The entrepreneur's role in the performance growth of the financial audit activity in Romania

For the study of entrepreneurship, a cornerstone of modern competitive economy, perhaps there is no liberal profession better suited to be analysed than the financial audit. The financial auditor is meant to be an entrepreneur, to take his destiny into his own hands, because, in order to be independent, a demand induced by the ethical code provides that he cannot work as an employee of his services’ users. This paper proposes a research for identifying and presenting the entrepreneur’s role in the performance growth in the financial audit. The main objective of the conducted research is to present an overview of the entrepreneurship environment, to identify opportunities and challenges faced by the entrepreneur involved in the financial auditing of the level of development reached by the auditing market in Romania, by analysing representative statistical indicators in the market development and financial management of the audit activity. The proposed research methodology focuses on the collection, processing and analysis of statistical data on entrepreneurship of financial audit activity, based on official data published by the Chamber of Financial Auditors of Romania (CAFR), and on the identification of the main factors leading to the development of supply and demand of financial auditing and of the shortcomings the financial audit contractor involved in his own surveys is facing. Being a fairly new regulated profession, I had the privilege to analyse the developments in the entrepreneurship activity of the financial audit market for the entire period of existence: 1999-2013, showing the dynamic structure of supply and demand of financial auditing, the development and characteristics of the business environment during the period under review, the specificity of the financial audit entrepreneurship and I could outline a sketch of the entrepreneur involved in the financial audit activity. The research results show that the number of financial auditors, individuals and legal entities, had experienced a continuous growth, reflecting on one hand the attraction for the new profession and, on the other hand the role of modelling highlighted of the new professions, especially, the effects of organizational or regulatory measures such as the introduction of the three years stage in 2002, or the ability to harness the social and economic entrepreneurial opportunities induced by the economic and financial crisis, which imposed the necessity of audit entities to be subject to restructuring, or else becoming insolvent. The major role of entrepreneurship in developing the financial audit activity in Romania is revealed by empowering entrepreneurs, auditors, able to contribute to the growth and diversification of demand, audits reaching from 197 in 2001 to 6,588 in 2013. The research analyses in the end the dynamics of performance in audit work by defining specific performance indicators which show, synthetically, the entrepreneur's role in the improvement of the financial audit activity, and the growth of its performance.