Auditor Choice and Earning Management in Saudi Joint Stock Companies

Abstract

In Saudi Arabia the primary focus of earnings management research to date, however, has been on detecting whether and when earnings management takes place. Number of literature have typically examined number of motivations to earnings management. Following this line of research, the primary purpose of this study is to provide empirical evidence on the auditor choice decision and its relationship with the phenomenon of earning management in Saudi business environment using a sample of Saudi joint stock companies (from 2002 to 2006). More specifically this research tests whether companies tend to choice Non-Big4 auditors when they have motivation to earnings management. The result indicates no presence of a statically significant relationship between auditor choice or auditor change and earning management phenomenon in the Saudi business environment during the period from 2002 to 2006. the study ends with number of recommendations.