Is Corporate Governance A Determinant of Auditor Choice?-Evidence From Turkey

Abstract

External independent audit is an important component of strong corporate governance. The choice of independent external auditor is determined by several different factors. Besides all firmspecific factors, corporate governance might be a determinant of external auditor choice. The relation between auditor choice and corporate governance varies in accordance with the “substitution or complementary effect”. Firms may prefer to demand less effective and low quality audit and substitute the quality of audit services by a strong corporate governance structure. Alternatively, firms may demand a high quality audit in order to complement and support firms’ corporate governance structure. Therefore it is important to understand how a strong corporate governance structure is associated with auditor choice to reveal the effect of each corporate governance mechanisms on Big-4 and industry-specialist auditor choice. The main aim of this study is to investigate the association between corporate governance and auditor choice by using a sample of 805 firm-year observations from Istanbul Stock Exchange (ISE) between the years 2005-2009. Overall findings show that, firms’ auditor choice in terms of Big-4 and audit firm industry specialization is affected by the firm-level corporate governance mechanisms of firms, particularly, board of directors’ composition and ownership structure

Keywords

• Auditor choice, corporate governance, Turkey

Kurumsal Yönetim Denetçi Seçiminde Belirleyici midir?-Türkiye’den Bulgular

Abstract

Bağımsız dış denetim, güçlü kurumsal yönetimin önemli bir bileşenidir. Bağımsız dış denetçi seçimi birçok farklı etken tarafından belirlenir. Firmaya özgü faktörlerin yanı sıra, kurumsal yönetim, dış denetçi seçiminin bir belirleyicisi olabilir. Denetçi seçimi ve kurumsal yönetim arasındaki ilişki “ikame veya tamamlayıcı etkisi” ne göre değişiklik göstermektedir. Firmalar, bir taraftan güçlü bir kurumsal yönetişim yapısı ile denetim hizmetlerinin kalitesini ikame ederek, daha az etkili ve düşük kalitede denetimi talep etmeyi tercih edebilirken, diğer taraftan kurumsal yönetim yapısını tamamlamak ve desteklemek için yüksek kaliteli denetim de talep edebilirler. Bu nedenle, kurumsal yönetim mekanizmalarının dört büyük denetim firması ve uzman denetçi seçimi üzerindeki etkisini ortaya çıkarmak için, güçlü bir kurumsal yönetim yapısının denetçi seçimi ile ilişkisini anlamak önem arz etmektedir. Bu çalışmanın amacı, İstanbul Menkul Kıymetler Borsasında (İMKB’de) işlem gören firmaların 2005-2009 yılları arasındaki 805 firma-yıl verisi kullanılarak, kurumsal yönetim ve denetçi seçimi arasındaki ilişkiyi araştırmaktır. Genel bulgular dört büyük denetim firması ve uzman denetçi seçiminin, özellikle yönetim kurulu ve ortaklık yapısı gibi, içsel kurumsal yönetim mekanizmalarından etkilendiğini ortaya koymaktadır

Keywords

• Denetçi seçimi, kurumsal yönetim, Türkiye

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