The Alumni Effect: Unpacking the Influence of Executives and Non-Executive Former Auditors on Public Company Audits

Part of the Lubar Research Seminar Series

Speaker: Rani Hoitash, Bentley University

This study explores the association between executives and non-executive audit firm alumni and the audit quality of public companies. While audit firms invest significant resources in cultivating their alumni network, the prevalence and impact of non-executive alumni are underexamined due to data constraints. We overcome this constraint by utilizing unique and comprehensive employment data from Revelio Labs. We test the tension in the hypothesis that alumni can impair auditor independence, potentially lowering audit quality and efficiency or enhancing auditor effectiveness through improved collaboration. We find support for the latter, showing that non-executive alumni are associated with a lower likelihood of financial misstatements and non-timely filings. These results are primarily driven by alumni with more recent audit experience and are more pronounced in challenging audit engagements. Non-executive alumni are also associated with a lower likelihood of auditor changes and higher audit fees. Consistent with prior literature, we find little evidence of an association between executive alumni and these outcomes. Overall, this paper contributes to the literature by offering a broader understanding of the alumni effect on audits. It suggests that regulatory concerns about impaired auditor independence may not extend to non-executive alumni.