Emiliano Ruiz Barbadillo

• Universidad de Cádiz

The purpose of this paper is to analyze audit planning decisions of small and medium-sized Spanish audit firms and the resulting impact on audit risk and effort. Prior research examining audit risk overwhelmingly focuses on Big 4 audit firms, and little is known about how audit planning decisions influence audit risk in smaller firms, a significant...

This study aims to investigate whether companies engage high-quality assurance in response to legitimacy threats caused by media coverage of negative sustainability events. Since responsive strategies designed to maintain or repair legitimacy directly emanate from boards, the paper also analyses whether board effectiveness reinforces defensive stra...

El objetivo de este estudio es analizar las competencias profesionales del proveedor de aseguramiento que favorecen, o, por el contrario, limitan la legibilidad de los informes de aseguramiento, ciertamente cuestionados por su falta de credibilidad y transparencia en los últimos años. Para testar dicho objetivo y haciendo uso de una base de datos i...

This paper examines the communicative value of assurance reports by investigating whether the impact on information asymmetries is contingent on the length of the contractual relationship between clients and assurance providers, which can compromise the provider's independence. Using a firm-level dataset of publicly listed international firms from...

Este estudio tiene por finalidad analizar si el compromiso con la transparencia informativa en materia de objetivos de desarrollo sostenible (ODS) guarda relación con la presencia de mujeres en los órganos de control y de gestión. Dicho objetivo es examinado para una muestra de 145 empresas españolas para el periodo 2015-2019. La evidencia obtenida...

El hecho de que las grandes firmas multinacionales del mercado de auditoría obtengan mayores honorarios al resto de competidores gracias al ejercicio del poder de mercado preocupa tanto a organismos reguladores como a académicos. Por ello, el objetivo de este trabajo es determinar, en primer lugar, si las firmas multinacionales cobran sobreprecios...

Purpose Sustainability assurance services are carried out in a competitive market where a wide range of assurance providers operate without the need for any specific professional qualifications, competencies or skills. Assurance providers have heterogeneous professional backgrounds and experiences that lead to substantial diversity in sustainabilit...

This research examines how the credibility and accuracy of corporate social responsibility (CSR) disclosures enhance market confidence by exploring their effect on the cost of capital. How do capital markets react to higher-quality assurance of CSR reporting? Can the hypothetical reduction in the cost of capital that assurance quality produces be e...

This paper focuses on levels of sustainability assurance and the impact countries have on them. The level, the “how” aspect, indicates the nature and extent of the work performed by practitioners and, therefore, the degree of confidence that stakeholders should have in the assured sustainability report. This paper examines how country factors influ...

Recent papers have investigated how assurance increases the credibility of, and confidence in, sustainability disclosure. However, there is debate about the quality of this process. As part of this debate, the authors examine, firstly, whether the provision of audit and sustainability assurance services by the same practitioner affects the quality...

Previous event studies find that going concern opinions (GCOs) convey significant information to the market when the audit reports appear to be unexpected. Using the value relevance method, this paper examines the differential impact of expected and unexpected going concern opinions on the market value of US firms for the 2000–2006 time period. The...

This paper investigates the impact of corporate social responsibility (CSR) disclosure quantity, quality, and external validation concerning assurance on capital constraints. We examine if these disclosure characteristics matter to the investors in the financial market, then they should be positively evaluated by financial market participants. More...

The aim of this paper is to analyse the relationship between the internal audit function and auditor's fees using a sample of Spanish listed companies between 2003 and 2011. We use the audit fees model that was proposed by Simunic (1980). Our results indicate that fees are greater in those companies that have an internal audit function. In addition...

The aim of this paper is to analyse the relationship between the internal audit function and auditor´s fees using a sample of Spanish listed companies between 2003 and 2011. We use the audit fees model that was proposed by Simunic (1980). Our results indicate that fees are greater in those companies that have an internal audit function. In addition...

The aim of this paper is to evaluate the quality of sustainability assurance reports and some aspects associated with it: expertise (a practitioner attribute) and experience (a characteristic of the contractual relationship). Specifically, it examines the impact of the assurance provider’s expertise and experience on assurance quality, measured thr...

Este trabajo analiza si las rentas económicas que los auditores obtienen de sus clientes por la prestación de servicios de auditoría afectan a la independencia de auditor. La independencia del auditor ha sido subrogada a través de la propensión a emitir informes de auditoría cualificados por gestión continuada para una muestra de empresas españolas...

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to analyse whether the major international audit firms reach collusive agreements in Spain, in order to exercise market power and impose higher prices than those of competitors. According to the traditional theory of oligopoly, the ability to achieve these agreements is dependent primarily on the high level of m...

Resumen Antecedentes La Ley de Auditoría de 2015 impone salvaguardas más estrictas en relación con la firma y el socio firmante de los informes de auditoría que la Ley de 2010. Se han impuesto medidas de alto coste para el mercado sin haber tenido tiempo para determinar si su efecto será positivo para los usuarios de la información contable. Obje...

Este trabajo ha obtenido el 1.er Premio Estudios Financieros 2016 en la modalidad de Contabilidad y Administración de Empresas. La existencia de determinados fraudes informativos cometidos por las empresas pone de manifiesto que la exigencia legal del auditor de actuar de forma independiente puede ser cuestionada en algunas ocasiones. Ello se debe...

The high audit market concentration combined with the high entry barriers has caused concern among regulators and market participants due to the adverse effects on the level of audit market competition. This study is the first to provide evidence on the dynamics of the Spanish audit market competition using mobility indicators. We analyze the relat...

Companies that are serious about corporate governance and business ethics are turning their attention to gender diversity at the most senior levels of business (Institute of Business Ethics, Business Ethics Briefing 21:1, 2011). Board gender diversity has been the subject of several studies carried out by international organizations such as Catalys...

It is important for both academics and practitioners to understand how biases influence auditing opinions, as well as how we might counteract those biases. According to moral seduction theory, auditors’ judgments are morally induced by conflicts of interest in an unconscious manner. We combined an auditor ethical decision-making model with an exper...

El elevado nivel de concentración que existe a nivel internacional en el mercado de auditoría está provocando un gran interés y preocupación en determinadas instituciones debido a las implicaciones que dicho nivel puede provocar sobre la competencia entre las firmas que operan en el mercado (GAO, 2003, 2008; FRC, 2009; Comisión Europea, 2010; Comis...

This study examines whether auditor economic independence affects the information content of going concern audit reports in the European setting. We conduct an experiment where 80 experienced Spanish loan officers from the second largest European commercial bank review a loan request under two lending scenarios: 1) a potential borrower receiving an...

La existencia de un alto nivel de concentración del mercado de auditoría y el control que puedan ejercer unas pocas empresas en el mismo, concretamente las cuatro grandes Firmas Internacionales, ha sido objeto de estudio en muchos países y ha provocado preocupación por parte de las instituciones reguladoras, debido a las potenciales implicaciones q...

This study offers evidence about the outcome of the Price Waterhouse and Coopers & Lybrand merger. In particular, we have analysed whether the two objectives of the integration project were finally reached, i.e. to boost the growth of the revenues, and the market share of the new company. To that end, we have applied widely used methodology. The st...

The high level of audit market concentration has increased over time due to the successive mergers that they have taken place between the large audit firms. This is generating a lot of interest and concern from regulators, academics and market participants. Therefore, the aim of this study is to review a wide range of studies that have attempted to...

This study investigates whether Spanish non-Big 4 auditors assess the business risk in their audit pricing decisions. According to the audit pricing model of Simunic (1980), the audit fees are a function of the audit effort and the auditor's client Specific risk. In this study we proxies the auditors' perceived business risk by financial distress a...

El objetivo de este estudio es analizar en una muestra de pequeños y medianos auditores españoles si los precios que cargan a su cliente por la prestación de su servicio cubren el riesgo de negocios. De acuerdo al modelo de precios definido por Simunic (1980), el precio de la auditoría es función del esfuerzo y del perfil de riesgo del cliente. En...

The high level of audit market concentration has increased over time due to the successive mer-gers that they have taken place between the large audit firms. This is generating a lot of interest and con-cern from regulators, academics and market participants. Therefore, the aim of this study is to review a wide range of studies that have attempted...

Corporate scandals and failures such as Enron, WorldCom, etc. were highly catastrophic and had a terrible effect on stakeholders. The pressure of globalisation and the intense competition have lead to organisations encouraging good corporate governance. Organisations have to promote transparency and accountability of financial information. As Graml...

The present study analyzes the self-fulfilling prophecy phenomenon in the Spanish context, which meets the appropriate conditions for its appearance. Considering the possibility that the users' reaction to a going-concern opinion is not homogeneous, we introduce an element of interaction to separate out the unexpectedly modified opinions from those...

This article examines the impact of auditing standards intending to reduce the audit expectations gap on auditors' behaviour. Specifically, we examine whether the adoption of an auditing standard ongoing concern evaluation in Spain is associated with changes in auditors' behaviour. Our empirical results suggest that the implementation of the new st...

RESUMEN El presente trabajo analiza el fenómeno de la profecía autocumplida en el contexto español, ya que reúne condiciones idóneas para su generación. Ante la posibilidad de que la reacción del usuario ante una salvedad al principio de empresa en funcionamiento no sea uniforme, se ha introducido un elemento de interacción que separa las salvedade...

The present study analyzes the self-fulfilling prophecy phenomenon in the Spanish context, which meets the appropriate conditions for its appearance. Considering the possibility that the users’ reaction to a going-concern opinion is not homogeneous, we introduce an element of interaction to separate out the unexpectedly modified opinions from those...

The purpose of this paper is to compare the levels of representation of women on boards of directors in five countries, and especially to determine if the culture of a country is a factor that influences the possibility of women achieving positions on boards of directors. We use the cultural dimensions of Hofstede (1980) and GLOBE (House et al., 20...

Literature states that the auditor�s economic bond on a client company could undermine auditor independence. One of the primary functions of an audit committee is to safeguard auditor independence. However, the audit committee is a mechanism within the governance structure of the client firm. Therefore, it depends on this firm that its audit commit...

This study examines whether loan officers’ perception of auditor economic independence affects audit report information content. We conducted an experiment where 80 experienced loan officers from one of the largest European commercial banks were provided with a request for financing from a hypothetical client. Type of audit report and economic inde...

: We examined whether auditors' attitudes toward the evidence in the going concern setting may be driven by their expectations of the self-fulfilling prophecy effect. Following previous research on motivated reasoning, we assumed that the self-fulfilling prophecy effect could be interpreted as a potential motivational/incentive factor support-ing a...

El objetivo de este trabajo es proponer herramientas de evaluación de las competencias profesionales que deben ser adquiridas por los alumnos del Máster de Contabilidad y Auditoría para su inserción profesional. Concretamente, analizaremos el potencial del practicum (prácticas externas insertas en el plan de estudios del título) como medio de evalu...

Nuestro estudio pretende comparar el nivel de representación de las mujeres en los consejos de administración de cinco países, analizando especialmente si la cultura que prevalece en el país puede estar afectando a la capacidad de la mujer de acceder a los puestos, tradicionalmente reservados a los hombres, de los consejos de administración. Sirvié...

This study analyses the impact of audit committee independence on auditor dismissal decisions and the successor auditor choice. We pay special attention to those changes that take place after firms receive a qualified audit report. These changes may be considered the observable consequence of the unobservable threat of dismissal from a client who d...

This paper examines the impact of going concern opinions on the market value of firms. Our results suggest that firms with going concern opinions tend to have lower market value than firms without such opinion modification. In addition, we find that the pricing multiples of earnings are lower for firms with the going concern opinions. For firms wit...

Moral Seduction Theory suggests that auditors are morally compromised by the perceived consequences of their opinions. The root of the auditing problem appears to result in an unintentional bias rather than in dishonesty. Although important accounting reforms have been taken to deal with auditors’ trustworthiness, their lack of independence has not...

In this study, we document evidence on the impact of mandatory rotation of audit firms on auditor independence using Spanish archival data. Rotation of audit firms every nine years was mandatory in Spain from 1988-1995. Although the rule was never enforced, the Spanish context provides a unique setting to examine the effects that mandatory audit fi...

In this study, we analyze the impact of the mandatory rotation of audit firms on audit quality. Two lines of opposite arguments have fueled the ongoing debate about the convenience of mandatory rotation. Its supporters argue that this rule safeguards auditor independence and, thus, increases audit quality. Its opponents claim that mandatory rotatio...

El objetivo de este trabajo es analizar el impacto de la rotación obligatoria de firmas en la calidad de la auditoría. Dos argumentos opuestos han alimentado el debate sobre la conveniencia de esta medida. Sus defensores argumentan que esta medida refuerza la independencia del auditor y, por tanto, incrementa la calidad de la auditoría. Sus detract...

We examined whether auditors’ attitudes toward the evidence in the going concern setting may be driven by their expectations of the self-fulfilling prophecy effect. Following previous research on motivated reasoning, we assumed that the self-fulfilling prophecy effect could be interpreted as a potential motivational/incentive factor supporting audi...

El propósito de este trabajo es analizar los factores determinantes de la elección de auditor en las compañías cotizadas españolas. Además de circunstancias como la dimensión y complejidad de la compañía auditada, existen otras razones que justifican el perfil del auditor seleccionado, como la necesidad de trasladar a los mercados información conta...

The purpose of this paper is to analyse whether the independence of audit committees is affected by the degree of control exerted by managers over the board of directors. Results from a sample of 75 listed Spanish companies show that the majority of firms that voluntarily adopted an audit committee between 1998 and 2001, made an effort to guarantee...

Purpose In recent international debates on auditing regulation, Spain has assumed a real prominence as a claimed practical example of where a policy of mandatory audit firm rotation did not work and was duly abolished. This study aims to provide an analysis of the implementation and subsequent removal of mandatory audit firm rotation in Spain in th...

Este trabajo ha obtenido el 1.er Premio Estudios Financieros 2007 en la Modalidad de CONTABILIDAD Y ADMINISTRACIÓN DE EMPRESAS. La entrada en vigor de la Ley de Medidas de Reforma del Sistema Financiero (44/2002), introdujo la obligación de que las empresas cotizadas formen una comisión de auditoría delegada del consejo de administración. En el pre...

Los últimos escándalos financieros, así como diversos estudios empíricos, han puesto de manifiesto que los comités de auditoría están fallando en el desempeño del papel para el que fueron creados. Algunos autores lo atribuyen a la falta de independencia respecto a la dirección. Numerosos esfuerzos para reformar el gobierno corporativo apuntan hacia...

The aim of this paper is to analyse the existence of opinion shopping in Spain, that is, the existence of «suspicious» auditor changes in which the new auditor is less independent than the latter. We analyse the companies contained in the data base of the Spanish Stock Exchange Commission during eleven years (1990 to 2000) and we obtained that 72 c...

El objetivo de este trabajo es analizar la existencia de compra de opinión en España a través del estudio de los cambios «sospechosos» de auditor, es decir, aquellos que se realizan hacia auditores menos independientes que el anterior. Analizando las empresas contenidas en la base de datos de la Comisión Nacional del Mercado de Valores durante los...

We test simultaneously auditors¿ perception regarding three ethical dilemmas when evaluating the going concern status of a financially stressed firm: 1) the self-fulfilling prophecy, 2) their exposure to litigation risk, and 3) their responsibility in providing warning signals to investors. Our results suggest that that those auditors perceiving th...

Auditor tenure has attracted considerable attention recently. This interest has focused mainly on determining if long-term audit contracts impact upon the audit quality, but empirical research has failed to provide a definite answer to such a question. In this paper we analyze the relationship between the length of the audit contract and the audit...

Auditor tenure is an issue that has attracted considerable attention recently. This interest has focused mainly on determining whether long-term audit contracts improve the quality of the service. So far, research has failed to provide a definite answer to this question. In the face of this lack of consensus, we wish to analyze the relationship bet...

Aunque la duración del contrato de auditoría ha atraído recientemente gran atención en la literatura, sobre todo, por sus posibles efectos sobre la calidad de la auditoría, la investigación no ha aportado hasta el momento una respuesta concluyente sobre esta cuestión. Este trabajo analiza la relación entre la calidad de la auditoría (subrogada por...

Críticos de la profesión auditora han sugerido a menudo que la política de rotación obligatoria de firmas de auditoría puede ser una forma de contrapesar la percepción de que los contratos a largo plazo entre auditores y sus clientes impiden la independencia y escepticismo profesional de los auditores. La profesión auditora ha mantenido que la rota...

Critics of the auditing profession have often suggested a policy of mandatory rotation of audit firms as a way of countering their perception that long-term relationships between auditors and their clients impede the independence and professional scepticism of the auditors. The auditing profession has maintained that the mandatory rotation would be...

In this study, we attempt empirically to investigate the relationship between audit quality and the probability that a financially distressed company would receive a going concern opinion. Auditor decision-making in the presence of going concern uncertainties may be characterized as a two-stage process. The first stage is the identification of a po...

The objective of our paper is to analyze which are the factors that cause Spanish companies to change auditors. Using the results of previous papers and applying a logistic regression model, we have analyzed four groups of factors that could explain the change of auditors. The growth of the company, agency costs, changes in the financial structure...

This paper seeks to enhance understanding of the current audit liability crisis in' Spain. The paper emphasizes the manner in which the rhetoric of crisis can be employed by the audit profession to mobilize opinion for the purpose of conditioning the direction of audit regulation. The study reveals that the question of auditor liability did not fea...

In this paper we investigate whether Spanish firms employ deliberate strategies in the choice of auditor to avoid audit qualification. For a sample of 735 during the period 1991–96 we found no increase in the probability of changing auditor following an audit qualification. We concluded that this would be too obvious and detrimental to the firm's i...

The objective of our paper is to analyze which are the factors that cause Spanish companies to change auditors. Using the results of previous papers and applying a logistic regression model, we have analyzed four groups of factors that could explain the change of auditors. The growth of the company, agency costs, changes in the financial structure...

El objetivo de este trabajo es someter a análisis el estado actual de la crisis de responsabilidad civil de la auditoría en España. Este estudio pone de relieve la forma en la cual la profesión auditora ha utilizado cierta retórica para resaltar los efectos críticos que puede generar el régimen de responsabilidad civil, con el objetivo de condicion...

The aim of this paper is to study the quality of the companies' accounting information through the nature of their audit reports. As we justify, the objective of the audit and therefore of the audit report is the evaluation of the companies' accounting disclosures. Following this assumption, we have analysed the informative quality of the companies...

RESUMEN Este trabajo tiene por objeto realizar un estudio sobre la calidad de la información contable de las empresas basándonos en la naturaleza del informe de auditoría. Para ello se justifica que el objetivo de la auditoría y por tanto del informe de auditoría no es otro que evaluar la calidad de las revelaciones contables realizadas por la empr...

En la elección de auditor, así como en la decisión acerca de su cambio, influyen diversos factores y en diferente medida. Aunque en otros países han sido llevados a cabo estudios empíricos con el objeto de determinar los extremos anteriores, hasta la fecha no han sido realizados en nuestro país trabajos que pongan de manifiesto cuáles son las varia...

This paper challenges the increasingly accepted position that, internationally, the audit profession is facing a major liability crisis. Its analysis of auditing developments in Spain since the late 1980s reveals an audit liability “crisis” which is more the result of the profession’s campaign to align itself with legal regimes abroad rather than a...

2.º Premio Estudios Financieros 2000Modalidad: Contabilidad y Administración de Empresas En este trabajo se somete a estudio la historia de la regulación contable en España, partiendo de la asunción de que la situación actual, en lo que se refiere a la conducta de las empresas en la confección y divulgación de información contable, no puede quedar...

El objetivo pretendido en este trabajo es someter a contraste empírico la importancia del informe de auditoría como inductor del cambio de auditor. Para ello se justifican las razones y circustancias bajo las cuales puede explicarse que las empresas tras recibir un informe de auditoría con salvedades tengan incentivos para realizar un cambio volunt...

There are several factors that influence, in different ways, the decision to choose and change an auditor. Even though empirical research seeking to determine these factors has been carried out in other countries, until now there have no studies in Spain seeking to show which variables affect both decisions and with what degree of significance. Thi...

The 1990s in Spain have witnessed a significant shift in attitudes towards the role of auditing, with promises of more transparent reporting being replaced by talk of audit expectations gaps. This paper explores the changing atmosphere, both through an analysis of one of the most notorious scandals of recent times - involving the Banco Espanol de C...

El informe de auditoria es el medio a través del cual el auditor comunica los resultados de la auditoria a los usuarios de la información contable, siendo el único contacto de éstos con la auditoria por lo que puede afirmarse que dicho informe es la "cara pública" de la auditoria. Esto explica que las expectativas que los usuarios se forman de la a...

The audit report is the sole method by which the results of an audit are conveyed to the users of financial statements. As such the report is the public face of the audit and influences the users' assessment of the function and value of auditing. Whilst the overt purpose of the audit report is to reduce uncertainty concerning the quality of the inf...

Sumario: Análisis de la estructura del mercado de servicios de auditoría en España -- La prestación del servicio de auditoría: su oferta y demanda -- El mercado de servicios de auditoría en España VI Premio de Investigación Contable "José María Fernández Pirla"

The current auditing situation in our country could be described as conflictive. Recent financial scandals have tainted the auditing profession and as a consequence it is undergoing a negative transition due to the fact that society's concept of it has changed. The advent of auditing regulation was greeted whith great optimism, however it seems tha...

The aim of this paper has been composed by the analysis of the association, in a particular case, between the didactic method employed and the objetives which were assigned to a certain subjet such us it was Financial Statement Analysis, included in the fourth year of the «Licenciatura en Ciencias Económicas y Empresariales» of the University of Cá...

We provide theoretical and empirical work on the moral seduction theory suggesting unintentional professional bias. We develop a cognitive model in connection with moral seduction theory enabling us to examine the behavioral results on a particular professional group, namely auditors. Eighty experienced auditors from international accounting firms...

En: Revista de enseñanza universitaria Sevilla 1995, n. 9, junio; p. 101-120 Se trata de evidenciar, en un caso concreto, la existencia de asociación entre el método seguido y los fines perseguidos y asignados a una determinada asignatura: Análisis Contable y Consolidación de Estados Financieros, impartida en el 4õ curso de la Licenciatura en Cienc...