Strategic Pricing by Big 4 Audit Firms in Private Client Segments

Abstract

We examine how Big 4 auditors compete for new private clients. We find evidence suggesting that Big 4 auditors offer fee discounts to attract non-Big 4 private clients to experience attributes of their brand name audit services. We also find that to attract clients from competing Big 4 suppliers, Big 4 auditors target fee discounts at clients in industries where they are the market leader. Our results further indicate that the Big 4 industry leaders target fee discounts to fast-growing clients and are able to charge these clients significant price fee increases in the second mandate period (after 3 years).

Keywords: Big 4 competitive strategies, Client acquisition, Industry specialization, Fee discounts, Private clients