事务所专业化经营与审计收费的匹配性研究——基于客户规模的中介效应

Study on Association between Audit Firm Industry Specialization and Audit Fees

事务所行业专门化是其获取可持续竞争优势的重要战略。低成本和差异化是事务所投资专业化经营模式所能获取的两大竞争优势。本文利用A股上市公司2009-2013年的数据对专业化经营事务所的审计收费模式进行了实证检验,研究表明:大客户市场上,行业专家事务所可以通过提供差异化服务向客户收取审计收费溢价;小客户市场上,由于服务价格弹性较小,行业专家事务所旨在通过提高市场份额获得规模经济效应,因而向客户收取竞争性审计收费。

Industry Specialization is an important strategy of accounting firms to acquire sustainable competitive advantages, especially the advantages of low costs and differentiation. The article, with the data of A-share listed companies from 2009 to 2013, makes an empirical test on the audit fee models of accounting firms with an industry specialization strategy, and finds that at the market of large clients, such firms could gain audit fee premiums by providing differentiated services; while at the market of small clients, because of the lack of flexibility of service prices, those firms, aiming to achieve economies of scale by raising their market shares, have to charge competitive audit fees.