The Impact of Board interlocks on Auditor Choice in the Netherlands

Abstract

This thesis investigates whether professional networks have an impact on auditor choice. Board interlocks are used to proxy these professional networks. The dataset includes non-executive directors of listed firms in the Netherlands during the 2005-2015 period. The results indicate that a firm is more likely to choose the auditng with whom they have a board interlock. The number of interlocks a firm has with a specific auditing firm compared to other auditing firms also matters. This suggests that directors share experiences about auditors with other directors in their professional network. The findings also indicate that there are other important auditor characteristcs that impact a firm’s auditor choice. These characteristics together with professional networks help us to better explain auditor choice between Big 4 auditing firms, which are often treated as a homogenous group by the majority of existing research. This thesis provides empirical evidence on the positive relationship between board interlocks and auditor choice in a heavy regulated environment.