The Influence of Auditor Reputation and Degree of Ownership Concentration on the Quality of Financial Reporting

Abstract

The quality of financial information reported by companies is determined by a number of factors designed to help make it more useful to investors. This paper aims to assess the contribution of auditor reputation and ownership concentration to share price formation, thereby evaluating the relevance of these characteristics for investors. Using information specific to companies listed on the Bucharest Stock Exchange (BSE) for a period of 10 financial years, the study identifies a significant influence of auditors’ reputation when the latter belong to the Big4 group; meanwhile, after forming categories per the legal form of organization, it was revealed that the market does not distinguish between auditors organized as audit firms or those who provide the specific services as independent professionals. The study also reveals a significant influence of financial information on the share price at the highest level of ownership concentration compared to the other levels introduced in the analysis. Following the introduction of control variables, such as listing market segment, size, industry or leverage into the study, the sense and significance of the influences were preserved, and the results also remained robust following the sensitivity analysis conducted on the influence of auditor reputation function of ownership concentration and BSE section.

Keywords

• value relevance
• audit quality
• ownership concentration
• accounting information quality