نوع مقاله : مقاله پژوهشی

نویسندگان

• زهرا جودکی چگنی ¹
• محمدحسین صفرزاده ²
• حمیده اثنی عشری ³
• فخرالدین محمدرضایی ⁴

¹ دانشجو دکتری حسابداری، دانشکده مدیریت و حسابداری، دانشگاه شهید بهشتی، تهران، ایران.

² دانشیار گروه حسابداری، دانشکده مدیریت و حسابداری، دانشگاه شهید بهشتی، تهران، ایران

³ استادیار گروه حسابداری، دانشکده مدیریت و حسابداری، دانشگاه شهید بهشتی، تهران، ایران

⁴ دکتری حسابداری، دانشکده علوم مالی، دانشگاه خوارزمی، تهران، ایران

چکیده

مقتضای اهمیت علمی و کاربردی پژوهش‌های این حوزه، تحلیل کتاب‌سنجی با هدف ترسیم نمایی از وضعیت و روند جهانی، عوامل و روابط کتاب‌شناختی آن، ضرورتی است که تاکنون به طور دقیق بدان پرداخته نشده است. در این مطالعه، مقاله‌های منتشر شده در حوزه مطالعاتی را از پایگاه‌ اسکوپوس در سال‌های 1986 تا 2024 جمع‌آوری شد و سپس با ایجاد محدودیت برای مطالعه دقیقتر، 38 مقاله هم سو با این حوزه انتخاب شد. در این مقاله برای تحلیل کتاب‌سنجی از نرم‌افزار ووس ویور استفاده شد. بر اساس تحلیل کتاب‌سنجی ، کلیدواژه ادغام در هسته اصلی قرار گرفت و در فاصله نزدیک به آن گره‌های بزرگ دیگری مانند ادغام موسسات حسابرسی، کیفیت حسابرسی، حق‌الزحمه حسابرسی، کارایی حسابرسی، رقابت در راستای موضوع اصلی پژوهش قرار گرفته‌اند. کشور ایالات متحده، مجله حسابرسی و حوزه کسب و کار، مدیریت و حسابداری پرکاربردترین‌ها در این حوزه پژوهشی شناخته شدند. افزون بر این، در بین پژوهشگران مورونی با سیمنت و ثاواپالان بیشترین همکاری پژوهشی را داشته‌اند. مطالعه حاضر با شناخت ساختار فکری و مفهومی ادغام موسسات حسابرسی به آشکارسازی موضوعات نوظهور همچون هم‌ترازی مشتری و حسابرس، مقررات حسابرسی، سهم بازار، تغییر حسابرس و کارایی حسابرسی پرداخت. نتایج پژوهش حاضرتصویر نسبتاً کاملی از ادبیات ادغام موسسات حسابرسی در کل عمر آن ترسیم می‌کند و جهت‌گیری‌های آینده را برای محققان ارائه می‌کند.

کلیدواژه‌ها

• ادغام موسسات حسابرسی
• تحلیل کتاب‌سنجی
• روند جهانی
• ساختار فکری
• هم‌رخدادی واژگان

موضوعات

• حسابرسی مالی
• گزارش های حسابداری

عنوان مقاله [English]

Visualizing the Global Trend of Research on Audit Firm Mergers: A Bibliometric Analysis

نویسندگان [English]

• zahra joudaki chegeni ¹
• mohammad hossein safarzadeh ²
• Hamideh AsnaAshari ³
• Fakhroddin MohammadRezaei ⁴

¹ Ph.D. Student, Faculty of Management and Accounting, University of Shahid Beheshti, Tehran, Iran

² Associate Prof , Faculty of Management and Accounting,University of Shahid Beheshti, Tehran, Iran

³ Assistant Prof , Faculty of Management and Accounting, University of Shahid Beheshti, Tehran, Iran

⁴ phd.accounting, Faculty of Finance, Kharazmi University, Tehran, Iran

چکیده [English]

Considering the scientific and practical significance of research in this field, conducting a bibliometric analysis aimed at mapping the global status, trends, factors, and bibliographic relationships within this domain is necessary and has not yet been comprehensively addressed. In this study, articles published in the research domain were collected from the Scopus database for the period spanning 1986 to 2024. Subsequently, to enable a more focused analysis, 38 articles closely aligned with this area were selected. The VOSviewer software was employed for the bibliometric analysis. Based on the bibliometric analysis, the keyword "merger" emerged as a core term, surrounded by other closely related major nodes such as "audit firm merger," "audit quality," "audit fees," "audit efficiency," and "competition," all directly linked to the main research theme. The United States, the Auditing: A Journal of Practice & Theory, and the fields of business, management, and accounting were identified as the most influential in this research area. Additionally, among researchers, Moroney demonstrated the highest level of collaboration with Simnett and Thavapalan. This study elucidates the intellectual and conceptual structure of audit firm mergers, highlighting emerging topics such as auditor-client alignment, audit regulation, market share, auditor switching, and audit efficiency. The findings of this research provide a relatively comprehensive overview of the literature on audit firm mergers throughout its evolution, while also offering future research directions for scholars.

Introduction

Regulators and critics of mergers often express concern that a merged audit firm, due to its enhanced market position, may harm its clients. Following a merger, the number of audit service providers decreases, making it more difficult for audit clients to switch to an alternative and appropriate audit firm at more reasonable audit costs. The merger of audit firms has become one of the key concerns in the auditing profession and has attracted the attention of recent studies. Studies related to the merger of audit firms can be categorized into several phases. These phases include the pre-merger stage (antecedents), the merger stage (agreements), and the post-merger stage (consequences). A review of prior research suggests that the post-merger phase of audit firm mergers has predominantly attracted researchers’ attention. Despite numerous studies on the consequences of audit firm mergers, a research gap remains in the area of antecedents and agreements in these mergers. Therefore, given the scientific and practical importance of research in this field, a bibliometric analysis aimed at mapping the global discourse on audit firm mergers and their bibliographic relationships is essential; however, this topic has not been thoroughly explored. This study, by providing a comprehensive overview of the status of audit firm merger research, identifying existing gaps in the literature, and revealing future research trends, serves as a valuable resource for researchers. Moreover, the present study highlights the evolution and trajectory of research related to the literature on audit firm mergers.
 

Method

 The present study employs a bibliometric methodology within a literature review approach. This quantitative method of reviewing the literature advances understanding of the intellectual structure and evolution of a specific academic field. It aids in visualizing data and performing thematic analyses to better understand the content of research related to audit firm mergers. Additionally, it provides valuable insights for researchers in this domain. In this paper, the process of identifying, screening, qualifying, and analyzing data was systematically implemented. The researchers initiated the process by selecting the Scopus database to collect information from relevant articles. Scopus was chosen as the bibliometric data source due to its applicability across various academic fields and, in this study, for examining the literature on this topic. Initially, a search was conducted to identify articles related to the specified domain. To execute the search, the terms “audit firm mergers,” “audit firm integrations,” “audit firm acquisitions,” “audit firm consolidations,” and “professional services firm mergers” were used in the titles, abstracts, and keywords of articles indexed in the Scopus database. Next, inclusion criteria were established, and articles were filtered based on the 1986–2024 timeframe. More precisely, based on the literature review, only articles published during this period were selected. Subsequently, English was designated as the language criterion, and the type of publication was restricted to peer-reviewed research articles. As a result, only English-language research articles published in the fields of business, management, and accounting; economics, econometrics, and finance; and social sciences were considered for this study. The screening stage ultimately led to the identification of the targeted articles. To ensure their relevance, the titles and abstracts of the articles were reviewed, and irrelevant articles were excluded. Ultimately, 38 articles were included in the analysis. Based on the research process, the final stage involved data analysis, which was performed using the Vosviewer software. Co-occurrence analysis, defined as the repetition of similar keywords across different articles, was conducted. Co-occurrence analysis and the identification of frequently used keywords highlight key research topics. Furthermore, co-citation analysis and co-authorship analysis were performed using the software. Specifically, if two keywords representing a particular research topic appeared simultaneously in a document, those keywords were considered to have a meaningful semantic relationship.
 

Findings

The progression of the literature on audit firm mergers indicates that this field was relatively underexplored until 2002. In other words, this topic did not receive significant attention from researchers before that year. Over time, as the importance of the subject matter examined in this research grew, the number of published articles showed an upward trend, reflecting the rising significance of the topic. From 2002 onward, the field has experienced fluctuating growth, suggesting that substantial research will continue to be conducted in this area through 2024 due to its critical importance. Among the countries contributing to the body of research, the United States leads with 20 publications, followed by the United Kingdom with 8, and Hong Kong with 6. Regarding research areas, the majority of articles pertain to business, management, and accounting (57.1%), followed by economics, econometrics, and finance (38.1%), and social sciences (4.8%). Most articles were published in reputable journals such as Auditing: A Journal of Practice and Theory (4 articles), Contemporary Accounting Research, and the Journal of Accounting and Public Policy (3 articles each). The keyword “mergers” emerged as the central theme, with closely associated major nodes such as audit firm mergers, audit quality, audit fees, audit efficiency, auditor-client alignment, the audit market, knowledge transfer, industry specialization, audit reporting delays, and audit market dynamics, all aligning with the primary focus of this study. In total, 89 authors have contributed to research on audit firm mergers, forming a collaborative network of researchers. The distribution of scholars within this field reveals that several authors have worked together on multiple projects. For instance, Moroney, in collaboration with Simnett and Thavapalan, has co-authored several studies and accounts for the highest number of publications in this domain.
 
Conclusion
The present study systematically reviews articles on audit firm mergers published between 1986 and 2024, mapping the knowledge network through keyword co-occurrence analysis and co-authorship analysis. The keyword "mergers" was identified as the central theme, with closely related major nodes including audit firm mergers, audit quality, audit fees, audit efficiency, auditor-client alignment, the audit market, knowledge transfer, industry specialization, audit reporting delays, and audit market dynamics, all aligned with the primary focus of the study. The findings indicate that, while the topic of audit firm mergers was underexplored until 2002, interest in the field has shown an upward trajectory in subsequent years, reflecting its growing significance, with notable research activity expected to continue through 2024. The United States leads the field with 20 publications, followed by the Auditing: A Journal of Practice and Theory with four articles. The domain of business, management, and accounting accounts for 57.1% of publications, and prominent contributors include Moroney, Simnett, and Thavapalan, each with three highly relevant studies. Future research directions in this field should focus on emerging topics such as auditor-client alignment, market share, auditor switching, audit regulations, audit reporting delays, and audit efficiency. Based on the literature review, future investigations should aim to enhance academic awareness of approaches to audit firm mergers and the associated keywords. The results of this study offer a comprehensive overview of the literature on audit firm mergers over time, providing valuable insights for researchers regarding topic selection, potential collaborators, and research centers for potential funding opportunities.

کلیدواژه‌ها [English]

• : Audit firm mergers
• Bibliometric analysis
• Global trends
• Intellectual structure
• Keyword co-occurrence