会计师事务所规模、品牌声誉与审计收费溢价

西方研究通常将“四大”的审计收费溢价归因于其品牌声誉,这亦可能得益于其寡占型的市场地位。然而,“四大”在中国证券审计市场并不占有寡占型的市场地位,事务所规模、品牌声誉与审计收费溢价之间的关系需重新加以审视。研究发现,与规模相比,声誉占主导地位,另外,在声誉达到一定高度的情况下,规模大的事务所能够享受审计收费溢价,否则,规模并不能给事务所带来审计收费溢价的好处。这说明“四大”在我国证券审计市场上的审计收费溢价得益于其品牌声誉而非垄断地位,亦说明在我们执行“事务所做大做强”战略时,应使行政干预让位于市场力量,否则,“做大”不能“做强”。

The Size,Brand Name Reputation and Audit Fee Premium of Accounting Firms

Western studies always attributed the price premium charged by the Big Four to their brand name reputa- tion. However, such a premium could partly due to their monopoly position. Compared with developed countries, Big Four＇s market share in China＇s audit market is lower and the disparity among them is wide, this provides a unique setting to make it feasible to research the relation among auditor size, brand name reputation and audit fee premium. The results show that reputation is more important than size. If reputation has reached a high level, size dominants; otherwise, size alone is not enough to bring high audit fee premium to the bigger auditor. Together, these results suggest that a Big Four price premium is a result of brand name reputation rather than monopoly pricing. Meanwhile, it shows that when carry the strategy of making the auditor bigger and stronger, government intervention should give way to market power, otherwise, to be big will not necessarily mean to be strong.