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Key research themes
1. How is audit quality conceptualized, measured, and what factors influence it in audit management?
This research area investigates the definition, components, determinants, and frameworks of audit quality, a pivotal concept that affects stakeholder confidence, governance, and financial reporting reliability. Understanding audit quality encompasses exploring both technical and service quality dimensions, identifying influential factors across contexts, and synthesizing academic insights to guide auditing practice and policymaking.
Key finding: This study articulates a comprehensive model of audit quality combining service quality and technical effectiveness, identifying critical gaps between auditor and stakeholder expectations that undermine perceived audit... Read more
Key finding: Utilizing a systematic literature review combined with bibliometric and content analysis of 1101 articles spanning 1981-2022, this paper identifies six distinct clusters or lenses through which audit quality research has... Read more
Key finding: Through a systematic literature review, this paper develops a multidimensional conceptual model identifying five core factors influencing internal audit effectiveness: organizational characteristics, relationships, processes,... Read more
2. What are the historical and technological evolutions in auditing that shape current audit management practices?
This line of inquiry explores how auditing has transformed from traditional conformance roles to dynamic, technology-enabled processes. It examines historical milestones, regulatory influences such as Sarbanes-Oxley, and emerging paradigms like continuous and real-time auditing, emphasizing how these changes impact audit roles, methodologies, and management to meet evolving stakeholder demands and technological advancements.
Key finding: This comprehensive historical analysis traces auditing from ancient civilizations to modern times, illustrating a shift from fraud detection and conformance checking towards a more enhancing and value-added role for auditors.... Read more
Key finding: This paper charts the development of auditing in the United States, detailing a transition from manual, periodic, backward-looking audits to technology-driven, real-time and continuous auditing frameworks. It emphasizes the... Read more
Key finding: The study introduces continuous auditing (CA) as a response to real-time accounting systems and electronic business processes, detailing how emerging technologies (XBRL, Internet, EDI) necessitate new audit procedures and... Read more
3. How can audit reporting and governance mechanisms improve transparency, stakeholder decision-making, and audit management outcomes?
This theme focuses on the content, format, and governance aspects of audit reporting and their effects on audit costs, transparency, and stakeholder engagement. It examines ways to enhance audit reports' decision usefulness through stakeholder consensus, the role of key audit matters (KAMs), and governance characteristics that moderate audit processes, providing actionable insights on audit communication and management strategies.
Key finding: Surveying 212 Spanish auditors and financial report users revealed consensus on high decision-making value attributed to audit reports but also identified opportunities to enrich reports with additional information on auditor... Read more
Key finding: This empirical study on UK FTSE non-financial firms (2014-2018) demonstrates a significant positive association between the quantity of disclosed Key Audit Matters and audit costs, indicating increased auditor effort.... Read more
Key finding: The study articulates the multifaceted nature of the audit expectation gap—including performance and reasonableness gaps—and proposes criteria to bridge this gap, such as enhancing societal knowledge, audit independence, and... Read more