External auditors’ use and perceptions of fraud factors in assessing fraudulent financial reporting risk (FFRR): Implications for audit policy and practice

Abstract This study used semi-structured interviews with twenty-four external auditors to explore how they perceive and use fraud factors when assessing fraudulent financial reporting risk in external audits. The fraud factors include top management’s motive, integrity, opportunity, rationalisation, and capabilities. The participants work for Big four audit firms and have international auditing experience, specifically in the US, the UK, Egypt, the UAE, Qatar, Bahrain, and Saudi Arabia. The findings reveal that top management’s integrity and motives are, in theory, the most critical factors in fraud risk assessment. However, a self-selection bias pushes external auditors not to evaluate these essential factors because they are too complicated to assess, and not enough guidance is provided to them by standard setters or audit firms. In turn, external auditors concentrate mainly on evaluating the opportunities to commit fraud when assessing fraud risk. This may lead to non-optimal fraud risk assessment and, ultimately, non-optimal audit quality. The findings have implications for policy, practice, and future research, later discussed.