Internal auditors have a direct interest in understanding how external audit firms make decisions that may have important implications for their own firm. Explores whether differently sized audit firms apply professional standards in a similar manner. Such uniform application should be expected...

Purpose – Prior literature provides clear evidence that the judgments of experts differ from those of non‐experts. For example, Smith and Kida concluded that the extent of common biases that they investigated often are reduced when experts perform job related tasks as compared to students....

Accounting literature is replete with quantitative models that use financial ratios to identify the probability of a going concern qualification. These studies, however, ignore qualitative cues that auditors use to identify going concern problems and mitigating factors (sound financial plans...

Purpose – Prior literature provides clear evidence that the judgments of experts differ from those of non-experts. For example, Smith and Kida concluded that the extent of common biases that they investigated often are reduced when experts perform job related tasks as compared to students. The...

The forensic accounting literature (e.g., Albrecht et al., 2010) places a great deal of importance on the so-called fraud triangle of motive-means-opportunity. Wolfe and Hermanson (2004) presents a cognitive analysis of factors that may impact the motivation element in the fraud triangle,...

Auditor independence is a guiding principle of the relationship between auditors and clients, and a key component of outsiders' acceptance of firms' financial statements. As recent accounting scandals have illustrated, the audit process is meaningless without the auditor's impartial judgement....