Abstract

Across the world there have been important regulation related to the audit matters. Significant efforts have been made in recent years to improve the audit firm trustfully with a focus on the significance of corporate governance for the market perception of the audit firm quality. The IAASB published in 2020 the exposure draft on “Fraud and going concern in an audit of financial statements” and the Financial Reporting Council (FRC) and Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW) updated in 2016 the Audit Firm Governance Code. Good corporate governance and the related effects on market reputation of audit firm could reduce the market concentration of the BIG4. This study looks at whether or not, and if so, in the UK market the corporate governance of the audit firms is correlated with the market share of audit firms in order to support the efforts of standard setters to improve the corporate governance of audit firms and to enrich the academic literature on this topic. Enhancing corporate governance practice in non BIG4 audit firm could affect the perception of audit quality of the smaller accounting firms and improve their market share.

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