The Influence of Audit Firm Specialization on Analysts’ Forecast Errors

Abstract

SUMMARY: This study investigates audit firm specialization in settings where managers have incentives to modify earnings to achieve analysts’ earnings forecasts. The results indicate that audit firms that have a large market share of clients within a particular industry, and audit firms that receive a significant portion of their firm revenues from a specific industry, are associated with audited financial statement earnings that increase absolute levels of analysts’ forecast error and are less likely to just meet or beat analysts’ forecasts.