{"title":"Does human resource investment in internal controls and information technology improve audit efficiency?","authors":"Hyejeong Shin, Sorah Park","doi":"10.1111/ijau.12293","DOIUrl":"10.1111/ijau.12293","url":null,"abstract":"<p>This study examines the effect of client human resource investment in internal controls (ICs) and information technology (IT) on audit efficiency. Accordingly, we propose a novel approach to modify the measurement of audit efficiency by directly measuring the length of time from the fiscal year end to the last day of fieldwork of an audit firm—fieldwork lags (FWLs)—rather than audit report lags (ARLs). We investigate the relationship between FWLs and the number of IC personnel and their average work experience at the department level: accounting and finance, IT and others. We find that FWLs are negatively related to the number of IC personnel in the accounting and finance departments and other related areas. Furthermore, FWLs decrease when IC personnel in the IT department have more average work experience. This finding indicates that experienced IC personnel in the IT department are critical to reducing the fieldwork time taken by auditors. Overall results suggest that a client's investment in IC personnel in accounting/finance and IT departments enhances audit efficiency.</p>","PeriodicalId":47092,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Auditing","volume":"26 4","pages":"515-533"},"PeriodicalIF":2.0,"publicationDate":"2022-08-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42513489","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":"A taxing audit—On the association between auditor workload compression and tax avoidance","authors":"Dennis M. Lopez, S. Mark Greenwald","doi":"10.1111/ijau.12289","DOIUrl":"10.1111/ijau.12289","url":null,"abstract":"<p>This study investigates the association between auditor workload compression and tax avoidance. Heavy auditor workloads can limit the extent to which auditors are able to examine the determination of the income tax provision, creating opportunities for companies to maintain their tax avoidance strategies unimpeded. We find evidence indicating that audits performed by auditors with greater levels of workload compression are associated with greater levels of tax avoidance, as proxied by the cash effective tax rate, the Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) effective tax rate and book-tax differences. We also investigate the role of auditor-provided tax services (APTS) on the said associations and find evidence generally consistent with knowledge spillover; however, we do not find evidence of a moderating effect from APTS on the association between auditor workload compression and tax avoidance. This study contributes to the auditing and tax literatures by being among the first to investigate whether audit-related constraints due to workload compression affect the outcomes of management's determination of the tax provision.</p>","PeriodicalId":47092,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Auditing","volume":"26 4","pages":"420-445"},"PeriodicalIF":2.0,"publicationDate":"2022-08-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44458623","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":"Market reactions to the appointment of audit committee directors with financial and industry expertise in Germany","authors":"Sascha Kieback, Martin Thomsen, Christoph Watrin","doi":"10.1111/ijau.12290","DOIUrl":"10.1111/ijau.12290","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Several calls from practitioners and the relevant literature suggest that audit committee directors with industry expertise complement the knowledge of financial experts. Thus, this study examines market reactions to the voluntary appointment of new audit committee directors with financial and industry expertise in Germany. Using hand-collected German data on newly appointed audit committee director announcements, we find a significantly positive market reaction around the appointment of financial experts with industry expertise but no reaction around the appointment of financial experts without industry expertise. Consistent with the expectation that some industries demand a higher need for specialised directors, we find a positive market reaction to the appointment of financial experts with industry expertise depending on whether the appointing firm is relatively more challenging for non-industry experts to monitor and advise. Overall, our findings suggest that market participants demand a combination of financial and industry expertise.</p>","PeriodicalId":47092,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Auditing","volume":"26 4","pages":"446-466"},"PeriodicalIF":2.0,"publicationDate":"2022-07-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/ijau.12290","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42570737","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":"Media coverage of corporate social irresponsibility and audit fees: International evidence","authors":"Tracie Frost, Liwei Shan, Albert Tsang, Miao Yu","doi":"10.1111/ijau.12291","DOIUrl":"10.1111/ijau.12291","url":null,"abstract":"<p>This study uses a large sample of firms from 35 countries to examine how media coverage of corporate social irresponsibility (CSI) affects audit fees. We document a positive and significant relationship between media coverage of CSI and audit fees. Further evidence indicates that this positive relationship is less pronounced for firms with a higher level of commitment to corporate social responsibility (CSR) performance but is more pronounced for firms domiciled in countries with stronger investor protections, higher regulatory quality and higher CSR disclosure requirements. Taken together, these findings support the conjecture that CSI media coverage increases auditors' risk and thereby increases audit fees. Moreover, our findings suggest that the effect of media coverage of CSI on audit fees varies with country-level institutional characteristics and the degree of firms' substantive commitment to CSR performance.</p>","PeriodicalId":47092,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Auditing","volume":"26 4","pages":"467-493"},"PeriodicalIF":2.0,"publicationDate":"2022-07-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45287780","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":"Banks' voluntary disclosure in the audit committee reports, cost of equity and the mediating role of financial analysts","authors":"Najib Sahyoun, Michel Magnan","doi":"10.1111/ijau.12292","DOIUrl":"10.1111/ijau.12292","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Voluntary disclosure in the audit committee report is expected to provide additional information about the activities undertaken to protect investors. The Securities and Exchange Commission's (SEC) ultimate aim in initially promulgating audit committee disclosure requirements was to reduce firms' cost of equity. However, prior research finds that voluntary disclosure in the audit committee report is akin to impression management. In 2015, the SEC issued a concept release encouraging audit committees to provide additional voluntary disclosures in their reports beyond mandatory requirements. In that context, this paper analyses the effect of the audit committee voluntary disclosure on the cost of equity, with financial analysts playing a mediating role. The sample comprises the top US bank holding companies from 2006 to 2015. We manually code the voluntary disclosure in audit committee reports using a scoring grid. Results show that audit committee voluntary disclosure increases the cost of equity. In addition, the association between voluntary disclosure and the cost of equity is mediated by financial analysts. Hence, we infer that the impression management undertone of voluntary disclosures affects financial analysts' coverage and forecasting properties, which in turn lead to an increase in the cost of equity. The paper's empirical evidence highlights the effects of impression management disclosure by analysing corporate governance voluntary disclosures, cost of equity and financial analysts and brings the issue to the attention of banking regulators, SEC and investors.</p>","PeriodicalId":47092,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Auditing","volume":"26 4","pages":"494-514"},"PeriodicalIF":2.0,"publicationDate":"2022-07-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46271870","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":"Auditor's responses to changes in risk","authors":"Michael E. Bradbury, Tom Scott","doi":"10.1111/ijau.12288","DOIUrl":"10.1111/ijau.12288","url":null,"abstract":"<p>This paper examines whether auditors plan engagements to be the same-as-last-year (SALY) and if they respond to changes in risk both before and during audit engagements by varying engagements from planned. These are important questions considering audit standards require the assessment of risk and general concerns about audit quality and fee pressure. We provide new insights using a proprietary database containing both quoted and reported audit hours and fees. We find that the basis quoted audit hours and billing rates (i.e., audit plans) are prepared on is not SALY. However, as there is little difference for audit hours, we conclude that they are based-on-last-year (BOLY). Changes in audit characteristics are associated with the variance between quoted and reported audit hours and billing rates. In addition, auditors with higher reputational risk quote more audit hours and have a higher quoted average billing rate and further increase them from quoted.</p>","PeriodicalId":47092,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Auditing","volume":"26 4","pages":"405-419"},"PeriodicalIF":2.0,"publicationDate":"2022-07-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/ijau.12288","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44259341","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":"Corporate reputation and stakeholder engagement: Do assurance quality and assurer attributes matter?","authors":"Isabel-María García-Sánchez, Nicola Raimo, María-Victoria Uribe-Bohorquez, Filippo Vitolla","doi":"10.1111/ijau.12287","DOIUrl":"10.1111/ijau.12287","url":null,"abstract":"<p>The objective of this research is to determine the impact that sustainability assurance services have on corporate reputation and stakeholder engagement, delving into the differentiating effect of certain attributes of the assurer and the quality level of the assurance. After an initial exploratory analysis in which the added value that the assurance service has on the external business image and on the relationships with stakeholders is evidenced, the results obtained for a sample of 604 multinational corporations for the period 2011–2017 show the existence of a reputational advantage for those companies that have contracted for a higher quality assurance service. On the contrary, the attributes of the assurer have no direct and indirect effect on corporate reputation unless the assurer is an auditor, which favours a higher quality of assurance service and indirectly affects the probability that the company will be included in a reputation ranking. The intrinsic characteristics of this service do not translate into active stakeholder engagement. From a theoretical and practical point of view, this evidence contributes to the knowledge of the effect of assurance on stakeholder engagement and corporate reputation by improving the climate of trust around the company's disclosure.</p>","PeriodicalId":47092,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Auditing","volume":"26 3","pages":"388-403"},"PeriodicalIF":2.0,"publicationDate":"2022-06-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/ijau.12287","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43413333","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":"Auditors' workload and audit quality under audit hour budget pressure: Evidence from the Korean audit market","authors":"Seokyoun Hwang, Philip Keejae Hong","doi":"10.1111/ijau.12286","DOIUrl":"10.1111/ijau.12286","url":null,"abstract":"<p>By utilizing unique audit hour (actual and budgeted) data from Korea, this study examines the impact of auditors' workload on audit quality under audit hour budget pressure. We find the intensity of auditor workload has a negative impact on audit quality when total audit hours exceed budgeted hours (i.e., unfavourable budget variance). When we breakdown the audit workload by auditor level, we find partner workload has a negative impact on audit quality regardless of the budget variance, while senior auditor workload negatively affects audit quality only when the budget variance is unfavourable. We cautiously interpret our empirical findings to suggest that stress and burnout caused by increased audit hours under budget pressure can compel auditors to engage in behaviours that undermine audit quality.</p>","PeriodicalId":47092,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Auditing","volume":"26 3","pages":"371-387"},"PeriodicalIF":2.0,"publicationDate":"2022-06-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46683064","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":"The homogeneity of BIG4 audit reports after the implementation of key audit matters in the context of fair value accounting","authors":"Tuomas Honkamäki, Markus Mättö, Henri Teittinen","doi":"10.1111/ijau.12285","DOIUrl":"10.1111/ijau.12285","url":null,"abstract":"<p>This study examines the homogeneity of BIG4 audit reports after implementing key audit matters (KAMs) in the context of fair value accounting. We focus on reported KAMs and the procedures related to the fair values of investment properties, particularly those related to challenging management's estimations and valuation specialists' use. Our data consist of 235 individual audit reports from the real estate sector from 2017 to 2018 and cover 60% of the listed real estate companies in the EU, Switzerland, and Norway. We found that the BIG4 audit firms are not homogenous in their audit reports. There is a statistically significant difference among the BIG4 audit firms in reporting the challenge of management estimates and in the number of audit procedures. We also found that a country's legal origin plays a significant role when auditors report KAMs. Our findings contribute to the current audit quality and reporting literature.</p>","PeriodicalId":47092,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Auditing","volume":"26 3","pages":"354-370"},"PeriodicalIF":2.0,"publicationDate":"2022-05-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/ijau.12285","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43333870","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":"What does an audit really cost? An exploratory study of auditor pricing of initial engagements in a fixed cost model","authors":"Christie Novak, W. Robert Knechel","doi":"10.1111/ijau.12279","DOIUrl":"10.1111/ijau.12279","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Despite decades of research on audit <i>fees</i>, we know very little about the <i>cost</i> to produce an audit. In this paper, we discuss the nature of fixed and variable costs in the audit process. We then use this cost perspective to examine the debate about the pricing of initial audit engagements, an event where marginal costs and marginal revenues are likely to diverge. This is often referred to as ‘lowballing’ which, technically, means delivering a service below cost. However, a fee discount does not necessarily indicate that revenue is below cost for an engagement. Using a sample of engagements from regional audit firms, we analyse audit fees, actual costs, and <i>contribution margins</i>. We find that actual contribution margins are generally positive in new engagements, suggesting that fee discounts do not result in lowballing. We attribute this to a firm pricing audits conditional on an understanding of their fixed cost structure.</p>","PeriodicalId":47092,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Auditing","volume":"27 4","pages":"153-170"},"PeriodicalIF":2.0,"publicationDate":"2022-05-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41595112","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}