会计师事务所，会计行业和会计研究.pdfVIP

British Accounting Review (1999) 31, 1–13 Article No. bare.1998.0092, available online at on ACCOUNTING FIRMS, THE ACCOUNTING INDUSTRY, AND ACCOUNTING RESEARCH RICK ANTLE Yale School of Management, USA Changes in the nature and structure of accounting firms and the accounting industry have created new regulatory eorts. Some of these changes are examined, and the role of research in influencing the regulation of auditor independence is discussed. 1999 Academic Press INTRODUCTION This paper addresses the implications of the evolving structure of accounting firms and the accounting industry for the regulation of auditor independence. Its primary focus is the scope of services1 that accounting firms supply and the eects of this scope of services on the regulation of auditor independence in the United States. Although the largest accounting firms have been worldwide organisations for many years now, independence regulations are still enacted and enforced on a country-by-country basis. For example, in the European Union, article 24 of the Eighth Directive states: ‘Member States shall prescribe that such persons shall not carry out statutory audits which they have required if such persons are not independent in accordance with the law of the Member State which requires the audit.’2 Given the interaction of the professional, regulatory, and legal environments in aecting auditor independence rules, such delegation of independence regulations is un- derstandable, although it implies that many interesting independence issues arise in the context of a specific country’s regulations. This paper is an adaptation of my plenary address to the British Accounting Association, given in April of 1998. I am very grateful to t