Audit Pricing and Strategic Group Analysis in the Public Accounting Industry

Abstract

Empirical analysis of the public accounting industry has been considerably limited due to lack of data availability. This dissertation proposal leverages a unique dataset of public accounting firms in Korea ranging from 1997 to 2011 to examine the industry's strategic groups and pricing decisions in light of considerable economic forces in a changing environment. I draw upon the theory of strategic groups (Hunt 1972; Caves and Porter 1977; Porter 1980) to distinctly identify strategic groups within the public accounting industry and how group membership explains performance differences. Further, I augment traditional audit fee models (Ferguson et al. 2003, Chaney et al. 2004, and Francis et al. 2005) by incorporating strategic group analysis to show that the relationships between audit fee determinants and audit fees are moderated by auditor strategic group membership.