Original scientific paper
https://doi.org/10.1080/1331677X.2017.1305787
Audit reporting for going concern in Spain during the global financial crisis
Mercedes Mareque
orcid.org/0000-0001-8927-5323
Francisco López-Corrales
Aurea Pedrosa
Abstract
The current world financial crisis is causing real difficulties in the
operation of firms and has generated renewed interest in audit
reports. This study aims to analyse the impact of the financial crisis
on the audit reports issued by auditors. We focus especially on those
reports that contain questions relating to going concern situations.
The sample analysed is formed by 2935 audit reports of unlisted
Spanish firms for the years 2007–2010. From the results obtained
we can affirm that the crisis being suffered by Spanish firms has not
gone unnoticed by audit professionals. Our research reveals that as
the crisis in Spain has worsened, the proportion of reports that include
references to going concern situations has increased in comparison
with 2007, when the financial crisis had not become manifest in Spain.
The sectors of the Spanish economy most affected by the crisis are
real estate and construction. Taking into account whether the audit
firm issuing the report is Big-4 or Non-Big-4, no significant differences
can be appreciated in the percentage of reports issued with going
concern qualifications before the start of the crisis (2007) and during
the crisis (2008–2010).
Keywords
Going concern; financial crisis; audit reports; unlisted companies
Hrčak ID:
180809
URI
Publication date:
1.12.2017.
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