Do Auditors and Clients Respond to the Expected Self-Fulfilling Prophecy Effect of Going Concern Opinions?
研究审计师和客户是否因预期持续经营审计意见会加速企业失败而调整决策，发现审计师在预期效应强时更不愿出具该意见，且客户会据此更换审计师。
Prior auditor reporting literature posits a self-fulfilling prophecy (SFP) effect, whereby auditors’ going concern opinions (GCOs) increase the probability of subsequent failure for audit clients. This possibility of a causal SFP effect for GCOs has troubled companies, practitioners, and regulators for decades. Our study examines whether auditor and client decisions are sensitive to the expectation of an SFP effect. Data demonstrate significant engagement-specific variation in the expected SFP effect across distressed clients. We find evidence consistent with auditor reluctance to issue GCOs to distressed clients when such opinions are expected to increase the probability of subsequent failure. This association is lessened for larger auditors, consistent with their differential sensitivity to the expected costs of issuing clean opinions versus GCOs. We also find that the expected SFP effect is associated with management’s auditor switching and auditor selection decisions. These results inform practitioner and regulator concerns around the SFP effect and provide archival evidence that complements and extends prior analytical and experimental work.