This research aims to find empirical evidence about the impact of workload and specialization of auditors on audit quality. This research will also examine whether the quality of the audit committee can strengthen or weaken impact of workload and specialization on audit quality. This research uses four measures of workload. The results of this research indicate that the workload has a negative impact on audit quality and audit committee reduces the negative impact of workload on audit quality. One regression found that specialization has a positive effect on the quality of audit but the audit committee has no role to strengthen the positive effect of specialization on audit quality. These results indicate that when the auditor is a specialist, the audit committee has no effect in improving the audit quality. The implications from this study is that accounting firm must consider the workload of their auditor. Government also need to consider rules on workload in an accounting firm to maintain audit quality. The role of audit committees also needs to be increased because it is proved can reduce the negative impact of workload to audit quality.

The objective of this study is to empirically examine non-linear (quadratic) effect of capital structure on firm performance (Tobin's q dan ROA) and also the effect of Multiple Large Shareholder Structure (MLSS) and institutional ownership on firm performance. The sample is a non-financial company listed on the Indonesia Stock Exchange with the study period 2009-2012. Data obtained from Data Stream and IDX website. Using fixed effect panel regression, this research finds that the capital structure has a quadratic (concave) effect on firm performance measured by ROE with maximum point at debt to equity of 1.95. This result indicates that the total debt that maximizes the company's performance is 1.95 of the total capital. The study also finds that increasingly large multiple shareholder structures (MLSS) will decrease firm performance, while higher institutional ownership will improve company performance.

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ABSTRAKIndonesia merupakan negara yang menerapkan peraturan rotasi audit (akuntan publik) yang bertujuan untuk meningkatkan kualitas audit. Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk menguji pengaruh rotasi audit dan lamanya mengaudit terhadap kualitas audit. Kualitas audit diukur dengan empat kualitas laba (predictive value, timeliness, representational faithfulness dan netralitas). Sampel penelitian adalah perusahaan-perusahaan yang terdaftar di Bursa Efek Indonesia selama periode sebelum regulasi rotasi audit diberlakukan yaitu tahun 1999-2001 dan periode paska regulasi yaitu tahun [2004][2005][2006][2007][2008]. Hasil pengujian membuktikan bahwa pada periode sebelum regulasi, tidak ada pengaruh lamanya mengaudit terhadap kualitas audit. Namun setelah periode regulasi, lamanya mengaudit memiliki hubungan convex dengan kualitas audit dari sudut pandang netral sampai dengan timeliness. Penelitian ini juga menemukan bahwa secara umum tidak ada pengaruh rotasi akuntan publik dengan kualitas audit, 2 dari 8 persamaan regresi menunjukkan rotasi audit menurunkan kualitas audit pada periode sebelum dan sesudah regulasi. Spesialisasi memiliki pengaruh positif terhadap kualitas audit. Kewajiban untuk melakukan rotasi audit tidak cukup efektif untuk meningkatkan kualitas audit.Kata kunci: Audit Quality, Audit Rotation, Audit Tenure, Specialization, Quadratic model. (1999)(2000)(2001) to period after the regulation (2004)(2005)(2006)(2007)(2008) ABSTRACT Indonesia is a country that not only applied the rule of audit partner rotation, but also audit firm rotation with aim to improve the audit quality. This research tries to investigate the impact of audit firm audit rotation and audit tenure to the audit quality. The audit quality is measured by four earning quality (predictive value, timeliness, representational faithfulness and neutrality perspective). The sample data are the public listed companies from period before the regulation

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine the indirect effect of the International Financial Reporting Standard (IFRS) adoption in increasing the foreign investors’ ownership through the improvement of comparability of financial statements. Design/methodology/approach This study employs listed companies in 18 countries across Europe, Asia, Africa, and Australia with an observation period from 2003 to 2012. Unlike previous studies, this study uses a continuous variable to measure the level of IFRS adoption which is measured at the country level. This study includes countries that do not fully adopt the IFRS, partially adopt, make some delays in adoption or some modifications to IFRS. Findings The results show that the level of IFRS adoption has a positive effect on the comparability of financial statements. The level of IFRS adoption indirectly increases the foreign investors’ ownership through the comparability of financial statements. These results are consistent with proponents for IFRS adoption which argue that the adoption improves the comparability of financial statements that in turn attracts greater cross-border investment. Research limitations/implications The findings of this study need to be interpreted with caution due to limitations. Although this research provides a detail measurement on the IFRS adoption, this study only looks at three general items of difference in adopting the IFRS. “Differences in text” used in this research has not quantified detail differences for each adopted standards. Therefore, future research can use a more in-depth measurement of the IFRS adoption level that considers differences or exceptions of accounting treatment. Practical implications The results suggest that the standards setting bodies’ (IASB) strategy on promoting the IFRS and objectives to develop a standard that leads to increase the financial statement comparability have been achieved. This research shows that the IFRS adoption plays a role in ensuring the financial statement quality in terms of its comparability. It implies that the standard-setting bodies in every country, as one of the responsible institutions regulating the business environment, can be entrusted with a greater role in order to ensure better financial information quality. Originality/value This study introduces novel measurement that is more detailed in measuring the IFRS adoption level instead of applying the discrete variable approach (“adopt” and “not adopt”) performed by previous studies (DeFond et al., 2011; Tan et al., 2011; Lee and Fargher, 2010). This study does not only cover some EU countries but also covers some countries in Asia, Africa, and Australia, so it can be better at capturing the variation of the IFRS adoption outside the EU. This broader coverage will show the consistency of the benefits of IFRS adoption. This study is most closely related to that of DeFond et al. (2011). This research extends DeFond’s study with some important differences as follows: it uses output-based and firm-specific measurement of the comparability from DeFranco et al. (2011), which is deemed to be more appropriate because it represents the qualitative characteristics of financial statements from a user’s perspective, i.e., investors, who evaluate historical performance and predict future performance in their investment decisions; it uses a broader scope of institutional investors; and it covers IFRS adoption in countries outside the EU for a longer observation period.