Do Regional Cultural Differences Affects the Effect of Accounting Firms' Merger: Evidence From China

Using data of the mergers among accounting firms from 2007 to 2018 in China, this paper examines how regional cultural differences between accounting firms in different places affect audit quality after a merger. We found that the greater the regional cultural differences (proxied by dialectal difference in spoken Chinese) between the accounting firms' registered places before the merger, the greater the improvement in audit quality of the merged accounting firm after the merger. Our research indicates that in the process of accounting firms' mergers, the utility of cultural capital brought about by regional cultural variations exceeds cultural conflicts. The results imply that cultural differences could be potentially beneficial to firms' mergers and acquisitions. Therefore, managers should try to make full use of cultural differences to help a newly merged firm to achieve competitive advantage and sustainable development.