Professionalism vs Commercialism: The Association Between Non‐Audit Services (NAS) and Audit Independence

The implications of the provision of NAS to audit clients on audit independence have attracted considerable regulatory and research attention. This study contributes to this topical issue by investigating the association between NAS and audit independence using actual fee data and a more appropriate context that enables a proper ex post assessment of the correctness of the auditor's opinion decision. The results are consistent with the notion that auditors exhibit low propensity to issue a going‐concern qualification to clients generating higher proportions of NAS fees to total fees and raise independence implications regarding the joint provision of audit and NAS.