دور التخصص الصناعي للمراجع الخارجي في الحد من ممارسات إدارة الأرباح : دراسة ميدانية على شركات المساهمة السعودية

Abstract EN

This research aims to identify the role of the external auditor with industry-specefic expertise in reducing earnings management practices in the Saudi Listed Companies.

The research found several results, the most important of which is that the Industrial Specialization of the External Auditor has many advantages, including improving his performance, reducing earnings management practices, improving audit quality, increasing confidence in the financial statements, and increasing confidence in the external auditor’s report.

In addition, the research found that the role of industry-specific expertise of the External Auditor in limiting earnings management practices is of great importance when there is a possibility of management bias towards earnings measurment; skill of some companies in managing earnings; multiplicity of methods of earnings management; and lack of decisive solutions in accounting standards to prevent or limit the practice of earnings management.

Stakeholders prefer that companies in such an environment should be audited by a specialized auditor.

The respondents are in view that the expertise of the auditor in the company's activies should be in one of the criteria of engagement.

The research demonstrated that the great important indicators of industrial specialization of the external auditor include existence of industry-specific departments, the size of the audit office, and the number of years the audit office spends in auditing a particular industry.

The respondents attach high importance to the role of External Auditor expertise for the practice of earnings management in Saudi joint stock companies, which includes the discovery of the practices of major earnings management, and the reduction of which will reduce the likelihood of earnings management in companies audited by specialized auditors.

Finally, the research found that the most common reasons for the absence of industrial specialization of the External Auditors in Saudi Arabia are the infancy of the Saudi financial market and the lack of scientific research for the specialization of the external auditor.