Annexing new audit spaces: challenges and adaptations

Abstract

Access to this document was granted through an Emerald subscription provided by emerald-srm:123705 [] For AuthorsIf you would like to write for this, or any other Emerald publication, then please use our Emerald for Authors service information about how to choose which publication to write for and submission guidelines are available for all. Please visit www.emeraldinsight.com/authors for more information. About Emerald www.emeraldinsight.comEmerald is a global publisher linking research and practice to the benefit of society. The company manages a portfolio of more than 290 journals and over 2,350 books and book series volumes, as well as providing an extensive range of online products and additional customer resources and services.Emerald is both COUNTER 4 and TRANSFER compliant. The organization is a partner of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and also works with Portico and the LOCKSS initiative for digital archive preservation.

PCAOB Inspections: Public Accounting Firms on “Trial”

“…However, research suggests that in the 1980s the audit profession underwent a gradual cultural shift from a legitimate public service to a more commercially driven emphasis (e.g., Hanlon ; Wyatt ; Carnegie and Napier ; Malsch and Gendron ; Picard et al ). Some studies suggest that characteristics of firms (e.g., firm size and hierarchy, Goetz et al ; commercialistic values, Wyatt , Suddaby et al , Carter and Spence , Spence and Carter ; expansion into “new audit spaces” outside of the traditional attest audit domain, Andon et al ) coupled with characteristics of partners (e.g., shifting from disciplined and dedicated professional to one with an entrepreneurial bent, Greenwood and Suddaby , Gendron and Spira , Kornberger et al ; diluted job autonomy, Bamber and Iyer , Lupu and Empson ) within a self‐regulating system were at fault. Despite the perception that internal quality review (IQR) and peer‐review processes (i.e., self‐regulation) were effective at monitoring the profession (e.g., Anantharaman ; Houston and Stefaniak ) and were in some instances beneficial (e.g., Hilary and Lennox ; Casterella et al ), the avalanche of audit failures during the early 2000s lends credibility to the accusation that commercialism got the best of firms, resulting in reduced confidence in the audit profession.…”

Auditors and regulatory work (1987–2013)

“…Following this analysis of the evolving new audit space of regulatory work, it is helpful to consider the extent to which it shares common themes across new audit spaces as identified by Andon et al (2015). In their review of new audit spaces, Andon et al (2015Andon et al ( , pp. 1404Andon et al ( -1416 identified four themes -independence, reporting, accreditation and institutionalised cultural capital, and reorientations in the mediating roles of auditing.…”

“…Their motivation was to acknowledge the increase in auditing and assurance of information published in a variety of new spaces and to respond to calls to undertake more detailed empirical work on the extension of audit-type practices into new spaces. Subsequently, in a special issue on 'Contemporary Professional Work: Accounting and Beyond' in this journal, Andon et al (2015) undertook a wider review of the emergence of new audit spaces. They identified new audit spaces as including efficiency and value for money auditing (Radcliffe, 1998;1999), performance auditing (Gendron et al, 2007), sustainability assurance (O'Dwyer, 2011;O'Dwyer et al, 2011), salary cap auditing (Andon and Free, 2012;2014), e-commerce assurance (Barrett and Gendron, 2006;Gendron and Barrett, 2004), and rankings and ratings (Jeacle and Carter, 2011) (see summary Andon et al, 2015Andon et al, , p. 1408.…”

“…Subsequently, in a special issue on 'Contemporary Professional Work: Accounting and Beyond' in this journal, Andon et al (2015) undertook a wider review of the emergence of new audit spaces. They identified new audit spaces as including efficiency and value for money auditing (Radcliffe, 1998;1999), performance auditing (Gendron et al, 2007), sustainability assurance (O'Dwyer, 2011;O'Dwyer et al, 2011), salary cap auditing (Andon and Free, 2012;2014), e-commerce assurance (Barrett and Gendron, 2006;Gendron and Barrett, 2004), and rankings and ratings (Jeacle and Carter, 2011) (see summary Andon et al, 2015Andon et al, , p. 1408. Basing their analysis of new audit spaces around four themes -independence, reporting, accreditation and institutionalised cultural capital, and reorientations in the mediating roles of auditing - Andon et al (2015Andon et al ( , pp.…”

“…Sustainability assurance (O'Dwyer, 2011;O'Dwyer et al, 2011) was identified as 'mixed' with both Big Four and non-financial auditors successfully undertaking sustainability audits. A particularly interesting finding was the traditional view, that independence is fundamental to financial audit, is not necessarily valued in new audit spaces (Andon et al, 2015(Andon et al, , p. 1410. In a paper introducing the special issue Carter et al (2015) noted this important 'bifurcation' in the experience of the Big Four that acknowledged the success of the Big Four 'behemoth' but also highlighted their potential vulnerability (p. 1206).…”