The Financial Auditor’s Risk Behavior – The Influence of Age on Risk Behavior in a Financial Audit Context

A main issue in the audit process is the risk faced by the decision makers in every aspect of an audit process decision. The decision makers’ risk behaviour and their attitude towards risk is considered to be central to the way business risk, in general, and audit risk, in particular, is managed but no conclusive theory as to what influences the decision makers’ risk behaviour is commonly accepted. Although previous studies have brought arguments in favour of different factors considered to have an influence on the decision makers’ risk behaviour, what is not known is whether age has an influence on risk behaviour. This article advances the hypothesis that the auditor’s attitude towards risk is correlated with the auditor’s age, in a financial audit context. The methodological approach used was the survey of a representative sample using a carefully designed questionnaire and the use of statistical software to analyse the responses. The analysis of data collected revealed that there is a strong correlation between the financial auditor’s risk behaviour and the financial auditor’s age, confirming the research hypothesis as well as setting a starting point for future research.