Audit Input and Accounting Conservatism Among Listed Firms in Nigeria (Published)
This study investigated the effects of audit quality characteristics in areas of audit independence, audit firm size and audit tenure on accounting conservatism among listed firms in Nigeria. The study used longitudinal and correlation research designs. The population of the study consists 151 firms listed on the Nigerian Exchange Group as at 31st December, 2022. Statistics was analyzed using descriptive in addition to inferential statistics and panel data regression analysis. The results revealed that audit independence had significant positive effect {0.138(0.004)} on accounting conservatism, audit firm size had significant negative effect {-0.0623(0.050)}, while audit tenure had a positive but insignificant effect {0.110(0.494)}. The study recommended that firms in Nigeria should be conscious of the quality of the mechanism imputed into audit engagement in order to ensure audit quality as it has implication on quality of output. Firms should also not compromise audit independence in order to present globally accepted financial reports.
Keywords: Audit Firm Size, audit independence, audit input, audit tenure and accounting conservatism.
Auditor Tenure, Audit Firm Size and Value Relevance of Accounting Information of Quoted Companies in Nigeria (Published)
The paper assesses the value relevance of the tenure of auditors and size of audit firm by using empirical data from actively traded firms on the floor of Nigerian Exchange Group. Data for the study were obtained from the published annual reports and accounts of 124 quoted companies in Nigeria between 2012 to 2021. The average -monthly share price of the fourth month after accounting year end of all sampled firms was utilized as the dependent variable of the study in order to establish the value relevance of accounting information in the financial statements, Incorporating the explanatory variables of the study (auditor tenure and control variables) into The Ohlson’s 1995 price model quantitative approaches such as descriptive statistics, correlation, and panel corrected standard errors regression analysis were used in analyzing the data for the study. Findings of the study indicate that auditor tenure and audit firm size led to significant positive influence on market reaction in the first month after the release of annual reports and accounts of sampled firms. This means that, auditor tenure and audit firm size were found to be value relevant to users of accounting information in Nigeria. The study recommends that investors should consider the audit tenure and auditors size when making investment decisions and prioritize firms that have been audited by big auditors and by integrating small audit firms, as well as firms whose audit tenure is on average of five to six years in line with International best practices, rather than ten years as stipulated by the Code of Corporate Governance and CBN.
Keywords: Audit Firm Size, Auditor Tenure, Earnings, Share Price, Value Relevance, book values, market reaction
AUDIT FIRM SIZE AND CASH – BASED EARNINGS MANAGEMENT OF QUOTED COMPANIES IN NIGERIA (Published)
This study follows prior studies on cash – based activities manipulations to investigate total levels of cash – based earnings management relative to the association between cash – based earnings management and audit firm size of companies in Nigeria. First, the study measures the normal level of real activities by focusing on three manipulation schemes namely, manipulation of sales, overproduction, and reduction in discretionary expenses. The normal levels of each type of real activities manipulation were measured as the residual from relevant estimation models. The abnormal CFO, abnormal production costs and abnormal discretionary expenses were computed as the difference between the actual values and the normal levels predicted from the respective models while the composite value of the three variables is the estimate for cash – based earnings management. Based on a sample of 342 companies – year observations from the NSE and applying audit firm size as a measure, comprehensive multivariate analyses were conducted on archival data covering 2006 – 2011. The result showed that audit firm size exerts significant negative relationship with cash – based earnings management of quoted companies in Nigeria. It is suggested that companies in Nigeria should improve their earnings quality only through sales growth and cost control strategies and present distinct reports on earnings quality; company auditors should issue Integrated Audit Quality Assurance Reports based on earnings quality assessments statutorily backed by earnings monitoring of companies in Nigeria; while regulatory agencies should issue authoritative codes of best practice in Nigeria
Keywords: Audit Firm Size, Audit Quality, Cash Flow from Operations., Earnings Management, Earnings Quality