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Diversification of External Accountants Serving Small and Medium-sized Enterprises: Evidence from Belgium : Diversification of External Accountants

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Sarens, Gerrit [UCL] Everaert, Patricia [Universiteit Gent] Verplancke, Frederik [University College Ghent] De Beelde, Ignace [Universiteit Gent]

The purpose of this study is: (1) to discover which services are offered by external accountants serving small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs); (2) to study the factors that are associated with the degree of diversification of the services offered by these accountants; and (3) to investigate if there are differences between self-employed accountants and accounting firms on the previous two points. This study has some interesting conclusions: (1) the heterogeneity of internal staff is not significantly associated with the degree of diversification; (2) a homogeneous internal staff with an accounting background is particularly important for accounting firms that diversify their services in the accounting and tax area; (3) collaboration with other service providers is an important factor associated with more diversification of the services; (4) marketing is only important for self-employed accountants; (5) accounting firms offer fewer non-accounting-related services if they serve more micro clients (fewer than 10 employees), whereas self-employed accountants offer more accounting and tax services if they serve more micro clients (fewer than 10 employees); and (6) accounting firms that diversify in accounting and tax services mainly serve more micro clients (fewer than 10 employees), whereas accounting firms that diversify in non-accounting areas serve more larger clients (more than 10 employees).

Document type Article de périodique (Journal article) – Article de recherche
Publication date 2015
Language Anglais
Journal information "Australian Accounting Review" - Vol. 25, no.2, p. 155-174 (2015)
Peer reviewed yes
Publisher Wiley-Blackwell Publishing Asia (Richmond)
issn 1035-6908
e-issn 1835-2561
Publication status Publié
Affiliation UCL - SSH/LouRIM - Louvain Research Institute in Management and Organizations
Keywords Accounting
Links
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Bibliographic reference Sarens, Gerrit ; Everaert, Patricia ; Verplancke, Frederik ; De Beelde, Ignace. Diversification of External Accountants Serving Small and Medium-sized Enterprises: Evidence from Belgium : Diversification of External Accountants. In: Australian Accounting Review, Vol. 25, no.2, p. 155-174 (2015)
Permanent URL http://hdl.handle.net/2078.1/197559