Does a Manager Respond to a Going-Concern Audit Opinion with an Asymmetry in Gain and Loss?

• Main Author: Taewoo Kim
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: MDPI AG 2021-04-01
• Series: Sustainability
• Subjects: going-concern audit opinion; accounting conservatism; business sustainability
• Online Access: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/8/4425

In this paper, I investigate the relationship between previous going-concern audit opinions and subsequent asymmetric timeliness in accounting. Using the time-series and price-based models and conservatism proxy, I find that firms with going-concern audit opinions subsequently report losses in a more timely manner than firms that did not receive going-concern audit opinions. Furthermore, I also find that firms exiting going-concern audit opinions are more likely to report losses rather than gains in a timely manner, compared to firms non-exiting from going-concern opinions. This study extends the prior research by exploring the association between going-concern opinions and accounting conservatism from the perspective of client firms—that is, how firms behave strategically and conservatively to bypass going-concern opinions, once the firms had received previous going-concern opinions.