過去文獻在探討審計品質與研發支出資本化之間的關係時，忽略產業專家所扮演的角色。另一方面，先前研究在探討研發支出資本化與股價之間的關係時，忽略產業專家的重要性。本研究結合上述二脈文獻，將產業專家、研發支出資本化與股價間的關係進行整合性的探討。
本研究以2007年至2011年美國軟體業作為樣本，檢驗產業專家會計師對研發支出資本化較為謹慎嚴格，並檢驗經過產業專家所認許的研發支出資本化是否有較高的價值攸關性。實證結果發現由產業專家所查核的公司研發支出資本化品質較好，且研發資產的價值攸關性較高。

Prior studies on the relationship between audit quality and R&D capitalization do not consider the role of auditor industry specialization, while another stream of research on the value relevance of capitalized R&D does not consider the importance of industry expert. By integrating the two streams of research, this paper investigates the relationships among auditor industry specialization, capitalized R&D and the value relevance of capitalized R&D.
Using a sample of U.S. listed software companies over the period of 2007-2011, this study finds that firms audited by industry expert have less percentage of R&D spending being capitalized. Furthermore, I also find that the value relevance of capitalized R&D is enhanced by auditor industry specialization, indicating that investors perceive the quality of R&D reporting to be higher when the firm is audited by industry-expert auditors.

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