A prominent researcher in auditing and accounting area, DeAgelo (1981) examined the impact of size of auditor
firms on the quality of audits. The research took AICPA international firms, medium and small firms as sample.
The author found that auditor quality is associated with audit firm size.
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Wright (1983) investigated the influence of size of CPA firms on auditor’s judgments in preferences of disclosure.
In this experimental study, size of CPA firms was important for reliability of auditor’s report. Two types of audit
firms were studied, national or regional and local CPA firms. The author collected information about client power
of association, firm’s size and growth from financial statements. The result of the study showed significant
differences in preferences of disclosure, for example auditors who work in national firms like to put some
comments for adjustment while auditor who work in local firms preferred footnote for disclosure. They also found
that the environmental factor has an important role on CPA firms and can affect auditor judgment.
In a section of their study, Sweeney and Roberts (1997) inspected the impact of auditor firm size on auditor’s
independence. They divided firms on the basis of their size; Big Six international (now it is Big 4) firms were taken
as large ones, national firms middle and local firms as small ones. They employed DeAngelo’s (1981) “collateral
bond” as a measuring instrument. Subjects were selected among 339 auditors of different levels of eight audit
firms. The result of study showed that, although the relationship between audit firm size and independence is
unclear and insignificant, audit firm’s size can moderate the relationship of moral reasoning and independence.
In a multipurpose study, Caramanis and Spathis (2006) investigated the role of auditee and audit firm
characteristics on audit qualifications. They explored the combination of audit fees as financial variable and audit
size as a non-financial variable to determine the prediction of qualified and unqualified opinions. A sample of 185
companies was selected from Athens Stock exchange. The total assets, net sales and net profits of these companies
were collected. They extended Dopouch et al. (1987) model and used it to determine which factor would affect the
likelihood of unqualified opinion. The result of the study showed that audit fees and the audit firm size have no
effect on the auditors’ opinion. The research also revealed that audit qualification is related with financial ratio
such as operating margin to total assets and the current ratio.
Furthermore, Francis and Yu (2009) tested the impact of Big 4 firms on audit quality. The study was a compression
test among large firms and other small audit SEC registered. The period of observation was 2003-2005. They
found that big firms provide higher quality in auditing. However; the findings also showed that there is a systemic
difference between the results of small audit performance versus large firms.
Similarly, Sundgren and Svanström (2011) examined whether and possibly how, audit quality and audit pricing
vary between audit firms (big) and audit offices (small). The authors investigated the dependent of audit quality
and audit fee on audit firm size. They employed disciplinary sanctions as a measure of audit quality. The sample of
study was Big 4 auditors and non Big 4 auditors. The result of the study showed a negative association between
likelihood of sanction and audit office size. The result showed that audit fees follow this pattern indicating that
large audit firms attempt to have greater quality.
Besides, the effect of client firm size on audit quality was traced to the independence of auditors (Reynolds &
Francis, 2001), the appropriate instrument for measuring independence of auditors is the amount of audit fee in
relation with audit firms AICPA (1997). Reynolds and Franci (2001) through “Jones (1991) model discretionary
accruals” revealed that large audit firms like big 5 firms allow less “accounting discretion” to their significant
client because they should protect their reputation; therefore, the client influence is negative. Similarly, other two
studies by Chung & Kallapur (2003) and Ahmed et al. (2006) worked on the relation between same model of Jones
and client influence. In contrast with Chung & Kallapur (2003) that found insignificant impact of big client on
large audit firms, Ahmed et al (2006), result found a positive coefficient client on audit firms.
Likewise, Craswell et al. (2002) tested the influence of audit fees on the auditor’s independence. They investigated
the fees in both national audit firms and local audit firms, the disclosure of audit fees were mandatory in the study
place. They carry out multivariate test on two main levels of clients that get qualified and unqualified opinions.
They also examined non-audit service fees. They found that fee depend