Clients’ Corporate Governance Characteristics and Auditor Choice in Emerging Audit Services Markets: The Case of Bangladesh

This paper explores the relationship between selected corporate governance attributes and auditor choice behaviour in a developing country setting. Results of four auditor choice models suggest that client size and growth opportunities significantly explain auditor choice. Sponsor shareholding, institutional shareholding, and the presence of audit committees also have significant influence on auditor choice in some but not all the models. The big-four affiliated audit firms do not enjoy significant market power. They are responsible for auditing only 17.1 percent of listed companies. Their market share ranges from 17.1 percent to 56.1 percent depending on the measure of market share used.