a sample of Japanese listed companies from 2003 to 2010, we find that if the engagement partners’ tenure is shorter, a company discloses more business risk information and the disclosure is more detailed. Furthermore, companies with audit partners who have a larger number of client engagements disclose larger amounts of business risk information in more detail. However, the engagement partner effects are mitigated if they belong to a Big 4 firm.     

AUDITOR CONCENTRATION AND MARKET SHARES IN THE US: 1988–1999 A DESCRIPTIVE NOTE

This paper examines from a historical perspective the effects of the Big Eight and Big Six accounting firm mergers on concentration measures and market share percentages of major accounting firms in the US large company audit market. Concentration ratios and Herfindahl indices reflect an increasingly concentrated audit market, though individual firms differ in their success at capturing market shares in the three exchanges examined, as well as in their ability to capture newly listed companies or companies switching auditors over the 1988 to 1999 period.     

A simpler way to pay

There have been many changes in professional services since Egon Zehnder founded his executive search firm nearly four decades ago--not the least of which has been a shift in the way professionals pay themselves. When he started, compensation everywhere was strongly tied to seniority. Today, partners at most professional services firms are paid according to the size of their client billings and their ability to bring in new clients. But Egon Zehnder International, which now has 57 offices worldwide, has stuck with the old-fashioned way to pay. In addition to giving partners base salaries and equal shares in a percentage of the profit, the firm apportions another fraction of the profit based only on length of tenure as partner. Yet the firm attracts outstanding consultants, and its turnover rate is low. The reasons, the author says, are simple: the firm's approach to compensation forces it to hire team players--consultants who get more pleasure from the group's success than from their own advancement. And the seniority-based system requires the firm to find people who want to stay for the long haul. Call the system a relic, says Zehnder, but don't call it nonsense. It works. In this article, the author describes the extremely intensive interview process used to hire the right kind of people. By the time the interviews are over, he says, potential hires know that people in the firm's Boston office think and act the same way as people in its Brazil offices--and that they themselves must think and act that way if they are to succeed at the firm.     

IMPACTS OF RELATIVE SIZE AND INDUSTRIAL RELATEDNESS ON RETURNS TO SHAREHOLDERS OF ACQUIRING FIRMS

The premise of this paper is that in mergers the manageability of acquisitions significantly affects the wealth of shareholders of acquiring firms. Specifically, the relative size of partners as well as the industrial relatedness of the two firms are examined. The test period allows for the determination of announcement, interim, and consummation effects of the mergers on shareholder wealth. It is found that acquisitions of relatively large firms from unrelated industries lead to significant declines in the wealth of shareholders of acquiring firms, and that this result is most pronounced when the period is extended beyond the announcement through the effective dates.     

Leverage changes and growth options in mergers and acquisitions

We develop and empirically test a trade-off model for the analysis of leverage changes in mergers and acquisitions. Our study extends prior findings of a post-merger increase in leverage for the acquiring firm, by linking this leverage increase to merging firms that are less correlated, create significantly larger growth options, and have lower bankruptcy costs and lower volatility. Specifically, we show that acquiring firms are more likely to finance diversifying acquisitions with debt as equity holders exploit the increased debt capacity with higher leverage resulting in total merger gains that are positively associated with financial synergies. We also provide evidence of a U-shaped relationship between growth options and leverage changes theoretically and empirically in the context of mergers.