Editorial

Citation

Leung, P. and Cooper, B.J. (2006), "Editorial", Managerial Auditing Journal, Vol. 21 No. 1. https://doi.org/10.1108/maj.2006.05121aaa.001

Editorial

We are honoured to be appointed as joint editors of Managerial Auditing Journal (MAJ) to carry on the work of the previous editor, Gerald Vinten, whom we thank for the many years of effort he has contributed to developing MAJ as one of the leading International journals in its field. Whilst the many excellent features of MAJ will remain, it is our aim to further enhance the standing and leadership of MAJ.

All articles in MAJ will be double blind refereed and the journal will continue to aim for nine quality editions per annum, to provide a major International forum for publication of articles within its remit. There are four key areas that the journal will address and in summary these include:

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  Audit and assurance issues (both financial and non-financial).

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  Financial and management reporting.

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  Governance, controls, risk management and business and professional ethics.

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  Organisational matters, including corporate culture, performance and development issues.

The above scope encompasses both quantitative and qualitative research, technical papers, empirical reviews and findings, thought pieces, theoretical analyses and comparative evaluations.

An innovation in MAJ is that in future, while refereed academic papers will be its mainstay, provision will also be made for a Practice Forum section on an occasional basis, to provide an opportunity for the publication of papers of particular interest to business and practitioners. In this way, MAJ seeks to uniquely attempt to bring together thought leaders in both academia and practice, in areas of common interest.

In this first issue for 2006, there are a number of related papers that provide reflections on important developments in the profession in recent years. In particular, this issue covers the topics on regulation, governance, quality and internal audit. The first paper by Pong and Burnett looks at one of the major firm mergers, namely Coopers and Lybrand and Price Waterhouse and the impact of the merger on the competitiveness of the market for audit services. Although the authors conclude that the merger did not lead to an increase in prices, the findings and implication are relevant for the research in audit pricing.

The changes in the profession and subsequent regulatory developments are further discussed in the second paper by Baker et al. The authors take an institutional perspective of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX) and have reviewed how historical events have led to various institutional developments, which, in turn, have resulted in accounting changes. The regulatory issues are then further analysed as an internal mechanism of governance in the next paper. Compliance with SOX is reviewed by Pandit et al. in the context of the role of audit committees in meeting the demands of SOX and the New York Stock Exchange.

With the pressure on the credibility of the accounting profession following recent corporate collapses and the introduction of SOX and other regulatory measures, the fourth paper by Russell and Armitage pursue quality and assess peer review effectiveness of 200 CPA firms in the United States. They found that as firms are allowed to self-select engagements for review, there was a tendency to select those engagements least likely to contain violations, thus undermining the efficacy of the review process.

Following on from SOX and the need to enhance good corporate governance and risk management, Sarens and De Beelde consider the perceptions of internal auditors about their role in risk management. Based on a study of internal auditors in Belgium and the United States, they conclude that internal auditors can demonstrate their value to their organizations in terms of good risk management and meeting the demands of regulatory pressures such as SOX.

Goodwin and Kent look further at the role of internal auditors by exploring the voluntary use of internal audit by Australian publicly listed companies and identifying factors that lead listed companies to have an internal audit function. In particular, the authors find a strong association between internal audit and the level of commitment to risk management.

Finally, the paper by Askary is a fitting conclusion to this issue of MAJ, as he looks at the question of professionalism from an international perspective and, in particular, examines the effects of culture on accounting professionalism. As the world moves towards International accounting standards, an insight into accounting setting and professionalism in various countries helps to understand and address the inherent limitations to harmonization.

We trust our readers enjoy this first issue of MAJ in 2006 and look forward to continuing to receive and publish quality submissions into the future.

Philomena Leung and Barry J. Cooper