Audit rotation, does it matter? : A study on audit rotations relationship to audit quality and its contingencies.

Abstract: Poor audit quality has historically led to huge consequences for the society. A low audit quality is often related to a low auditor independence, which can be caused by the auditor's incentive to maximize personal gain. In attempts to strengthen the auditor independence and thereby the audit quality, several audit regulations have been issued, where the mandatory audit rotation has been the subject to intensive debate. Although the previous research on audit rotation and audit quality is extensive, few studies investigate the contingency aspects of the relationship more specifically firm visibility. The purpose of the study is to explain how audit firm rotation and audit partner rotation relate to audit quality and how this relationship is contingent on firm visibility. The study is conducted quantitatively using a positivistic deductive approach. Hypotheses are developed from existing theories and literature in the area. These are later tested by translating concepts into measurable variables. Audit quality has been measured through the proxy variable discretionary accruals which was estimated by two variants of the modified Jones model. The sample consisted out of 58 large-cap firms listed on the Stockholm OMX stock exchange, constituting a total of 580 firm years. The results of this study suggest that neither audit partner rotation nor audit firm rotation has an influence on audit quality. Furthermore, these relationships are not found to be contingent on firm visibility. The study’s findings contribute to existing debate on mandatory audit rotation. However, the results need to be interpreted with certain caution as we cannot be certain that discretionary accruals measured audit quality as it was intended to do.