SUMMARY Prior audit research suggests that most, if not all, audit quality can be explained at the office level. However, the question remains of whether office-level audit quality is contingent on how individual offices relate to the firm as a whole. Motivated by theories of knowledge management, organizational learning, and networks, we posit that individual offices are connected to their audit network through partner knowledge sharing and oversight, which impact office-level audit quality. We interview Big 4 audit partners and learn that knowledge sharing between partners in different offices is common and intended to aid in the provision of audit services. Using network connectedness to proxy for knowledge sharing and oversight between offices of the same firm, we document that more connected offices are associated with fewer client restatements and lower discretionary accruals. We additionally find that network effects are magnified when accounting treatments are more complex and require greater auditor judgement.

SYNOPSIS We investigate how the comparability of a company's financial statements is related to its cost of equity capital. The Financial Accounting Standards Board's (FASB 2010) Statement of Financial Accounting Concept No. 8 proposes that comparability is a key tenet of accounting because it allows users of financial statements to benchmark a firm against similar firms when distinguishing between alternative investment opportunities. We provide evidence that greater financial statement comparability is associated with lower cost of equity capital, and show that comparability's effect on cost of equity remains after controlling for within-firm accounting quality. Additionally, we find that investors derive greater benefits from financial statement comparability in firms whose information environments are less transparent (high information asymmetry) and whose equity shares trade in markets that are less competitive (imperfect markets). Our findings contribute to accounting research by providing evidence justifying comparability as a separate element of the FASB's conceptual framework.

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Competitors often pay close attention to rivals' financial reports.