All my rowdy friends: the effect of Super Bowl hosting on audit and financial reporting timeliness
ISSN: 0268-6902
Article publication date: 20 September 2023
Issue publication date: 9 November 2023
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact hosting the Super Bowl has on audit completion and financial reporting timeliness for companies headquartered in Super Bowl hosting cities.
Design/methodology/approach
Using 16 years of financial reporting data, this study uses the Super Bowl and related activities, combined with required filings during “busy season,” as a natural experiment to examine how audit firms navigate short-term, exogenously imposed but anticipated, audit team capacity constraints.
Findings
Companies headquartered in a city hosting the Super Bowl, during busy season, have longer audit report lags (by approximately three days, in comparison to non-hosting busy season audits) and less timely securities and exchange commission (SEC) (10-K) filings. The authors find no evidence that Super Bowl hosting affects audit fees or earnings announcement timeliness.
Practical implications
When confronted with anticipated capacity shocks, audit firms take longer to complete the audit, absorbing the financial costs of the delay and maintaining audit quality, resulting in less timely financial reporting.
Originality/value
This study demonstrates the costs of Super Bowl-related inefficiencies and contributes to our understanding of how auditors navigate capacity shocks. This study provides evidence that auditors can effectively manage business risk and continue to facilitate providing timely and accurate information to financial statement users in the face of a capacity shock.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
The authors would like to thank Nathan Berglund, Vic Naiker, Joe Schroeder and workshop participants at Southeast Missouri State University, Southeastern Louisiana University, Texas A&M International University, University of South Carolina, Washington State University and the 2018 AAA Auditing Mid-Year Conference for helpful comments and suggestions.
Professor James D. Whitworth gratefully acknowledges a summer research grant from the Lynn Pippenger School of Accountancy.
Citation
Crook, M.D., Lambert, T.A., Walkup, B.R. and Whitworth, J.D. (2023), "All my rowdy friends: the effect of Super Bowl hosting on audit and financial reporting timeliness", Managerial Auditing Journal, Vol. 38 No. 7, pp. 1162-1186. https://doi.org/10.1108/MAJ-06-2022-3585
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
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