Auditor Changes and Related Disagreements.

Abstract Since 1971 the SEC has required public companies to report changes in auditors and to delineate any audit-related disagreements preceding such changes. Additionally, registrants must disclose situations wherein a successor auditor subsequently accepts a client's position of disagreement with a predecessor. This study reports upon the relative disagreement involvement rates experienced by both Big Eight and non-Big Eight firms as predecessors and successors to 748 auditor changes. The results indicate that Big Eight firms were more frequently both predecessors and successors to auditor changes involving disagreements. Furthermore, significant differences were found to exist among Big Eight firms in terms of disagreement involvement rates as both predecessor and successor auditors. A Spearman rank-order test of Big Eight predecessor and successor disagreement ranks indicated moderate inverse correlation.