WITHDRAWN: Nineteenth century audit reports: Evolution from free-form to standardised wording
研究以英国南非公司34份审计报告为案例，分析审计报告措辞的演变，从定制化到1911年提前实现标准化，并探讨审计意见的影响。
The research comprises a case study focussed on the wording of 34 audit reports of the British South Africa Company (BSAC), which Cecil Rhodes established to colonise Rhodesia by royal charter from 1889 to 1925. The accounts were audited by Cooper Brothers & Co., now PricewaterhouseCoopers. The research analyses three audit-report characteristics that influenced audit-report wording. Of the 34 audit reports, eight contained qualified (i.e., unfavourable) audit opinions. Based on verbatim annual general meeting minutes and private correspondence, we provide evidence of the effect of the audit qualifications. The research further analyses the evolution of the audit-report wording over the period. Initially, the auditors customised the audit-report wording. Each year, they made micro changes to improve the precision of the wording. Then, in 1911, well in advance of any audit-report regulations, the wording became standardised and remained so until the end of the study period. The paper adds insights into why auditors standardised audit-report wording. We conjecture that years of struggling with customised wording prompted the auditors to adopt standardised wording. We do not know whether this decision applied just to the BSAC audit reports, or whether 1911 heralded standardised audit-report wording for all Cooper Brothers & Co. audit reports.