Determinantes de la continuidad en la contratación de la auditoría de forma voluntaria: evidencia para el caso de España

The European Union is currently experiencing an intense debate over the legal regulation of auditing. One of the most important and controversial issues is the definition of the size of the companies that are required to audit their annual accounts. This work is focused on studying the voluntary hiring of auditing services. In particular, it examines the factors that may lead companies to continue hiring an auditor voluntarily if they were no longer required to do so. The research methodology is based on a survey that was conducted on 275 SMEs in Spain. The results show that the perception of the improvement in the quality of financial reporting and in the control of internal accounting records is the main factor contributing to continue hiring the audit service voluntarily. Moreover, such continuity is more likely in companies that are already audited voluntarily, that are audited by international firms and that maintain a lower relation with credit institutions and other lenders.