Michael Dobler

Auditor-provided non-audit services in listed and private family firms

Purpose - – The aim of this paper is to provide evidence on the extent and the consequences of the provision of non-audit services (NAS) by statutory auditors to German family firms. Design/methodology/approach - – The study analyzes hand collected fee data of 368 listed and private family firms in Germany. It employs univariate tests, ordinary least squares and two-stage least squares regressions to investigate potential threats to perceived auditor independence and knowledge spillovers between jointly provided NAS and audit services. Findings - – Incumbent auditors are shown to be a significant source of various types of NAS to family firms. There is weak evidence on threats to perceived auditor independence and support for reciprocal knowledge spillovers between the services. While listed and private family firms do not differ in regard to the proportion of NAS fees, comparative findings suggest that key threats and benefits of jointly provided services are more prevalent among private than among listed family firms. Research limitations/implications - – The study suffers from limited data availability and is restricted to the initial year of mandatory audit fee disclosure of private firms in Germany. Particularities of family firms and the German setting, as well as differential results for listed and private family firms, suggest fruitful avenues for future research. Practical implications - – The study addresses the current issues in audit regulation. Regulatory bodies should consider that key threats and benefits of auditor-provided NAS decrease with stronger exogenous restrictions. Attempts to restrict jointly provided services in the EU suggest family firms to reconsider their reliance on auditors as a trusted source of NAS. Originality/value - – This study is the first to provide evidence on the extent and consequences of auditor-provided NAS in family firms based on fee disclosure. It is also among the few studies that investigate private firms in a code law country and complements prior evidence from Germany that is restricted to listed firms. More generally, it contributes to limited evidence at the intersection of audit and family business research.

Corporate Environmental Sustainability Disclosures and Environmental Risk: Alternative Tests of Socio-Political Theories

Purpose – This paper aims to propose and apply a novel risk-based approach to explore whether socio-political theories explain the level of corporate environmental disclosures given inconclusive evidence on the relation between environmental disclosure and environmental performance. Design/Methodology/Approach – Based on content analysis of corporate risk reporting, the paper develops measures of environmental risk to proxy for a firm’s exposure to public pressure in regard to environmental concerns that should be positively associated with the level of corporate environmental disclosures according to socio-political theories. Multiple regressions are used to test the predictions of socio-political theories for US Standards and Poor’s 500 constituents from polluting sectors. Findings – The level of environmental disclosures is found to be positively associated with a firm’s environmental risk while unrelated to its environmental performance. The findings suggest that firms tend to provide higher levels of environmental disclosures in response to greater exposure to public pressure as depicted by broad environmental indicators. The results are robust to alternative measures of environmental disclosures, environmental risk and environmental performance, alternative specifications of the economic model and additional sensitivity checks. Research Limitations/Implications – This study is limited to US firms in polluting sectors. The risk-based approach proposed may not be appropriate to cover sectors where corporate risk reporting is less likely to address environmental risk, but it could potentially be adopted in other countries with advanced risk reporting regulation or practice. Practical Implications – Findings are important to understand a firm’s incentives to disclose environmental information. Cross-sectional differences found in environmental disclosures, risk and performance, highlight the importance of considering industry affiliation when analyzing environmental data. Originality/Value – This paper is the first to use firm-level environmental risk variables to explain the level of corporate environmental disclosures. The risk-based approach taken suggests opportunities for research at the multi-country level and in countries where corporate environmental performance data are not publicly available.

Rethinking revenue recognition - the case of construction contracts under International Financial Reporting Standards

Accounting scandals and deficiencies in standards have persuaded international accounting standard-setters to rethink revenue recognition. The proposals of the joint IASB/FASB-project Revenue Recognition feature an asset-liability approach relying on measurement at fair values or at allocated customer consideration amounts. This paper chooses construction contracts to illustrate and to evaluate the far reaching changes implied by the proposals in a multi period context. Main results suggest that the proposals are ambivalent in terms of relevance but critical in terms of reliability compared to the recent IAS 11. A pure fair value approach which yields irritating patterns of revenue recognition, is inappropriate for stewardship purposes, and unlikely to be adopted because of regulatory incompatibilities. Measuring performance obligations at allocated consideration amounts partly mitigates these concerns.

Credibility of managerial forecast disclosure in market and regulated settings

This paper discusses the ability of models on cheap talk, and of audit and liability regulations, to provide analytically-based assessment of credibility of management forecast disclosure in market and regulated settings. While credibility is linked to restrictive conditions in pure market settings, regulatory enforcement does not necessarily contribute to forecast credibility. Key findings imply that ex ante approaches, including audit and tort liability in general, as well as partly verifiable disclosures supplementing the forecast and safe harbour provisions in particular can contribute to forecast credibility. Overall results suggest that the usefulness of managerial forecast disclosure should not be overestimated, as neither market nor regulatory mechanisms can overcome the problems related to non-verifiability.

Credibility of Managerial Forecast Disclosure - Game Theory and Regulative Implications -

Managerial forecast disclosure has gained increasing interest. Besides voluntary publication, managers are more and more obliged to disclose forecasts by recent accounting regulation. This acknowledges the common proposition that forecasts were exceptionally relevant and decision useful information for investors. But it neglects the problems of credibility arising from the non-verifiable nature of forecasts. My paper analytically investigates the credibility of managerial forecast disclosure introducing a game theoretic perspective by extracting robust implications from disclosure models. The analysis is two-fold, aiming first at a non-regulated environment and second at an environment with audit or liability systems. The results are alarming: Without enforcement, forecast credibility is linked to very restrictive conditions. In particular, unfavourable forecasts, e.g. going concern uncertainties, will be withheld. Different audit and litigation systems may increase or may lessen, but not eliminate the deficits. Upon the results of my analysis, I derive general regulative implications on enforcement mechanisms, managerial information endowment, and disclosure. These may assist but cannot assure the credibility of managerial forecast disclosure. In conclusion, whatever regulatory steps are taken, the value of forecast publication currently discussed in the context of voluntary prospective value reporting and mandatory risk reporting appears to be overestimated.

Formal Participation in the EFRAG’s Consultation Processes: The Role of European National Standard-Setters

Abstract While the European Financial Reporting Advisory Group (EFRAG) considers European national standard-setters (NSSs) as close partners that play a vital role in its legitimacy, empirical evidence on EFRAG’s consultation processes and the involvement of NSSs therein remains scarce. We use a multi-issue/multi-period approach to investigate the formal participation in EFRAG’s consultation processes. By examining 2,102 comment letters submitted to EFRAG in the 2002–2015 period, we find that NSSs typically outweigh other stakeholder groups in terms of level of participation across stages of the consultation process and project topics. Although NSSs’ level of participation is rather stable over time, it significantly varies across European countries. We also provide a recent classification of European NSSs and show that NSSs’ level of participation varies by their institutional status and is the highest for private NSSs. Our findings have implications for aspects of the legitimacy of both EFRAG and NSSs and shed light on the role of intermediaries in international accounting standard-setting.