Auditor reputation, industry specialization, account specialist and goodwill

• Main Authors: Lin, Nien Tzu, 林念慈
• Other Authors: Chou, Ling Tai
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/32222629630829363844

碩士 === 國立政治大學 === 會計研究所 === 99 === With the development of internationalization and the release of related regulations, more and more companies enhance their competitiveness by means of investment and acquisition, which is often followed by the recognition of goodwill. Since the nature of goodwill is unique and its amount is often significant, the demand of high quality auditors is on the increase. Companies need them to improve and monitor the recognition, management and evaluation of goodwill. Recently, due to the fair value accounting concept, more attention is drawn on the change of goodwill accounting. Therefore, in this study we summarize the accounting treatment of goodwill and its impairment in Taiwan during the past ten years. Our main objective is to examine whether specialist auditor choice is associated with the importance of goodwill. We find evidence that goodwill is positively associated with the choice of auditors who specialize in auditing goodwill account. Additionally, compared to the other auditors, big 4 auditors can restrain earnings management, especially when companies experienced financial distress and tended to take a big bath by recognizing goodwill impairment.