Auditing research: a review across the disciplinary divide
Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal
ISSN: 0951-3574
Article publication date: 15 February 2008
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to review the contribution made by auditing research over the last three decades to understandings of audit practice and to consider the implications for the future development of the discipline.
Design/methodology/approach
The approach takes the form of a literature review.
Findings
The paper challenges the extent of one's knowledge of audit practice, highlighting a variety of concerns with dominant research approaches/traditions and pin‐pointing a range of research questions and approaches which offer potentially rewarding insights of the audit practice arena.
Practical implications
The paper emphasises the scope for auditing researchers and practitioners to think differently about audit practice and to work collectively in pursuing advances in auditing knowledge and educational processes more generally.
Originality/value
The paper illustrates just how vibrant contemporary auditing research agendas can be when the focus is directly on understanding the practice of audit and the work of associated regulatory institutions. It argues that the development of the auditing research discipline has been hindered by desired attachments to so‐called notions of “scientific rigour” and a reluctance across significant parts of the discipline to undertake (or even acknowledge) research of a more “qualitative” or “critical” dimension.
Keywords
Citation
Humphrey, C. (2008), "Auditing research: a review across the disciplinary divide", Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, Vol. 21 No. 2, pp. 170-203. https://doi.org/10.1108/09513570810854392
Publisher
:Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2008, Emerald Group Publishing Limited