دانلود رایگان مقاله انگلیسی تاثیر تکنولوژی اطلاعات مشتری بر قیمت گذاری حسابرسی - الزویر 2018

ABSTRACT

This paper explores the question: “How does a client's information technology (IT) capability influence audit pricing?” Company data for the years 2004 through 2012 are employed. Firms appearing on the InformationWeek 500 (IW500) annual list of U.S. organizations with superior IT functions serve as a proxy for companies with superior IT capability. Our findings suggest that companies with superior IT capabilities incur higher levels of audit fees. In addition, as client size increases, the audit fees of firms with advanced IT capabilities increase at a greater rate than firms without such capabilities. These findings contrast with prior research by Chen et al. (2014) that found in the immediate post-Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX) period for the years 2004 through 2007, client IT capability reduced audit fee increases. In addition, we replicate the Chen et al. (2014) results and find that IT capability did not influence audit fee increases during the subsequent recession and recovery periods. Further, superior capability clients see smaller audit fee increases when exogenous shocks such as SOX regulations occur. These results suggest a revised interpretation of Chen et al. (2014) may be warranted. This study contributes to the literature by providing a more complete picture of how a client's IT capability affects audit fees.

5.3. Conclusion

This paper contributes to auditing and information systems literature in three key ways: First, while prior research finds that strong IT capability reduces year-to-year audit fee growth in the post-SOX years (Masli et al., 2010; Chen et al., 2014), our findings indicate that companies with stronger IT capabilities pay higher audit fees in a given year. Second, our additional analysis suggests a revised view of Chen et al. (2014) may be warranted. For instance, it is possible that companies with superior IT capabilities may better adapt to exogenous shocks, including new auditing or accounting regulations, than companies that lack strong IT capabilities. Subsequently, the difference in audit fee growth attenuates as all companies adapt to the impact of new requirements over time. Third, our additional analysis suggests that larger companies with strong IT capabilities will pay disproportionately higher audit fees than smaller companies with strong IT capabilities. This diseconomy of scale may be of special interest to large companies with high IT sophistication, as they weigh the pros and cons of IT investment. It may also be of interest to the audit firms that audit these companies, as the auditors consider the necessary resources needed to audit clients with differing levels of IT capability.