The majority of U.S. public companies release annual earnings prior to the completion of audit fieldwork. We investigate this phenomenon in a controlled experiment with audit partners and senior managers. We find that releasing earnings before completion of the audit pressures auditors to adopt...

Intrinsic motivation is generally thought to be positively associated with performance on a variety of tasks; however, there is only sparse experimental evidence supporting this idea and we know little about the specific mechanisms behind any effect. We develop theory about how auditors'...

We experimentally examine whether audit seniors' use of simple cognitive processes for a complex task is affected by the strength of habits to use these processes that they developed as staff auditors. A habit is a mental association between a behavior and a specific context. We propose that,...

Blockchain, the technology behind digital currency, is a decentralized, distributed ledger that records transactions in digital assets. By authenticating and recording immutable transactions, decentralized blockchains perform the same function as many intermediaries in our society that establish...

Auditors’ knowledge is critical for audit and financial reporting quality, as it facilitates task performance and information sharing. We examine whether auditors’ acquisition of knowledge from prior year workpapers, a primary means for learning on the job, is negatively affected by the...

The financial instability stemming from large volumes of simultaneous selling in the corporate bond market has been a topic of concern in recent years. Investors in this market care primarily about the downside risk of a firm given their concave payoff function, and this is precisely the...

The transition to IFRS based reporting has resulted in fundamental departures from many of the long accepted norms embedded in indigenous GAAP systems now superseded in IFRS adopting jurisdictions. The rules relating to goodwill accounting, measurement and reporting represent an excellent case...

The “not documented, not done” requirements of PCAOB Auditing Standard 3 substantially increased auditors’ obligations to document their risk assessments. This study examines a potentially unintended consequence of such a requirement on auditors who have pressure to reach lenient,...

Internal auditors play an important role in influencing managers’ judgments. Yet, the practitioner literature indicates that, because internal audit lacks the client services incentives of external audit, internal auditors often adopt a “policeman approach” that can lead to negative...

In this study, we explore a topic of primary concern to small audit firms – attracting new clients. A potential avenue available to small audit firms to enhance their visibility and legitimacy among potential audit clients is to join an association of accounting firms. We examine whether small...