• Journal of Navigation and Port Research
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• v.48 no.4
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• pp.321-326
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• 2024

The purpose of this study is to investigate whether Big 4 accounting firms contribute to the reduction of earnings management when auditing shipping companies. Generally, it is understood that companies audited by the Big 4 accounting firms engage in minimal earnings management and maintain high audit quality. However, these factors may vary depending on industry and firm size. As a result, this study empirically analyzes the impact of audits conducted by large accounting firms on earnings management within the shipping industry. The Big 4 accounting firms, namely PwC, KPMG, Deloitte, and EY, are the focus of this research. Discretionary accruals are employed as a proxy for earnings management, with the modified J ones model and the performance matched model used to measure discretionary accruals. The analysis, which covers shipping companies listed on KOSP I from 2001 to 2023, reveals that audits conducted by the Big 4 accounting firms do not significantly influence earnings management in the shipping industry. Unlike the general case, it is evident that audits by the Big 4 accounting firms do not play a role in reducing earnings management in shipping companies. This paper is significant as it examines the role of auditors within the shipping industry and presents findings that deviate from commonly known information. Shipping companies should take into consideration that the audit quality of the Big 4 accounting firms may not always be guaranteed when selecting an auditor. Furthermore, supervisory authorities such as the Financial Supervisory Service should engage in oversight based on an accurate understanding of the audit quality offered by the Big 4 accounting firms.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.15 no.7
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• pp.477-488
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• 2015

This study investigates the association between non-audit services and audit quality, using a sample of firms in which audit services and non-audit services are provided by a same audit firm. This study extends previous studies by separating auditors into Big4 and Non-Big4 audit firms as each group may have different incentives to impair their independence. According to the empirical results, audit quality, proxied by absolute value of discretionary accruals has significant negative association with non-audit service fee for Non-Big4 audit firms, but not for Big4 audit firms, suggesting that Non-Big4 audit firms may impair their independence with increased non-audit service fees. Non-Big4 audit firms are known to be relatively small and local firms that might be highly economically dependent upon a specific client firm whereas Big4 audit firms are not. This results may be of interest to regulators and capital market investors and standard setters who concern a recent trend of increasing non-audit services that are provided by an audit firm which also provides audit service at the same time.

• Korean small business review
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• v.42 no.4
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• pp.123-146
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• 2020

This study, targeting KOSDAQ-listed companies, examined the relationship between variability of accruals and corporate characteristics. First, the analysis results show that executives of companies with high debt ratios are more likely to violate debt contracts, so there is a strong temptation to use discretionary accrual items. Second, for companies with large volatility in operating cash flows, Executives of these companies are strongly inclined to utilize accruals for the purpose of abuse of discretion. Third, the larger the company, the more sensitive it is to political costs, so it is less tempted to use the accruals item than a smaller company. Fourth, the corporate age is thought to be the maturity of the company, Executives of such companies have little room to use accruals to abuse their discretion. Fifth, in the case of profit dummy variables, the companies reporting losses have more temporary accrual items than those reporting profits, so this increases the uncertainty in their accounting information than the latter. Sixth, for those companies that are indicated as inappropriate as a result of audit, the more likely their executives are to use the accrual items, and the lower the quality of their accounting profits is. Lastly, Companies audited by 4 Big domestic accounting firms have less discretionary accrual fluctuations than companies audited by non-big 4 accounting firms. Thus, it was found that the accrual amount allows the discretion of corporate executives differently according to the characteristics of the company.

• Journal of the Korea Convergence Society
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• v.10 no.6
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• pp.203-218
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• 2019

Using the sample of 104 mutual savings banks inspected by the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS) on June 2011, this study examines if mutual savings banks manage BIS capital adequacy ratio using allowance for bad debts through comparison of BIS capital adequacy ratio before and after the 2011 when mutual savings banks experienced a large-scale restructuring by financial supervisory authorities. We find that mutual savings banks mainly use the allowance for bad debts to manage BIS capital adequacy ratio. It also shows that mutual savings banks with a business suspension order by FSS manage BIS capital adequacy ratio more than the others. Lastly, we find that Non Big4 auditors as well as Big 4 auditors don't effectively audit the use of the allowance for bad debts for mutual savings banks to manage their BIS capital adequacy ratio.

• Journal of the Korea Convergence Society
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• v.10 no.1
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• pp.227-238
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• 2019

In this study, we investigate the effects of disclosure and high-quality audit on donations to charitable organizations in Korea. We find that the mandatory disclosure of financial information and high-quality audit is significantly and positively related to donations to charitable organizations. We also find that charitable organizations audited by Big 4 audit firms have greater likelihood to receive more donations, compared to those audited by non-Big 4 audit firms. Furthermore, we find that those positive associations are more pronounced for smaller charitable organizations. Collectively, those results imply that, as in the profit-making sector, disclosure and high-quality audit play a critical role in enhancing accountability and transparency of financial reporting and revenue for charitable organizations.

• Management & Information Systems Review
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• v.35 no.1
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• pp.189-206
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• 2016

It was required to attach the documents on the details of external audit including the number of the participants in external audit, audited parts and audit times under the Article 7-2 on the audit report to the accounting audit report from 2014 in accordance with the amendment to the Act on External Audit of Stock Companies. This study aim to calculate the audit fee based on the estimated cost of service calculation of the government contribution agencies by reflecting the implementation of the revised external audit. This study calculated the audit fee for the target company (a listed company assumed to have no internal control risks and relevant audit risks for unqualified opinion in the previous year, 100 billion won of total amount of asset, manufacturing company in the previous year and preliminary client request) by putting together four items of expenditure including employment costs, expenditure, general management expenses and profit in accordance with the calculation system of cost of service under the State Contract Act. Then, it used the data collected from the documents on the details of the revised external audit after requesting estimation on the target company with the estimated cost to Big-4 accounting firms to identify the participants and times of the accounting audit. The employment costs applied 150% of participation rate of the base price of employment costs for the academic research service cost in 2014, the expenditure used the average value of accounting firms of corporate business management analysis of the Bank of Korea (2013), the general management expenses applied 5% of the general management rate of service business under Article 7-1 of the Enforcement Rule of the Act on Contracts to which the State is a Party and the profit applied 10% of profit rate of service business under Article 7-2 of the Enforcement Rule of the Act on Contracts to which the State is a Party. Based on the calculation of the estimated costs by applying the above, the audit fee was estimated at 50,617,769won. Although the result is not the optimal audit fee, it may be used as a basic scale to compare the audit fees of companies without criteria. Also, such amendment to the Act on External Audit of Stock Companies may improve independence of auditors and transparency of the accounting system rather than previous announcing only the total audit times.

• Asia-Pacific Journal of Business Venturing and Entrepreneurship
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• v.9 no.1
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• pp.153-164
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• 2014

This study is to investigate the effects of intangible assets such as research & development, education & training and advertisement on firm values of high-technology firms and low-technology firms listed in the KOSDAQ market, and to analyze the value-relativeness between the audit quality of companies and the expenditure of intangible assets. The substitute measurement of firm values is Tobin's Q model. The sample period for positive analysis is from 2003 to 2008, and the samples, excepting for financial business, are manufacturing companies of closing accounts corporate on December, based on companies of KOSDAQ that are listed in security. Finally, data from about 305 companies are used in this analysis. Followings are the results of the analysis. First, research & development, education & training of high-technology firms have an effect on firm values, and education & training of low-technology have an effect on firm values. Second, we find that audit quality(BIG4) increases the value relevance of R&D expenditures of high-technology firms and audit quality(BIG4) increases the value relevance of education & training expenditures of low-technology firms. This paper is meaningful in that it verified the value-relativeness of cost of intangible assets compared with high-technology firms to low-technology firms.