A Theory of ‘Why and How’ Audit Firms Choose to Specialize
从理论角度分析审计事务所如何通过投资行业知识和调整定价策略成为行业专家，揭示了竞争环境特征对审计质量提升的激励作用，并指出初期降低费用以吸引客户是积累经验、实现专业化的关键路径。
We examine analytically the strategic path auditors take towards becoming industry specialists in terms of their investments in the acquisition of industry specific knowledge and their pricing behavior. We identify characteristics of the competitive environment that provide incentives to improve audit quality as accounting firms strive to achieve industry specialization. These characteristics include the extent of uniqueness of the accounting knowledge relevant to the industry and the extent to which it is difficult for auditors to differentiate themselves from competitors by using mechanisms other than industry specialization. We argue that both the initial investments in improving quality and the experience gained by attracting a bigger group of clients play a role in achieving specialization. Serving more clients fosters learning and cultivates enhanced industry expertise. In order to cultivate such learning, our model predicts that the auditor lowers his fees in early stages of his journey to achieving specialization in order to attract a larger group of new clients. In contrast to prior studies, our analysis examines factors influencing the supply of rather than the demand for industry specialization.