Economic Consequences of Hiring an Auditor With Industry Expertise: An Empirical Analysis Among NPOs
研究比利时非营利组织选择具有行业专长的审计师对未来捐赠和资助的影响，发现审计合伙人而非审计事务所的行业专长能显著增加组织获得的资源。
This study examines economic consequences of auditor choice in the Belgian nonprofit (NP) setting, where the identity of both the audit firm and the audit partner is required to be disclosed. Specifically, we examine the influence of auditor choice in favor of an auditor with industry expertise on future contributions (being the sum of donations and grants) received among a large sample of Belgian nonprofit organizations (NPOs). Consistent with a signaling perspective, our results indicate that NPOs benefit from engaging an audit partner with industry expertise, by positively influencing future contributions received by the NPO. However, we observe no significant effect of audit firm industry expertise on future contributions received. Our results therefore suggest that NPOs’ resource providers presume that industry expertise is situated at the signing partner level rather than at the audit firm level.