The Impact Of The Joint Provision Of Non-Audit Services On Audit Firm’s Tenure: A Kuwaiti Evidence

Abstract

Concerns about the potential harm of the increased economic bond between the audit firm and the audit client resulting from the joint provision of audit and NAS have been investigated extensively in the audit literature. However, much of this research was conducted in developed countries’ settings, with very little, if any, carried out in the context of a developing country. The current study aims at filling this gap in audit research by investigating two important issues related to the joint provision using data from the Kuwaiti audit market. First, this study examines whether there is an association between the provision of NAS to the audit client and audit firm’s tenure as a surrogate of audit independence. Second, the current study aims at examining factors expected to influence clients’ purchase of NAS in the Kuwaiti audit market. Contrary to expectations, the results reveal a negative relationship between the joint provision and external audit firm’s tenure, suggesting that such a joint provision does not lead to the impairment of auditor independence. Results obtained from the NAS purchase logistic regression also show that audit client’s purchase of NAS from their audit firms is positively related to the amount of audit fees and client’s financial leverage.