Audit Fee Determinants for FTSE 350 Companies Listed on London Stock Exchange and Individual Big 4 Premium and Industry Specializations

Big 4 auditors’ premium charged by the Big 4 auditors has found to have important influence on fees due to the so-called `higher quality’. The present study examines the determinants of audit fee by focusing on individual Big 4 premium and audit industry specialization in the UK FTSE 350 market for...

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Main Author: Kam, Wing Lam Henry
Format: Dissertation (University of Nottingham only)
Language:English
Published: 2009
Online Access:https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/23146/
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author Kam, Wing Lam Henry
author_facet Kam, Wing Lam Henry
author_sort Kam, Wing Lam Henry
building Nottingham Research Data Repository
collection Online Access
description Big 4 auditors’ premium charged by the Big 4 auditors has found to have important influence on fees due to the so-called `higher quality’. The present study examines the determinants of audit fee by focusing on individual Big 4 premium and audit industry specialization in the UK FTSE 350 market for a sample of 978 companies. The study finds no evidence of individual Big 4 premium and premium pricing among the Big 4 auditors. Industry specialization was found to be significant in the whole group but it turned out to be insignificant within the specialist industries. In contrast to the previous studies, the study finds Big 4 industry specialists charge less audit fees in the market in compared to non-industry specialists. Consistent with much precious researches, other variables including auditees’ size, non-audit services fees, number of subsidiaries, receivable to total assets, number of employees, loss dummy variable, busy season and location were all found to have significant influence on audit fees. Surprisingly, ratio of international subsidiaries to total subsidiaries and inventory to total assets were only significant within the specialist industries. Moreover, neither of the profitability measures was successful in explaining audit fees throughout the study. Keywords: Audit fee, Big 4 firm Individual Big 4 Premium, Industry Specialization, FTSE 350
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spelling nottingham-231462018-02-17T15:52:56Z https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/23146/ Audit Fee Determinants for FTSE 350 Companies Listed on London Stock Exchange and Individual Big 4 Premium and Industry Specializations Kam, Wing Lam Henry Big 4 auditors’ premium charged by the Big 4 auditors has found to have important influence on fees due to the so-called `higher quality’. The present study examines the determinants of audit fee by focusing on individual Big 4 premium and audit industry specialization in the UK FTSE 350 market for a sample of 978 companies. The study finds no evidence of individual Big 4 premium and premium pricing among the Big 4 auditors. Industry specialization was found to be significant in the whole group but it turned out to be insignificant within the specialist industries. In contrast to the previous studies, the study finds Big 4 industry specialists charge less audit fees in the market in compared to non-industry specialists. Consistent with much precious researches, other variables including auditees’ size, non-audit services fees, number of subsidiaries, receivable to total assets, number of employees, loss dummy variable, busy season and location were all found to have significant influence on audit fees. Surprisingly, ratio of international subsidiaries to total subsidiaries and inventory to total assets were only significant within the specialist industries. Moreover, neither of the profitability measures was successful in explaining audit fees throughout the study. Keywords: Audit fee, Big 4 firm Individual Big 4 Premium, Industry Specialization, FTSE 350 2009-09-24 Dissertation (University of Nottingham only) NonPeerReviewed application/pdf en https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/23146/1/Henry_Kam_Dissertation_1.0.pdf Kam, Wing Lam Henry (2009) Audit Fee Determinants for FTSE 350 Companies Listed on London Stock Exchange and Individual Big 4 Premium and Industry Specializations. [Dissertation (University of Nottingham only)] (Unpublished)
spellingShingle Kam, Wing Lam Henry
Audit Fee Determinants for FTSE 350 Companies Listed on London Stock Exchange and Individual Big 4 Premium and Industry Specializations
title Audit Fee Determinants for FTSE 350 Companies Listed on London Stock Exchange and Individual Big 4 Premium and Industry Specializations
title_full Audit Fee Determinants for FTSE 350 Companies Listed on London Stock Exchange and Individual Big 4 Premium and Industry Specializations
title_fullStr Audit Fee Determinants for FTSE 350 Companies Listed on London Stock Exchange and Individual Big 4 Premium and Industry Specializations
title_full_unstemmed Audit Fee Determinants for FTSE 350 Companies Listed on London Stock Exchange and Individual Big 4 Premium and Industry Specializations
title_short Audit Fee Determinants for FTSE 350 Companies Listed on London Stock Exchange and Individual Big 4 Premium and Industry Specializations
title_sort audit fee determinants for ftse 350 companies listed on london stock exchange and individual big 4 premium and industry specializations
url https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/23146/