This paper examines how two contradictory psychological traits, self-deception (SD) and professional skepticism (PS), affect managers and auditors assessments of the ethicality of various earnings management choices. Whereas, self-deception allows individuals to reduce cognitive dissonance...

This paper examines the effect of SAS No. 99 recommended group brainstorming on the auditor’s search for potential material misstatements and assessments of fraud risk in the presence of different levels of pressures and opportunities. We argue that there are potential differences in the...

In this study we examine the fee premiums earned by Big 4 auditors (B4As) in India. We then try to determine the primary cause of the fee premiums in an Indian context. The B4As charge fee premiums for two primary reasons. First they are considered to be a potential indemnifier of losses for the...

There has been very little prior research examining how the prescriptions of SAS No. 99 map into the auditors’ fraud risk assessment process. SAS No. 99 asks the auditors to consider two major types of fraud (fraudulent financial reporting (FFR) and misappropriation of assets (MOA)) in the...

Individuals in an organizational context are routinely faced with complex problems that are not well defined and that challenge their cognitive capacities. To deal with such complex issues, decision-makers construct “belief-structures” which in turn create selective perceptions about...