Name: MARIANA APARECIDA FAVERO FIORIN
Publication date: 28/09/2023
Advisor:
Name |
Role |
|---|---|
| VAGNER ANTONIO MARQUES | Advisor * |
Examining board:
| Name |
Role |
|---|---|
| RAFAEL DE LACERDA MOREIRA | Internal Examiner * |
| VAGNER ANTONIO MARQUES | Advisor * |
Summary: This research aims to analyze the impact of Key Audit Matters (PAAs) on the decision-making
of non-institutional investors. With the increase in criticism regarding the informational content
of Independent Audit Reports (RAIs), there is a growing effort by regulators to change auditing
standards with a view to improving informational content and, consequently, helping users in
decision making of investment. In this sense, in 2016 there were changes in auditing standards
in Brazil, among which the Brazilian Accounting Standard Auditing Technique 701 (NBC
TA 701) stands out, which provides for the communication of PAAs in the RAIs. After changes
to audit standards, Silviu and Timea (2015) suggested that the inclusion of PAAs in RAIs is
based on the Theory of Inspired Confidence (TCI), evidenced by Limperg (1932), as it states
that the information contained in RAIs aims to confer credibility on users when analyzing
financial statements (DFs) to make investment decisions. In recent years, the number of noninstitutional investors (individuals) has grown, which suggests the need to understand how the
informational content of RAIs assists in the decision-making process of these users. Given this
context, an experiment was carried out, with a 2x1 research design between participants
(between) manipulating (i) Absence of PAA and (ii) Presence of PAA. In both manipulations,
the participant had to make his investment decision. The analysis techniques used were
descriptive statistics, Wilcoxon-Mann-Whitney, Kruskal-Wallis, and marginal effects graphs,
with the help of R software for data analysis. The results showed that the disclosure of PAAs
did not affect the decision-making of Brazilian non-institutional investors for the scenario in
which the audit opinion was unmodified (without reservation) and for the scenario in which the
audit opinion was modified (with reservation). It was also observed that users tend to rarely use
RAIs for investment decisions including for the scenario with modified opinion. In this sense,
this study has the potential to contribute to non-institutional investors, regulators, auditors and
other parties interested in this topic, as it provides empirical evidence of the relationship
between the disclosure of PAAs and the investment decision-making process, as well as how
