“Enron” has become less the name for a company than a shorthand for mammoth abuse of financial reporting and corporate governance of a variety so egregious as to be almost unbelievable. Across the world there is debate in conferences and regulatory bodies as to whether “Enron” can happen...

Purpose – Examines the effects of the outcome of an over‐budget audit on supervisors' perceptions of the auditor's performance. Design/methodology/approach – Uses a cognitive model developed by Lipe. In a computer‐based experiment and an external audit context, professional auditors...

Purpose – To determine if the anticipation of an initial audit affects an individual's accuracy in preparing vouchers – an accounting task – in a business environment. Design/methodology/approach – A laboratory setting was chosen to maintain greater control over the variables influencing...

Purpose – To create an all‐round picture of the accounting and auditing requirements in Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries. Design/methodology/approach – Presents a range of related articles on the commercial laws of each state, and the announcements and publications of the Saudi...

Purpose – Seeks to analyze the impact of recent accounting and auditing failures in the USA on US accounting and auditing in China, focusing on the practice of guanxi – the networks of informal relationships and exchanges of favors that dominate all business and social activities in Chinese...

Purpose – To examine whether planning‐stage fraud risk assessments and audit experience affect the level of professional skepticism displayed by auditors during fieldwork. Design/methodology/approach – The paper presents an experiment using professional auditors. Findings – Overall,...

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine auditor‐ and auditee‐related factors that determine audit time, as a proxy of audit quality. The issue of audit quality is of particular significance, while companies in Europe move towards adoption of international accounting standards....

The National Audit Office of the People’s Republic of China issued 38 auditing standards and guidelines on 1 January 1997. This was the culmination of a variable historical development during which audit activity was either emphasised or downplayed altogether. With the open door policy and the...

We outline the history of a distinct accounting standard for charities. It charts the development of the first charity SORP and its subsequent failure. The paper explains the development of the current second charity SORP, and reviews three philosophical schools of accounting ‐ positivism,...

Everyone thinks that they can ask a question that will produce an appropriate range of answers. Research suggests the opposite. Reference is made to Dr Belson's study of 29 questions. These gave rise to a wide variety of unintended meanings and hence responses. Dr Belson's research results are...