Date of Award

5-2012

Document Type

Honors Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelor of Arts

Department

Accounting

Abstract

In recent years, there has been a debate over whether public companies should be required to have either a mandatory retention period or a mandatory rotation period for their external auditors. With all of the financial scandals that occurred in the late 1990s and early 2000s, the idea of auditor switching has come to the forefront. There are some opponents to auditor switching when companies switch auditors due to opinion shopping. However, research has identified many other reasons for switching auditors, such as business growth or requirements for new audit procedures. When companies require more complex audits, it may become necessary to choose a different auditor. When faced with the decision to choose a new auditor, more often than not, a company will choose a Big Four firm. I collected research on 17 different companies that experienced corporate fraud and analyzed the company’s decision to switch auditors. I found that in many cases the company decided to switch to one of the Big Four firms, and in a few cases, the company retained its original auditor.

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