英文摘要 |
Due to Taiwan's unique audit environment, the audit groups within the Big 5 audit firms plays a pivotal role in reporting decision and compensation plans. In this study, we examine whether an economic incentive within the audit group jeopardizes audit independence. Economic incentive is measured as a client's size relative to the size of audit group. The evidence indicates that relatively larger clients of audit group are less likely to receive a going concern opinion, suggesting that auditors report more favorably to relatively larger clients of the audit group. Furthermore, we find that the effect of economic incentive on the issue of going concern opinion is weaker for clients of larger audit groups, suggesting the larger group size can mitigate the negative impact of economic incentive on audit independence. Our findings imply that, under Taiwan's unique audit environment, the audit group size within Big 5 audit firms is also a good proxy for audit independence. |