Auditing standards emphasize that fraud detection is an important objective of an audit and require the exercise of professional skepticism (PS) and a discussion among the engagement team to prevent and detect fraud. The purpose of this study is to examine whether professional skepticism is a...

CEOs completing M&A transactions face pressure to deliver returns and investors sometimes express concern that financial disclosures fail to provide information necessary to evaluate post-acquisition performance. Regulators require that auditors provide Key Audit Matter (KAM) disclosures, which...

Boards of directors and compensation committees predominantly use financial measures reflecting executive managerial duties as inputs to executive compensation decisions. Yet, despite the fact that Holmstrom (1979) suggests that any readily available performance measure should be considered in...

The purpose of this paper is to provide a descriptive analysis of companies' previously uncorrected financial statement misstatements using disclosures recently mandated by Staff Accounting Bulletin No. 108 (SAB 108). We analyze 355 companies that disclose and correct 792 misstatements in their...

This paper investigates the effects of competitive bidding on clients' and service providers' decisions. We examine the determinants of clients' decisions to choose private negotiations (i.e., only one bidder) versus competitive bidding (i.e., multiple bidders) and the effect of that choice on...

The revelation of material negative events about a firm, including issues such as fraud, restatements, or internal control material weaknesses (ICMWs), may destabilize the firm's corporate governance equilibrium as it works to remediate the event or effects thereof. Prior research investigates...

This paper describes how auditors conduct brainstorming sessions to comply with the requirements of SAS No. 99. We gather evidence by interviewing twenty-two auditors at all personnel levels across seven audit firms (including all of the Big 4 firms) and by observing actual brainstorming...

While many audit firms have adopted electronic systems for workpaper preparation and review in hopes of improving both efficiency and effectiveness, prior research shows that the expected gains may be difficult to achieve. In order to investigate possible sources of difficulty in full use of...