主讲人Speaker: Chan Li     教授     美国堪萨斯大学

时间Date & Time: 2025年12月19日（周四），9:30--11:00

地点Venue:粤海校区汇星楼565会议室

内容简介/ Abstract:

Engagement quality reviewers (EQRs) play a critical role in ensuring high audit quality, yet little is known about how audit firms assign EQRs to specific engagements or the consequences of these assignments. Using a unique dataset from China that contains detailed EQR information, we find that EQRs are more likely to be assigned to engagements when they have prior working relationships with the engagement partner or are from the same office. We also document a negative association between the competence of the assigned EQR and that of the engagement partner, consistent with a competence substitution effect. This competence substitution is weaker when the senior manager on the engagement team holds a higher hierarchical position in the firm.  Moreover, same-office affiliation is attenuated when client risk is high, but prior working ties, same-office affiliation are strengthened when the client is economically important. The competence substitution is stronger when client risk is high or when the client is economically important. Importantly, audit quality is lower when the EQR and engagement partner have prior working relationships or are from the same office, whereas audit quality is higher when competent EQRs are paired with less competent engagement partners relative to cases where both have low competence. Overall, our study sheds light on how audit firms assign EQRs to engagements and the implications of those assignments for audit quality.

主讲人介绍/Biography of the speaker：

Chan Li李婵教授：堪萨斯大学博士，现为堪萨斯大学商学院C. A. Scupin教授，曾为匹兹堡大学终身教授；她的研究兴趣包括审计的经济后果、监管对审计环境的影响、审计师的判断和审计质量等审计理论与实践问题。她已在国际顶级刊物上发表论文30多篇，包括The Accounting Review, Journal of Accounting Research, Journal of Accounting and Economics, Contemporary Accounting Research, Review of Accounting Studies, Accounting, Organizations, and Society, MIS Quarterly以及 Auditing: A Journal of Practice & Theory。她的研究成果被美国证券交易委员会(SEC)、美国公众公司会计监督委员会（PCAOB）、《纽约时报》(New York Times)和《华尔街日报》(Wall Street Journal)所引用；李婵教授现为The Accounting Review的主编，曾任Auditing: A Journal of Practice & Theory的主编。