Determinants of Independent Auditor Change: A Study on BIST Companies

Abstract

Independent auditing firm rotation and independent auditor change is a significant issue in the context of globalization, in a challenging competitive environment created by developing technology and changing economic systems, in enhancing financial information security that affects the decisions of financial information users, ensuring auditor independence and the quality of the auditing. The study was carried out in order to determine the relationship between
the change of independent audit firm of companies traded in Borsa Istanbul (BIST) in Turkey, the province where the company to be audited, the sector in which it operates and the opinion of the independent auditor on a yearly basis. Within the scope of the research, the independent audit reports of 477 companies traded in the Borsa Istanbul (BIST TUM) XUTUM index, which are legally obliged to have their financial statements audited, between the years 2015-2020 were
examined. According to the results of the research, when the rates of changing independent audit firms are evaluated separately in terms of province, sector and opinion, significant changes are detected. In the panel regression model, it has been determined that the variables of the province, the sector in which it operates and the opinion of the independent auditor do not have a significant effect on the change of independent audit firm.