Market reaction to the report on the continuity of the auditor's activity during the stages of the company's life cycle

This research studies the impact of going concern auditor opinion (GCAO) during life cycle stages on market reaction. Also examines the impact of the auditor industry specialization on the mentioned relationship. This research is applied in terms of purpose and correlation in terms of descriptive method. In the present study، to measure the market reaction of accumulated abnormal returns for a short period of three days، (- 1 ، +1)، around the event date and to measure the life cycle stages, Dickinson (2011) method was used, which is a combination of operating cash flow, investment and financial patterns. In this regard, 239 companies listed in Tehran Stock Exchange during the period 2013-2020 were selected and their data were collected to test the research hypotheses. The designed hypotheses were tested by multivariate linear regression analysis. The results of testing the hypotheses show that different stages of the life cycle do not have a significant effect on the relationship between the going concern auditor opinion and abnormal stock returns. Also, the moderating role of different life cycle stages on the relationship between going concern auditor opinion and abnormal stock returns in companies audited by industry specific auditors is not significantly different from other companies.