The Effective Factors Determination of Modified Audit Opinion- The Meta Analysis Method

The purpose of this paper is to use meta-analysis method to determine the effect of auditor and audit-related variables and firm-specific variables on auditors’ tendency to issue modified audit opinions. Auditor and audit-related variables include Auditor firm size, audit firm industry specialization, audit firm and audit partner tenure and audit report presentation lag. Firm-specific variables include firm size, leverage, previous year modified audit opinions, and profitability. The Stouffer combined test is used as the meta-analysis technique for this paper. The test is resulted a z-statistic that can be used to test the direction and significance of the effect of the hypothesized variables on the tendency of auditors to issue modified audit opinions. 8 internal articles and 58 external published studies are aggregated from 1385 to 1395 and 1982 to 2016. Findings reveal that the effect of audit and auditor-related variables on audit opinion decisions is far from conclusive. Auditor firm size and audit report presentation lag variables are found to be significantly related. audit report lag and Auditor firm size are found to be positively and audit firm industry specialization and audit firm and audit partner tenure are found be negatively related. However, in IR studies, these relationships are not founded. In contrast, firm-specific variables include firm size and profitability on auditors’ tendency to issue modified audit opinions are more important.