Svenska institutionella investerares uppfattning om icke-revisionstjänsters påverkan på revisorns oberoende
This study is a semi-structured, qualitative depth-interview study investigating Swedish institutional investors' perception of the fact that companies purchase non-audit services from its signing auditor and if they see this as a threat to auditor independence. The study focuses on independence in appearance rather than independence in fact. The study is based on the current media debate on auditor independence and aims to provide a deeper insight to enlighten legislators how users of audited financial information look at the problem. The study builds on agency theory's notion that there is an information asymmetry between management and shareholders, which the auditor is to reduce. The results show that Swedish institutional investors perceive that there is a threat to auditor independence when companies buy non-audit services from its signing auditor. However, further legislation is not perceived to strengthen auditor independence.