{"title":"Auditing standards and the persistence of the audit expectations gap: Evidencing the absence of French ‘exceptionalism’","authors":"Imen Jedidi, Chris Humphrey","doi":"10.1111/ijau.12351","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/ijau.12351","url":null,"abstract":"Auditing standards have become a central feature in the world of auditing. One of the primary claims made for International Standards on Auditing (ISAs) is their capacity to reduce the audit expectations gap (AEG), but the gap persists despite the widespread adoption of ISAs. France is an intriguing case site for studying the development and impact of audit standard setting, especially given its reputation as a country for maintaining its own distinctive audit regulatory traditions. Its claimed resistance to Anglo‐American influences, however, is not what stands out in our archival analysis of French audit standard‐setting processes and an accompanying series of interviews with key participants. In contrast, the French audit standard setting emerges as a process that has largely aligned with the spirit of ISAs and adopted a narrow interpretation of the AEG. The presented analysis challenges the operational significance of a claimed French exceptionalism and adds to a growing questioning of the capacity of auditing standard setting to drive fundamental advancement in auditing practice and to meet public expectations.","PeriodicalId":47092,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Auditing","volume":"76 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.0,"publicationDate":"2024-05-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140831167","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Measuring an audit quality climate among employees","authors":"Johanna Alida Kritzinger, Karin Barac","doi":"10.1111/ijau.12348","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/ijau.12348","url":null,"abstract":"The International Standard on Quality Management requires, among other things, that audit firm leadership promotes a quality‐oriented culture in firms. We add a novel contribution to the audit quality literature by developing an instrument to measure the audit quality climate in audit firms. Our data consisted of perceptions of non‐executive employees at large South African audit firms and the Auditor‐General of South Africa. Instrument development followed a rigorous scale development process, beginning with the adaptation of a widely used organizational climate measure to explore audit quality at employee level. Exploratory factor analysis determined six audit quality climate dimensions. Confirmatory factor analysis provided evidence of construct validity. The six dimensions of our audit quality climate measurement instrument fit into the three types of culture currently identified in audit firms. The findings of our study are a starting point to develop an acceptable audit quality climate scale for employees in audit firms.","PeriodicalId":47092,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Auditing","volume":"48 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.0,"publicationDate":"2024-04-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140831377","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Factors affecting team performance of external auditors in Iran: A Delphi–interpretive structural modelling approach","authors":"Reza Zamani, Mahmoud Lari Dashtbayaz, Reza Hesarzadeh","doi":"10.1111/ijau.12346","DOIUrl":"10.1111/ijau.12346","url":null,"abstract":"<p>This study employs the Delphi–interpretive structural modelling (ISM) approach to uncover and model factors influencing team performance in external audit. In Delphi interviews, 73 factors were identified, and a subsequent survey revealed 13 crucial factors. Among these, supervisor competence, team members' knowledge, and managers/supervisors' supportive attitudes were emphasized as top priorities among the essential 13 factors. These factors serve as guiding principles for interactions, shaping behaviour and attitudes. Notably, this study goes beyond previous research, which typically focussed on a limited number of factors, by identifying 73 factors influencing audit team performance and then determining and modelling the most critical factors based on expert insights. It also sheds light on the underappreciated role of supervisors, often overshadowed by audit managers or partners. Moreover, the study links these factors with transformational, servant, and ethical leadership theories, fostering a more balanced approach to future research in the auditing profession.</p>","PeriodicalId":47092,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Auditing","volume":"28 4","pages":"676-694"},"PeriodicalIF":2.1,"publicationDate":"2024-04-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140625922","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Bidisha Chakrabarty, Michael Hyman, Gopal V. Krishnan
{"title":"Audit outcomes of non-financial misconduct","authors":"Bidisha Chakrabarty, Michael Hyman, Gopal V. Krishnan","doi":"10.1111/ijau.12347","DOIUrl":"10.1111/ijau.12347","url":null,"abstract":"<p>We examine how <i>non</i>-financial misconduct by corporations impacts audit outcomes. We use a novel database of penalties received by firms from federal, state and local agencies for legal violations not directly related to their financial reports and find that auditors raise fees following these violations. The magnitudes are economically significant: violating firms pay about $162,000 or 6% more in audit fees than comparable firms without violations. Additionally, auditors charge more when the penalty amounts are higher and infractions are more egregious. Companies fined for non-financial misconduct are also more likely to receive going concern opinions. Our results are robust to propensity score matching, falsification tests and firm-fixed effects and are not attributable to lax firm culture or “tone at the top”. These results highlight that firms' unethical conduct, even those that do not directly lead to financial reporting infractions, has consequences beyond just the penalties imposed by enforcement agencies.</p>","PeriodicalId":47092,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Auditing","volume":"28 4","pages":"652-675"},"PeriodicalIF":2.1,"publicationDate":"2024-04-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140609041","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Audit simulation and learning styles: Enhancing students' experiential learning and performance at a MENA university","authors":"Nader Elsayed, Mostafa Kamal Hassan","doi":"10.1111/ijau.12345","DOIUrl":"10.1111/ijau.12345","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Drawing on experiential learning theory (ELT), this study (1) explores students' perceived benefits of experiencing different learning styles through an audit simulation (AS) assignment and (2) analyses its role in enhancing students' performance at a Middle East and North Africa (MENA) university. The study compares students' performance across two different periods, 2019 and 2022, with 46 and 48 participants, respectively, independently completing a questionnaire of six open-ended questions paired with follow-up feedback, the instructor's observations and the analyses of students' grades. Our study findings indicate that the AS assignment enabled students to effectively experience different learning styles at different times during the AS learning process. They visualised an authentic AS experience by critically analysing and practically evaluating AS documents while showing strong preferences for initiating new experiences. It also reveals an improvement in students' grades after the AS implementation. Our study has theoretical implications relating to cognitive and constructivist learning, learning transfer and ethics awareness, as well as practical implications in audit education, skill development, teamwork, professional development, auditors' evaluation and curriculum assessment in other disciplines than auditing.</p>","PeriodicalId":47092,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Auditing","volume":"28 4","pages":"632-651"},"PeriodicalIF":2.1,"publicationDate":"2024-03-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/ijau.12345","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140300319","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Internal auditing's role in preventing and detecting fraud: An empirical analysis","authors":"Annika Bonrath, Marc Eulerich","doi":"10.1111/ijau.12342","DOIUrl":"10.1111/ijau.12342","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Internal auditing plays a pivotal role in preventing and detecting fraudulent activities. However, the orientation and role of internal auditing in dealing with fraud risk can vary significantly across different companies. This study examines the relationship between the internal audit function (IAF) and fraud, providing new insights into the current practices of internal auditing. Using a survey dataset comprising responses from 275 Chief Audit Executives across Germany, Switzerland and Austria, we investigate factors that correlate with an increased propensity for IAFs to engage in fraud prevention and detection. Our findings suggest that a robust corporate governance environment significantly influences the extent to which the IAF is involved in preventing and detecting fraud. Shedding light on the positioning of internal auditing between management and the audit committee with respect to fraud, our results show that increased IAF involvement with management positively affects the level of activities to prevent and detect fraud, while increased IAF involvement with the audit committee has the opposite effect. Furthermore, we find that the propensity of IAFs to engage in fraud prevention and detection increases when the IAF applies technology-based auditing techniques for risk identification. Our results have implications for building appropriate protection against the steadily increasing risk of fraud within organizations, while holistically addressing the ambiguity regarding the responsibility for preventing and detecting fraud.</p>","PeriodicalId":47092,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Auditing","volume":"28 4","pages":"615-631"},"PeriodicalIF":2.1,"publicationDate":"2024-02-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/ijau.12342","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139770634","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Back to where it started?—Do expanded auditor's reports become sticky, generic and boilerplate over time?","authors":"Andreas Seebeck","doi":"10.1111/ijau.12343","DOIUrl":"10.1111/ijau.12343","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Although auditing standards instruct auditors to avoid issuing standardised key audit matters (KAMs), standard setters warn and financial statement users worry about expanded auditor's reports becoming sticky, generic and boilerplate over time. Based on textual analysis of expanded auditor's reports from the UK, I provide longitudinal evidence of an increase in various textual similarity measures including year-over-year similarity (stickiness), within-peer group similarity (generality) and boilerplate language over time. Next, I identify a number of crucial drivers of convergence and find that disclosure similarity diminishes the positive capital market effect of precise KAM reporting documented in prior studies. Together, these findings suggest that audit firms have successively developed standard text modules for KAM reporting that undermine the aim of expanded auditor's reports to provide informative value. This paper extends the literature on the relationship between institutional environments and unintended effects of auditor disclosure regulation.</p>","PeriodicalId":47092,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Auditing","volume":"28 3","pages":"536-561"},"PeriodicalIF":2.1,"publicationDate":"2024-01-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/ijau.12343","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139525170","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"An examination of auditor hypothesis testing strategies in ‘tone at the top’ evaluations: Evidence of diagnostic knowledge structures","authors":"Regan N. Schmidt","doi":"10.1111/ijau.12340","DOIUrl":"10.1111/ijau.12340","url":null,"abstract":"<p>This study examines the tests auditors design to assess a client's ‘tone at the top’. By exploiting conceptual differences in the constructs of ethicality and competence, the study investigates auditor knowledge structures by disentangling auditor hypothesis testing strategies. The results of an experiment document that auditors design tests to yield evidence of unethical and competent, rather than ethical and incompetent, client management behaviour. This overall pattern of results, and in particular auditors' focus on seeking evidence of client management competence, is consistent with a diagnostic hypothesis testing strategy and is not consistent with a conservative testing strategy. Collectively, these results provide insights into how auditors' ‘tone at the top’ knowledge is organized and used.</p>","PeriodicalId":47092,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Auditing","volume":"28 3","pages":"562-581"},"PeriodicalIF":2.1,"publicationDate":"2024-01-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/ijau.12340","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139497615","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The determinants of linguistic features in key audit matters: Empirical evidence from Europe","authors":"Stephan Küster","doi":"10.1111/ijau.12344","DOIUrl":"10.1111/ijau.12344","url":null,"abstract":"<p>This study investigates the determinants and dynamics of the linguistic features of key audit matters (KAMs) in European countries. Using natural language processing algorithms, including FINBERT, I quantify stylistic and content-based text characteristics at the KAM level and find that KAM length, readability, sentiment, quantitative density, specificity, the degree of forward-looking statements, and the extent of boilerplate language are associated with the type of KAM topics, client attributes, and audit firm characteristics. In additional analyses, I also find early empirical evidence of a time trend in these linguistic features. Since their introduction in 2016, KAMs are becoming longer, more quantitative, more specific, but also include more boilerplate phrases. Collectively, the results of the study contribute to a more nuanced understanding of the determinants and dynamics of KAM disclosures.</p>","PeriodicalId":47092,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Auditing","volume":"28 3","pages":"582-614"},"PeriodicalIF":2.1,"publicationDate":"2024-01-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/ijau.12344","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139421312","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The involvement of internal audit in environmental, social, and governance practices and risks: Stakeholders' salience and insights from audit committees and chief executive officers","authors":"Romina Rakipi, Giuseppe D'Onza","doi":"10.1111/ijau.12341","DOIUrl":"10.1111/ijau.12341","url":null,"abstract":"<p>We conducted 31 interviews with audit committee (AC) members, chief executive officers (CEOs), and chief audit executives (CAEs) to investigate the role of the internal audit function (IAF) in environmental, social, and governance (ESG) processes and related risks. We find that multiple possible combinations of the maturity of companies' ESG practices and CAE's perception of the IAF stakeholders' salience drive the type of IAF's involvement in ESG. In ESG-mature companies with more salient ACs, the IAF provides assurance over ESG practices, ESG reporting, and reputation risks related to ESG, and it focuses on the governance dimension of ESG. When the CEO is perceived as more salient, the type of IAF's involvement includes both assurance over ESG controls in the supply chain and consulting on ESG activities. In contrast, in low ESG maturity companies with more salient AC, the IAF's role is limited to providing assurance over internal controls established to comply with environmental, health, and safety legal requirements, and prevent managers' unethical behavior. Finally, we discuss the implications for the IAF's ability to add value to the organization. We contribute to the underexplored research area of IAF's involvement in ESG practices and related risk.</p>","PeriodicalId":47092,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Auditing","volume":"28 3","pages":"522-535"},"PeriodicalIF":2.1,"publicationDate":"2023-12-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/ijau.12341","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"138682888","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}