Common Auditors in Supply Chain Relationships and the Provision of Trade Credit

• 成果类型: Article; Early Access
• 署名作者: Lisic, Ling; Liu, Qiliang; Seidel, Timothy A.; Shi, Hanzhong; Wang, Angie; Zimmerman, Aleksandra
• 署名单位: Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State University; Tongji University; Brigham Young University; Huazhong University of Science & Technology; Hong Kong Polytechnic University; State University System of Florida; Florida State University
• 刊物名称: ACCOUNTING REVIEW
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0001-4826
• DOI: 10.2308/TAR-2022-0142
• 发表日期: 2025
• 关键词: social-structure; earnings; QUALITY; trust; FIRMS; constraints; COMPETITION; OWNERSHIP; accruals; demand

摘要

This study examines the association between a shared common auditor among suppliers and customers and trade credit. Using hand-collected pairwise trade credit data, we find that a supplier extends more trade credit to a customer audited by a common auditor. This association is robust to alternative design specifications and various sample restrictions to alleviate selection bias. We then interview trade credit managers and executives as a prelude to archival analyses exploring multiple potential mechanisms to explain this association. The collective results are most consistent with the explanation that mutual third parties to a dyadic relationship can foster trust through social connections and increased salience of reputation effects rather than that a common auditor reduces information asymmetry about the rigor of the audit process.