The value relevance of expected vs. unexpected going concern opinions
-
DOIhttp://dx.doi.org/10.21511/imfi.16(2).2019.05
-
Article InfoVolume 16 2019, Issue #2, pp. 47-65
- Cited by
- 1328 Views
-
142 Downloads
This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
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 results suggest that while both firms receiving expected and unexpected GCOs suffer a drop in their average market value, the decrease is larger in the case of firms with unexpected GCOs. It is also observed that the market tends to shift the weight they place on earnings to the book value of equity in valuing firms with unexpected GCOs. Specifically, the decrease in the pricing multiple of earnings is larger for the case of unexpected GCOs. This result suggests that GCOs are more informative when they are unexpected. The study complements existing work by exploring whether expected GCOs have any differential valuation impact than unexpected GCOs instead of looking at the informativeness of GCOs alone.
- Keywords
-
JEL Classification (Paper profile tab)M41, G32, G33
-
References46
-
Tables6
-
Figures0
-
- Table 1. Sample distribution
- Table 2. Comparison of characteristics of financially distressed firms with non-distressed firms
- Table 3. Correlation matrix
- Table 4. Contingency table of financial distress vs. going concern opinion for all firms
- Table 5. Comparison of expected vs. unexpected GCOs firms – using Zmijewski score as a proxy
- Table 6. Comparison of expected vs. unexpected GCOs firms – using first-time GCOs as a proxy
-
- Altman, E. (1982). Accounting implications of failure prediction models. Journal of Accounting, Auditing and Finance, 2, 4-19.
- American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA). (1988). The auditor’s consideration of an entity’s ability to continue as a going concern. Statement on Auditing Standards, 59. New York: AICPA.
- Ashton, D., Cooke, T., & Tippett, M. (2003). An aggregation theorem for the valuation of equity under linear information dynamics. Journal of Business Finance and Accounting, 30, 413-440.
- Ball, R., Walker, R., & Whittred, G. (1979). Audit qualifications and share prices. Abacus, 15, 23-34.
- Barth, M., Beaver, W., Hand, J., & Landsman, W. (1999). Accruals, cash flows, and equity values. Review of Accounting Studies, 3, 205-229.
- Barth, M., Beaver, W., & Landsman, W. (1998). Relative valuation roles of equity book and net income as a function of financial health. Journal of Accounting and Economics, 25, 1-34.
- Basu, S. (1997). The conservatism principle and the asymmetric timeliness of earnings. Journal of Accounting and Economics, 4, 3-37.
- Behn, B., Kaplan, S., & Krumwiede, K. (2001). Further evidence on the auditor’s going-concern report: The influence of management plans. Auditing: A Journal of Practice & Theory, 20(1), 13-28.
- Berger, P., Ofek, E., & Swary, I. (1996). Investor valuation of the abandonment option. Journal of Financial, 42, 257-287.
- Blay, A. D., & Geiger, M. A. (2001). Market Expectations for First-Time Going-Concern Recipients. Journal of Accounting, Auditing & Finance, 16, 209-226.
- Blay, A., Geiger, M. A., & Norton, D. S. (2011). The Auditor’s Going-Concern Opinion as a Communication of Risk. Auditing: A Journal of Practice & Theory, 30(2), 77-102.
- Burgstahler, D. C., & Dichev, I. D. (1997). Earnings, adaptation and equity value. The Accounting Review, 72, 187-215.
- Carcello, J. V., Hermanson, D. R., & Neal, T. (2003). Auditor reporting behavior when GASS lack specificity: the case of case of SAS (nº59). Journal of Accounting and Public Policy, 22, 63-81.
- Carcello, J. V., & Neal, T. (2000). Audit committee composition and auditor reporting. The Accounting Review, 75, 453-467.
- Carlson, S. J., Glezen, G. W., & Benefield, M. E. (1998). An investigation of investor reaction to the information content of a going concern audit report while controlling for concurrent financial statement disclosures. Quarterly Journal of Business and Economics, 37(3), 25-39.
- Casterella, J. R, Lewis, B. L., & Walker, P. L. (2000). Modeling the audit opinions issued to bankrupt companies: A two-stage empirical analysis. Decision Sciences, 31, 507-530.
- Chow, C., & Rice, S. (1982). Ualified Audit Opinions and Auditor Switching. The Accounting Review, 57(2), 326-335.
- Citron, D. B., & Taffler, R. J. (2001). Ethical behavior in the U.K. audit profession: The case of the self-fulfilling prophecy under going-concern uncertainties. Journal of Business Ethics, 29, 353-363.
- Collins, D., Maydew, E., & Weiss, I. (1997). Changes in the value-relevance of earnings and book values over the past forty years. Journal of Accounting and Economics, 24, 39-67.
- Craswell, A. (1985). Studies of the information content of qualified audit reports. Journal of Business Finance & Accounting, 12, 93-115.
- Davis, E., & Ashton, R. (2002). Threshold adjustment in response to asymmetric loss functions: The case of auditors’ “substantial doubt” thresholds. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 89, 1082-1099.
- Dodd, P., Dopuch, N., Holthausen, R., & Leftwich, R. (1984). Qualified audit opinions and stock prices, information content, announcement dates, and concurrent disclosures. Journal of Accounting and Economics, 6, 3-38.
- Elliott, J., & Hanna, J. (1996). Repeated accounting write-offs and the information content of earnings. Journal of Accounting Research, 34, 135-155.
- Fleak, S., & Wilson, E. (1994). The incremental information content of the going concern audit opinion. Journal of Accounting, Auditing and Finance, 9, 149-166.
- Geiger, M. A., & Raghunandan, K. (2002). Going-concern opinions in the “new” legal environment. Accounting Horizons, 16, 17-26.
- Hayn, C. (1995). The information content of losses. Journal of Accounting and Economics, 20, 125-153.
- Holthausen, R., & Watts, L. (2001). The relevance of the value-relevant literature for financial accounting standard setting. Journal of Accounting and Economics, 31, 3-75.
- Hopwood, W., McKeown, J., & Mutchler, J. (1989). A test of the incremental explanatory power of opinions qualified for consistency and uncertainty. The Accounting Review, 64, 28-48.
- Hopwood, W., McKeown, J., & Mutchler, J. (1994). A re-examination of auditor versus model accuracy within the context of the going concern opinion decision. Contemporary Accounting Research, 11, 295-310.
- Jones, F. (1996). The information content of the auditor’s going concern evaluation. Journal of Accounting and Public Policy, 15, 1-27.
- Kida, T. (1980). An investigation into auditors’ continuity and related qualification judgments. Journal of Accounting Research, 18, 506-523.
- Koh, H. C. (1991). Model predictions and auditor assessments of going concern status. Accounting and Business Research, 21(84), 331-338.
- Koh, H. C., & Killough, L. (1990). The use of multiple discriminant analysis in the assessment of the going-concern status of an audit client. Journal of Business, Finance and Accounting, 17, 179-192.
- Loudder, M., Khurana, I., Sawyers, R., Cordery, C., Johnson, C., Lowe, J., & Wunderle, R. (1992). The information content of audit qualifications. Auditing: A Journal of Practice and Theory, 11(1), 69-82.
- Louwers, T. J. (1998). The relation between going-concern opinions and the auditor’s loss function. Journal of Accounting Research, 36, 143-156.
- Menon, K., & Schwartz, K. (1987). An empirical investigation of audit qualifications decisions in the presence of going concern uncertainties. Contemporary Accounting Research, 3, 302-315.
- Mutchler, J. (1985). A multivariate analysis of the auditor’s going-concern opinion decision. Journal of Accounting Research, 23, 668-682.
- Mutchler, J., Hopwood, W., & McKeown, J. (1997). The influence of contrary information and mitigating factors on audit opinions decisions on bankrupt companies. Journal of Accounting Research, 35, 295-310.
- Nogler, G. E. (1995). The resolution of auditor going concern opinions. Auditing: A Journal of Practice & Theory, 14(2), 681-689.
- Ohlson, J. (1995). Earnings, book values and dividends in equity valuation. Contemporary Accounting Research, 11, 661-687.
- O’Reilly, D. M. (2010). Do investors perceive the going-concern opinion as useful for pricing stocks? Managerial Auditing Journal, 25(1), 4-16.
- Petersen, M. A. (2009). Estimating standard errors in finance panel data sets: Comparing Approaches. Review of Financial Studies, 22, 435-480.
- Ruiz-Barbadillo, E., Gómez-Aguilar, N., & Carrera, N. (2009). Does mandatory audit firm rotation enhance auditor independence? Evidence from Spain. Auditing: A Journal of Practice & Theory, 28(1), 113-135.
- Subramanyam, K. R., & Wild, J. J. (1996). Going-Concern Status, Earnings Persistence, and Informativeness of Earnings. Contemporary Accounting Research, 13, 251-273.
- Tan, C. E. (2004). Alternative adaptations of distressed firms’ resources: The valuation roles of book value of equity and earnings (Working Paper).
- Zmijewski, M. E. (1984). Methodological issues related to the estimation of financial distress prediction models. Journal of Accounting Research, 22(Suppl.), 59-82.