This study investigates audit firm specialization in settings where managers
have incentives to modify earnings to achieve analysts’ earnings forecasts. The
results indicate that audit firms that have a large market share of clients within a particular
industry, and audit firms that receive a significant portion of their firm revenues
from a specific industry, are associated with audited financial statement earnings that
increase absolute levels of analysts’ forecast error and are less likely to just meet or
beat analysts’ forecasts.