Author

Hyejoon Yoon

Degree Type

Honors Capstone Project

Date of Submission

Spring 5-1-2009

Capstone Advisor

Randy Elder

Honors Reader

Susan Albring

Capstone Major

Accounting

Capstone College

Management

Audio/Visual Component

no

Capstone Prize Winner

no

Won Capstone Funding

yes

Honors Categories

Professional

Subject Categories

Accounting

Abstract

There have been major audit failures involving the largest companies such as Enron, WorldCom and Tyco. As a result of these audit failures, the Sarbanes-Oxley Act was passed in 2002 to establish enhanced standards for oversight of accounting professionals including U.S. public company boards, management, and public accounting firms. After the Sarbanes-Oxley Act was passed, there has been increased attention on major public accounting firms regarding audit quality, audit pricing, independence, risk assessment, and legal liabilities. In order to maintain the independence, three of the four major accounting firms sold their consulting practice, even though consulting practices are again growing rapidly. As a result, public companies have been experiencing the increase in their audit fees and the quality of audit. Since there has been little research focusing on regional companies, I examine the impact of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act on private companies and smaller audit firms. I survey 429 companies located in the Central New York region and 126 qualified samples are used in this research. The research focuses on finding associations of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act and changes in a level of audit fees, audit quality, and client satisfaction. Regional companies experience in the increase in audit fees and quality. In addition, clients are satisfied with the services provided by accounting companies. My finding indicates that regional firms experience the impact of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License.

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