the relationship between firm size and audit quality. One
of these is the fact that audit firm size is immediately
observable and can, therefore, be readily used as an
indicator of audit quality; and another justification is that if
a positive relationship can indeed be demonstrated
between size of audit firm and audit quality, then a
rationale is provided for the demand for continuing
professional education in all audit firms, irrespective of
their size. Thirdly, if audit quality and size are shown to
be related, the structure of liability insurance premiums
could also be affected (Colbert and Murray, 1998).
Nevertheless, despite these arguments for the importance
of audit firm size in producing a quality outcome, it
is nonetheless suggested that audit quality is independent
of firm size (Arnett and Danos, 1979; Francis, 2004;
Jeong and Rho, 2004; Krishnan, 2005; Chandler, 1991;
Lee et al., 2007; Ferguson and Stokes, 2003; Francis and
Yu, 2009).
However, audit firms do provide differing quality audits,
increasing with the size of firms, in response to varying
demands for quality amongst clients because different
companies have different levels of agency costs
(Arrunada, 1999). The extent of the debate on this
particular issue suggests a difficulty in reaching a policy
decision on it, and it is argued (Arnett and Danos, 1979;
Behn et al, 2008) that it is unfair to distinguish between
large and small audit firms if professional standards and
qualifications are maintained throughout the sector. In
this respect, Arnett and Danos (1979) comment: “If we
assume that the quality of the auditing is the same
regardless of the size of the firm performing it, the banker
would be supplied with the same information on which to
base his decision; in this way the size of the firm should
not necessarily be a consideration’’.
Within the auditing literature, it is firm size that has
attracted the greatest attention, with the assertion being
that bigger firms deliver a higher quality audit than their
smaller counterparts. And many studies have found
evidence to support the notion that firm size has an
impact on audit quality, with quality improving as the size
of the firm increases (DeAngelo, 1981b; Rusmin, 2010;
Lawrence et al, 2011; Davidson and Neu, 1993; Becker
et al., 1998; Abu Bakar et al., 2005; Ferguson and Stokes
2003; Francis and Yu 2009; Choi et al, 2010).
There is reason to believe that one explanation for this
phenomenon is that bigger firms have more and better
resources than smaller firms, that they have greater
research facilities, that they can undertake the strongest
tests, and that their technological capacity is such that
they can generally do much more than their smaller
counterparts (Reisch, 2000). More recently, analyst
forecast accuracy has been included as a proxy for audit
quality, by Behn et al (2008), who assert that in the case
where one category of auditor increases the reporting
reliability of earnings in comparison to the other type,
analysts of the superior type clients should be able to
make more accurate forecasts of future earnings than
those analysts of the non-superior type clients. Accepting
this line of argument, it was found by Behn et al. (2008)
that analysts of Big 4 clients have higher forecast
accuracy than analysts of non-Big 4 clients.
Moreover, as noted by DeAngelo (1981b), the larger
audit firms are not concerned in the same way as are
smaller firms, with the loss of a client, and hence they
produce higher audit quality because they are not afraid
to be objective. Additionally, it is confirmed by Krishnan
and Schauer (2000), that the degree of compliance
observed is directly correlated to audit firm size, this
increasing on a continuum moving from the small non-Big
Six to the large non-Big Six to the Big Six.
However, there are many critics of this view and it has
been argued that high quality corporate reporting is, in
fact, an outcome of the audit firm’s status (Naser and AlKhatib
(2000). The large international firms have a
reputation for disclosing information of a high quality, so
any audit firm with an affiliation to one of the international
firms, is automatically elevated in the reputation stakes.
Clearly, once a reputation has been earned, it must be
protected, and in the case of audit firms, this is done by
delivering credible audits on a consistent basis. In a
recent study by Michael (2007), it was confirmed that the
clients of large audit firms tend to have lower abnormal
accruals, and to satisfy the benchmark earnings
objectives of small profits and small earnings increases,
than do clients of small audit firms; moreover, large firms
were found to be more likely to issue going-concern
reports.
Such behaviour on the part of large firms testifies to
their independence, which has been reported in the
literature, it being noted that Big Four auditors are less
likely than smaller auditors to provide a personalized
services approach (McLennan and Park, 2004). The fact
th