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Purpose: This study aims to investigate factors that drive or deter audit firms (AFs) from disclosing audit quality (AQ) information to stakeholders in Iran. Furthermore, information items that should be contained in their disclosures are examined. Design/methodology/approach: The study followed an interpretive approach. In this regard, 21 semi-structured and face-to-face interviews were conducted to explore the viewpoints of audit partners and investment managers. Interviewees were selected by snowball sampling method. The transcripts of audio records were prepared, and a thematic perspective was applied to evaluate transcriptions. Findings: Participants' interpretations indicate that certain factors, such as signaling to stakeholders, active audit committees and investor demand, promote transparency among Iranian AFs. Nonetheless, this inclination is deterred by some concerns, including poor AQ, lack of financial resources, lack of legal enforcement, fear of raising stakeholders' expectations, inactive professional associations and contextual factors which should be addressed. Interviewees believe five items should be contained in AFs' disclosures to enhance transparency. Practical implications: This study contributes to recognizing factors explaining AFs' behavior in the context of an Islamic country. Furthermore, the type of disclosure that should be contained can provide good insight for standard setters or oversight bodies. Originality/value: The semi-structured interviews shed light on the contextual factors that influence transparency within the accountancy profession, either enabling or hindering it. Additionally, it is crucial to consider each country's unique characteristics when determining the disclosure items in transparency reports. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This paper aims to explore the potential effect of key audit matters (KAM) on the audit report lag (ARL). In particular, it aims to discover whether the number of KAMs reported by an audit firm in Jordan is related to the length of its ARL. Design/methodology/approach: The authors analysed data from the first three years of KAM reporting in Jordan (2017–2019) for 194 public listed Jordanian companies to examine the relation between the number of KAMs and the ARL, taking into account several control variables related to the Jordanian context. Findings: This study found that there is no statistically significant relation between the number of KAMs reported by Jordanian audit firms and their ARLs, suggesting that the KAM reporting in Jordan is somewhat superficial, with the selection of what is actually reported as a KAM not directly related to the efforts needed to deal with its concerns. However, this study also found statistically significant positive relations between the ARL and each of audit fees, audit firm size, the issuance of a qualified audit opinion and company leverage and a statistically significant negative relation between the ARL and company profitability. Originality/value: This is one of the very few studies to cover the potential relation between KAM reporting and the ARL. In a developing country context characterised by limited demand for an external audit of high quality, this study finds that auditors may decouple on their reporting of KAMs by not actually making significant efforts to deal with them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This study aims to examine the effects of the entry of foreign direct investments (FDIs) on the audit markets in developing countries (i.e. Egypt). There is a long-standing debate on the impact of FDIs on developing markets, but little is still known about the effect of FDI on national suppliers, such as audit firms. Design/methodology/approach: This paper reports the results of a study that used qualitative research methods. It involves interviews with senior management teams of the Big 4 audit firms, to find out how these firms deal simultaneously with conflicting global and local influences. The interviews were complemented by the publicly available data on the firms' websites as well as published reports related to the Egyptian economy and current investment regulations. Findings: Drawing on the institutional theory, the findings suggest that an increased litigious environment, compliance with developed markets' regulations, auditor regulatory sanctions and improved local accounting and auditing standards are highly significant consequences of foreign investment inflows. The findings indicate that more emphasis has been given to the quality of audit and auditors' independence when auditing FDIs. Both audit regulators and audit firms in the domestic market pay higher attention to improving the quality of financial reports when FDIs have entered the market. More inspections and reviews for audit firms have been conducted, and local auditing and accounting standards have been revised to be in compliance with international standards. Research limitations/implications: Our results have important implications for investors, regulatory authorities and governments in relation to the development, implementation and enforcement of international financial reporting and auditing standards. Originality/value: Policymakers and regulators in Egypt have responded to international pressure by revitalizing their local accounting and auditing standards and adopting international financial reporting and auditing standards. The authors identify strategies that have been adopted by audit firms to face the FDIs' challenges. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper verifies whether and how the country's cultural dimensions moderate the relationship between the quality of the audit firm and the level of earnings management. The sample is formed by 88,428 observations from 18,842 companies in 23 countries, covering the period from 2011 to 2018 in an unbalanced panel. The dimensions of national culture were based on the GLOBE project, and the level of earnings management was estimated by Dechow et al. (1995). The results show that national culture influences the monitoring of the largest auditing firms and benefits companies in preparing financial statements. Such results suggest a relationship of audit bias due to cultural aspects, which may compromise the quality of accounting information. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We use a novel dataset that links audit-firm and client-firm financial statement information from the U.K.'s largest audit firms to examine drivers of audit-firm profitability and its implications for audit outcomes. We first explore the determinants of audit-firm profitability and conclude that Big-4 and non-Big-4 audit firms have fundamentally different profitability structures. Big-4 firms have higher profit margins than non-Big-4 firms. Furthermore, Big-4 profitability increases with client size and complexity, while non-Big-4 profitability is higher for smaller, private-firm clients. Next, we examine the relation between audit-firm profitability and audit outcomes. Using a battery of alternative outcome measures, we find that more profitable audit firms deliver higher audit quality. In supplemental analyses we show that the positive relation between audit-firm profitability and audit outcomes is generally stronger for more influential and illiquid clients (i.e. when auditors are exposed to more litigation risk). Our inferences are robust to several endogeneity controls, such as using an instrumental variables approach, controlling for client-firm and audit-firm fixed effects, employing lead-lag and changes specifications, and assessing bias from correlated omitted variables. Our study contributes to the literature by being the first to provide insights into audit-firm profitability and examine in detail its implications for audit quality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Journal of Research in Finance & Accounting is the property of Journal of Research in Finance & Accounting and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Money laundering is a global problem, respectively, and the effort to combat it in order to ensure the integrity of financial systems is global. At the international level, there are anti-money laundering policies, encompassing a number of common regulations and requirements, some of which, however, vary by country and jurisdiction. The study is based on research focused on regulation in the field, emphasizing the role of audit entities. The investigation was supported by the legislative acts of the Republic of Moldova, as well as the international ones. The research methodology includes academic research methods, such as qualitative, dialectical and the methods inherent in economic disciplines. The qualitative method allowed the analysis of the research theme present in the published works, which can be found in the Web of Science, Scopus and EBSCO databases. The study constitutes a significant contribution to the specialized literature regarding the requirements for audit entities in combating money laundering.

SUMMARY: In this study, we examine whether increased financial flexibility afforded by the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) affects small accounting firms' public audit client portfolio decisions. We find some evidence suggesting that accounting firms receiving PPP loans exhibit greater public audit client selectivity. Specifically, accounting firms receiving PPP loans exhibit an increased likelihood of auditor switching and engage new clients that exhibit less financial and auditor business risk but greater potential for profitability relative to departing clients. Relative to both departing and continuing clients, new clients of firms receiving PPP loans exhibit some evidence of lower audit risk. Collectively, the results provide some evidence to suggest that the increased financial flexibility afforded through the PPP loans provided smaller accounting firms an opportunity to selectively manage their public audit client portfolio. Data Availability: Data are available from the public sources cited in the text. JEL Classifications: M42; M48. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The development of the audit services market is an indicator of the development of the economy of any country. Since, on the one hand, audit firms as economic agents conduct their business and various changes in such an environment appropriately affect the financial performance of such firms. On the other hand, audit firms express their opinion on the financial statements of various audited enterprises and the types of such opinions can reveal a picture of the state and disclosure of financial information of enterprises. It should be noted that in the Republic of Moldova, the audit market has both common features related to the world market of audit services, and there are national peculiarities. Conducting a study of the audit services market, the author analyzed various indicators of audit firms of the Republic of Moldova, both financial and non-financial, as a result of which conclusions were drawn about the peculiarities of the development of the audit services market in the Republic of Moldovaаnd the prospects for the development of this market in the future.

Copyright of Journal of Administrative & Economic Sciences is the property of Al-Manara Consultancy and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

We investigate the use of disruptive technology on the level of audit risk, within both companies and audit firms. A sample of FTSE 100 and their corresponding audit firms—specifically, the 'Big 4'—are selected for the period 2015 to 2020. Our findings indicate that the utilisation of disruptive technology results in a significant reduction in audit risk for both companies and audit firms. Disruptive technology seems to promote benefits to companies and audit firms by significantly mitigating the risk of material misstatements (i.e. inherent and control risk) and detection risk; these results are consistent across various industry classifications. • Disruptive technologies are investigated in association with the level of audit risk. • Both companies and audit firms are examined to offer a comprehensive analysis. • Disruptive technologies significantly reduce inherent risk and the control risk. • Audit firms mitigate the detection risk by leveraging disruptive technology. • we perform additional tests to identify the heterogeneity of the industries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Financial auditors, members of the Romanian Chamber of Financial Auditors, are involved in the activity of verifying that the implementation of EU-funded projects is compliant with the relevant national and European legislation. They conclude audit contracts with the beneficiaries of European funds, perform external financial audit services upon the projects’ implementation activities and provide audit reports which are presented by beneficiaries to the management authorities in order to certify the eligibility of projects’ expenses for reimbursement. In this paper, our aim is to perform a study upon this specific segment of the financial audit services market in Romania, by collecting and analysing data related to the financial audit contracts which have been awarded through the national public procurement electronic system in the time period 2013-2021. Our research results will respond to some specific objectives. Firstly, this study establishes how the number of audit contracts is spread over the main operational programs implemented in Romania and through which the audited projects have been financed. Further, we aim to discover if the market concentration to a small number of local audit firms involved in this field, which has been proved in a previous study covering the period 2011-2012, maintained or not from year 2013 to date. Finally, we will obtain an overview of the main audit firms acting in this market segment, based on researching which firms gained the biggest number of audit contracts and performed most of the required audit engagements in the analysed period.

In the business field, consulting firms in the environmental sustainability service are currently executed by audit firms called the Big Four. Established internationally with membership on each of the continents. which carry out the consultancy of the companies listed on the stock exchange, the work of the orders includes elements of the sustainability indicators, as well as the delivery of the report with the respective opinion, therefore, the objective of the work is to determine the situation current sustainability consulting market and its relationship with sustainability reports based on quality, the applied methodology consisted of collecting data from companies and consulting firms, consistent with the descriptive analytical method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: This study aims to explore how the commercialization of audit firms relates to auditors' subjective well-being (SWB). Nowadays, with the complexity of the governance structure of companies and the increase of agency costs, the need for independent auditors by shareholders has increased increasingly; the customer orientation of audit institutions is motivated by commercialization and has become an integral part of the audit profession, it can exacerbate agency costs, which raises concerns for shareholders. One of the most important motivations for accounting graduates to enter the audit profession is gaining subjective wellbeing. In psychological research, well-being measures people's quality of life. The subjective well-being of the staff of audit firms is largely related to their income level in audit firms. In recent years, with the increase of private audit institutions, the competition between audit institutions has increased to gain market share, and audit institutions have become inclined towards commercialization. The present study examines the relationship between subjective well-being and commercialization in audit firms. In addition, we examine whether the size of audit firms affects the relationship between commercialization and subjective well-being. Methods: This research is quantitative and is in the category of descriptive studies. A questionnaire was used to collect research data to examine the subjective well-being of auditors like other empirical research conducted in the context of behavioral audit issues. Due to the uncertainty of the population, the sample size is 387 participants; therefore, in the present study, to ensure the adequacy of the received questionnaires, 430 questionnaires were distributed among auditors working in audit institutions and audit organizations in the year 2022, and 365 questionnaires were finally approved. The data analysis was then performed based on descriptive statistics and regression. Pearson's correlation coefficient and the comparison test of the mean, which are part of the parametric statistical tests, have been used. In such a way, Pearson's correlation has also been used for more robustness of the research results in addition to regression analysis. Results: This research had two main findings. The first finding indicates a positive relationship between commercialization in audit firms and subjective well-being. The findings indicated that the three aspects of commercialization (market orientation, customer orientation, and firm process orientation) are positively associated with three aspects of subjective well-being (personal satisfaction, job satisfaction, and work environment). The second finding indicates that the size of the audit firm does not affect the commercialization of audit firms and the subjective well-being of auditors. In addition to the research hypotheses, the differences in the views of the sample were examined, and the results are presented as follows: (1) There is a significant difference between different levels of education and commercialization; (2) There is a significant difference between different levels of firm size and commercialization; (3) There is a significant difference between different levels of organizational tenure and commercialization; (4) There is a significant difference between different levels of age and commercialization; and (5) There is a significant difference between different levels of organization and commercialization. Conclusion: This research has been done due to the increasing criticism of the decrease in audit quality due to auditors not having reasonable subjective well-being. The study highlights the importance of studying the relationship between commercialization and the subjective wellbeing of auditors. Commercialization in the audit profession defines the efforts of audit institutions to increase revenue and retain clients. Auditors working in market-leading firms see commercialization as a strong driver of job satisfaction. The results contribute to the ongoing debate about the normalization of commercialization within the audit profession by theorizing on and providing empirical support for the positive consequences of commercialization. Also, the results of this study can be used as a criterion for audit firms to maintain the workforce by increasing their income level. Besides these, paying attention to the views and opinions of auditors and examining the difference in their views on the commercialization of audit firms and what is now known as the merger of audit firms can be useful for the future of the audit profession. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Proceedings of the Faculty of Economics & Business in Zagreb / Zbornik Ekonomskog Fakulteta u Zagrebu is the property of Ekonomski Fakultet u Zagrebu and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Money laundering is a global problem, respectively, and the effort to combat it in order to ensure the integrity of financial systems is global. At the international level, there are anti-money laundering policies, encompassing a number of common regulations and requirements, some of which, however, vary by country and jurisdiction. The study is based on research focused on regulation in the field, emphasizing the role of audit entities. The investigation was supported by the legislative acts of the Republic of Moldova, as well as the international ones. The research methodology includes academic research methods, such as qualitative, dialectical and the methods inherent in economic disciplines. The qualitative method allowed the analysis of the research theme present in the published works, which can be found in the Web of Science, Scopus and EBSCO databases. The study constitutes a significant contribution to the specialized literature regarding the requirements for audit entities in combating money laundering. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of the study is to investigate internal factors affecting the timeliness of audit firm transparency reports. The sample consists of 446 transparency reports between 2013-2020 and ordinary least squares and negative binomial regressions are adopted to test the hypotheses. The results show that audit firm age, the number of board members, the percentage of sworn-in certified public accountants in the ownership structure, board ownership shares and audit firm size affect the timeliness of the transparency reports. We re-run the model by excluding big4 audit firms, and find similar results. However, results vary in firms with and without international connections. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The aim of this study was to analyse the key audit matters (KAMs) being reported in South Africa by assessing 356 Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE)–listed entities’ audit reports from 2017 to 2020, which entailed 1424 audit reports and 2903 KAM disclosures. Design/methodology/approach: The study assessed the impact and inter-relationship of three determinants (financial year, audit firm type and industry category) on the type of KAMs disclosed, total KAMs disclosed, the number of entity- and account-level KAMs and the readability of KAM disclosures. Qualitative content analysis was used to identify the core KAM themes and classifications. Findings/results: The findings suggest the most common KAM disclosures are related to business combinations and impairments of goodwill, followed by measurement and impairment considerations for nonfinancial assets. Key audit matters disclosed predominantly have a micro-level focus on core account-level issues. Differences in KAM disclosures between Big 4 and non-Big 4 firms are not that pronounced, which signals an increased market credibility perception for second-tier firms. The Flesch average reading score indicates that KAM disclosures are complex and difficult to read. This is concerning because the KAM disclosures are in place to facilitate greater transparency for stakeholders. However, the technical nature of financial statements may mean that only users with an understanding of accounting, finance and economics will derive value from KAM disclosures. Practical implications: This research will be relevant for standard-setters, regulators and users of audit reports interested in how ISA 701 is being implemented and the state of KAM disclosures in an emerging economy. Originality/value: Barring only some exceptions, relatively little is known about the auditors’ expanded reporting requirements in a South African context.

This paper aims to measure the influence of emotional intelligence on auditors’ judgment and the sustainability of audit activities in the Vietnamese market through auditors’ perceptions. Data were collected through interviews using questionnaires from 232 auditors who currently work for independent audit firms in many provinces and cities. The research methods used include Cronbach’s Alpha test, Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA), Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA), and Structural Equation Modeling (SEM). The study showed that 5 of 5 factors of emotional intelligence positively affect the auditors’ judgment. These are intrapersonal awareness competency, interpersonal relationship capability, stress management ability, environment adaptability potentiality, and mood creativity focus. Meanwhile, only 4 of 5 factors of emotional intelligence positively influence the audit sustainability of audit projects (excluding interpersonal relationship capability). The study also shows that the auditor’s judgment has a positive influence on audit sustainability. Besides, there is a great difference related to the emotional intelligence and its impact on auditor’s judgment and audit sustainability based on gender. The study’s results provide scientific evidence that human factors, especially emotional intelligence, influence the auditor’s judgment and the sustainability of his/her professional career. Acknowledgment The authors would like to thank the Editor-in Chief and a reviewer for their helpful comments that in our view have helped to improve the quality of the manuscript significantly.

The onset of the COVID-19 pandemic at the end of 2019 has dramatically changed the life of both individuals and corporate businesses. Besides the health fears of the pandemic, there are sizable challenges for some jobs that habitually deliver their services face-to-face, disrupting the quality of service. In particular, external auditors, the most critical and reliable accreditors of financial reports, are in an unprecedented situation to conduct audit works and collect sufficient and appropriate audit evidence. To capture how COVID-19 affects auditors in Saudi Arabia, an online questionnaire was developed and distributed from April to August 2021 via email to all 417 auditors/audit firms registered with the Saudi Organization for Chartered and Professional Accountants (SOCPA). This dataset contains responses from 193 auditors, in four major sections: demographic information (7 items); audit effort during COVID-19 (3 items); auditor performance during COVID-19 (7 items); and remote audit proficiency (6 items). It may serve for theoretical and practical assessment for auditors in the time of COVID-19, for example, evaluating how auditors conduct their work during the lockdown and how remote audit proficiency impacts the effort and performance of auditors. In addition, it can be used to assess the differences between auditors by considering the moderating effect of their personal characteristics on the impact of remote audit proficiency on both effort and performance.

Copyright of Jerash Journal for Research & Studies is the property of Jerash University and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The efficiency of the audit firm's workforce management depends on its reputation and therefore its competitiveness. In order to identify modern approaches to managing the staff of audit firms, we have examined internal policies and reports on the transparency of Ukraine's largest audit firms. In the course of the research, analytical procedures were proposed to evaluate the effectiveness of the HRM methods of audit firms that we propose to group into the following groups: assessment of the effectiveness of lifelong learning; evaluation of results from auditors' rotation; evaluating the results of auditors' independence policies and avoiding conflicts of interest. Determination of the methodological provisions of the economic analysis of the effectiveness of human resources management allowed to form such components as, the total cost of continuing education, the assessment of economic benefits from continuing education, the assessment of losses of the audit firm from the competence of the auditor, the assessment of the effectiveness of methods of human resources management auditing . As the results of the auditors' work are revenues generated by the audit firm, we analyzed the revenues of international audit firms from their activities in the domestic audit services market. Based on the results of the analysis, the features of the activity of the largest audit firms in Ukraine, which are branches or representative offices of international audit firms, were identified. In turn, an assessment was made of the efficiency of the use of staffing capacity of audit firms. As a result of the conducted research, a complex of methodological support for economic analysis was developed, which will allow to evaluate both qualitative and cost indicators of human resources potential.

Financial auditors, members of the Romanian Chamber of Financial Auditors, are involved in the activity of verifying that the implementation of EU-funded projects is compliant with the relevant national and European legislation. They conclude audit contracts with the beneficiaries of European funds, perform external financial audit services upon the projects’ implementation activities and provide audit reports which are presented by beneficiaries to the management authorities in order to certify the eligibility of projects’ expenses for reimbursement. In this paper, our aim is to perform a study upon this specific segment of the financial audit services market in Romania, by collecting and analysing data related to the financial audit contracts which have been awarded through the national public procurement electronic system in the time period 2013-2021. Our research results will respond to some specific objectives. Firstly, this study establishes how the number of audit contracts is spread over the main operational programs implemented in Romania and through which the audited projects have been financed. Further, we aim to discover if the market concentration to a small number of local audit firms involved in this field, which has been proved in a previous study covering the period 2011-2012, maintained or not from year 2013 to date. Finally, we will obtain an overview of the main audit firms acting in this market segment, based on researching which firms gained the biggest number of audit contracts and performed most of the required audit engagements in the analysed period. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Internal Audit Quality is relied upon to prompt top notch financial reporting to the outsiders of the businesses. Excellent financial reporting communicates in earning quality. Earning quality has been playing a key role in the capital market for quite a while. Account clients give exceptional consideration to procuring quality since they settle on their choice dependent on it. Then again, the market economy will encounter terrible, gone misfortunes if the association's exhibition isn't reflected in its income. Methodology: This examination targets researching the connection between Internal Audit Quality, a leading group of audit quality and financial reporting. Exploration information, acquired from 300 audit firms had internal audit offices. Just the selected firms met inclusion standards, to which research polls were sent. At long last, 300 surveys were affirmed as satisfactory, and were taken as exploration test. Findings: Discoveries indicated that excellent Internal Audit Quality will prompt great financial reporting. Additionally, solid top managerial staff will fortify this connection. Implications/Originality/Value: So it is concluded that all these three newspapers were mostly against the peace talks and government and media were not on the same page on the issue of peace talks. (Times New Roman 11pt including headings and text, single line spaced).

Research purpose: The purpose of this study is to examine the corporate governance practices disclosed by large- and medium-sized audit firms in South Africa, with a particular focus on transparency reports. Audit firms serve the public interest. Motivation for the study: This study was motivated by recent corporate failures in South Africa, such KPMG, VBS Bank, and Steinhoff, to mention a few. Research approach/design and method: The research approach followed for this study consists of a mixed method approach. Qualitative secondary data were obtained from publicly accessible information published on the websites of the audit firms. The data, which consisted of the firms’ transparency reports, were analysed through content analysis. The results were then converted into quantitative data. Main findings: The main findings reveal that audit firms in South Africa do not disclose sufficient corporate governance information in their transparency reports. There are inconsistencies between audit firms. Practical/managerial implications: In South Africa, audit firms do not have a corporate governance code for audit firms, and thus audit firms are not disclosing the relevant corporate governance information to their stakeholders. Contribution/value-add: This article contributes to the limited literature available on audit firm governance. Based on the findings, the study proposes best practice recommendations and regulatory and statutory recommendations regarding audit firm governance.