The consequences of audit partner narcissism: evidence from the UK market

This paper investigates the consequences of audit partner narcissism for a large sample of UK listed firms. In contrast to prior research, which focuses on Chinese and Taiwanese settings, we do not find that more narcissistic auditors are associated with higher audit quality. Instead, we find weak evidence of poorer audit quality associated with narcissism. Specifically, although audit partner narcissism is not significantly associated with modified audit opinions and financial statement misstatements, as narcissism increases, the propensity of auditors to tolerate clients’ earnings management increases. Notably, these results are similar to those from studies documenting that personality traits and, in particular, narcissism, is nuanced and has different effects across cultures. In addition, we find that audit fees decrease with audit partner narcissism but narcissistic audit partners attract a greater number of listed clients such that highly narcissistic partners earn higher revenues at the portfolio level. Overall, these results provide some evidence that narcissistic audit partners in the UK tolerate more earnings management and charge lower fees in order to expand the size of their client portfolios; however, they are able to do so while avoiding audit failures.