Assistant Professor Zhang Pengdong published research results in the Journal of Accounting and Economics, one of the UTD24 Journals

Based on the Chinese context, Assistant Professor Pengdong Zhang from the School of Business, Sun Yat-sen University and collaborators from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Xiamen University conducted an in-depth study of the relationship between audit market competition and audit quality. The study found that when the travel time between accounting firms and audit clients was greatly reduced due to the opening of high-speed rail between cities, competition among accounting firms intensified, resulting in a decline in audit quality, manifested in the probability of audit clients violating accounting standards increased by 4.5%, the probability of obtaining a non-standard opinion decreased by 1.7%, and audit adjustments implemented by the firm decreased by 1.6%. This relationship was more pronounced when the opening of the high-speed rail brings more competitive pressure to the firm, and it would be weakened when the client has higher requirements for audit quality.

Recently, the research result "The Dark Side of Audit Market Competition" was published online in the Journal of Accounting and Economics, a top international accounting journal. It is reported that the Journal of Accounting and Economics is one of the three top journals recognized in the field of accounting and one of the UTD 24 journals, enjoying a high academic reputation in the management field. Dr. Zhang Pengdong from the School of Business, Sun Yat-Sen University is the corresponding author of this paper, which is supported by the major project of National Natural Science Foundation of China "Research on the Impact of Accounting and Auditing on Enterprise Management and Macroeconomic Development" (71790603).