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Purpose: The aim of this study is to reveal the opinions of the auditors, academicians, and institutions that published integrated reports regarding the development and execution of the assurance process of integrated reports.

Design/methodology/approach: For this purpose, interviews were conducted using qualitative research technique to determine awareness about integrated reporting and combined assurance. Within the scope of the research, semi-structured interviews were conducted with six auditors, five academicians, and five workers in institutions that published integrated reports. Qualitative data analysis method was used to analyze the data.

Findings: As a result of the research, combined assurance process criteria were proposed in the integrated reports which in line with the opinions of the participants.

Originality/value: Institutions around the world are increasingly publishing integrated reports. However, when institutions publish integrated reports, there is no clear standard or any guidance on how to ensure the reliability of these reports. It is seen that AA1000, ISAE3000, GRI Standards, and some local standards are used to provide assurance. At this point, the combined assurance model can be used for the reliability of the information in the integrated reports. Integrated reporting and combined assurance are still relatively new concepts in Turkey. Furthermore, this study is important in terms of the lack of studies on how to provide combined assurance for integrated report when scanned related literature in Turkey. Although readily integrated reporting continued in Turkey, it continues to be an area of application is still under development. In particular, the research reflects the level of integrated reporting awareness and how to ensure assurance of these reports.

During a pandemic, with businesses implementing social distancing protocols and work-from-home strategies, the use of continuous controls monitoring (CCM) may add value to the internal audit function. This study aims to examine the use of CCM technologies and the impact on the internal audit function during a pandemic.

This study adopted a case study approach for this study because it focuses on questions of “how” and “what.” Case studies provided an opportunity for an in-depth analysis of the phenomena being investigated. Semi-structured interviews were used to collect data. This study did not use sampling. Instead, multiple case studies were used for data collection.

Based on the findings, this study makes several contributions to the literature, for example, in health-care evidence suggests the pandemic has caused internal audit to focus on risk areas. Other industries, such as retail, have invested in CCM. However, in all cases, education and preparedness (or the lack thereof) appeared to significantly influence uptake of CCM. Organizations that made prior investments in CCM technologies experienced greater acceptance in the face of changing demands. Training in emerging technologies is a key competency in supporting audit operations in changing environments.

As the study was conducted with a small sample of cases, findings cannot be extrapolated nor generalized beyond the case study organizations.

This study found that several factors limit adoption, exploitation and further development of CCM technologies, such as lack of top management support, acceptance of CCM technologies and suitable education and training of internal audit staff.

This study addresses the issue of the value that CCM offers organizations and whether it is a silver bullet that the internal audit profession needs, particularly when physical access to organizations may be restricted. The COVID-19 pandemic placed considerable focus on digital access. Better IT systems and more data will allow organizations to better support employees, inform strategic and financial decisions and engage stakeholders. During the recovery phase, leveraging investments in CCM technologies will contribute to internal audits’ ability to help clients to manage organizational risk.

The purpose of this study is to examine the relationship among chief sustainability officer (CSO) expertise, sustainability-related executive compensation (SEC) and biodiversity disclosure (BD).

Based on legitimacy and upper echelons theory, this study uses both random-effects and logit regressions and looks at the 2014–2019 financial years of companies listed on the STOXX Europe 600 (1,992 firm-year observations).

The findings of this study are in line with prior research on sustainable corporate governance and indicate that CSO sustainability expertise significantly increases BD and that SEC strengthens this relationship as a moderating variable. The results of this study are robust to a battery of sensitivity analyses.

This study makes a major contribution to prior analyses, as this appears to be the first on the link among CSO expertise, SEC and BD, as per the author’s knowledge. This study has major implications for business practice, regulators and research.

This study aims to investigate whether “small- and medium-sized enterprises” (SMEs) benefit from their external accountants’ business advice through enhanced firm performance. Most SMEs draw on external support, and their main advisors are external accountants (Bennett and Robson, 1999). The resource-based view of the firm suggests that firms will seek external support if they perceive a gap in their internal resources.

Data were collected from a questionnaire mailed to a random sample of Australian SMEs, defined as businesses having between 5 and 200 full-time employees.

An analysis of 380 survey respondents confirms a positive relationship between the voluntary purchase of business advice and SME performance, and that SME performance is further enhanced when business advice is purchased jointly with auditing. These relationships apply to the small (5-49 employees) but not to the medium-sized (50-200 employees) businesses. Findings are consistent with smaller firms having narrower resource bases and thus a greater need to source business advice.

The accounting profession has long encouraged a broadening of its service base, and evidence that small businesses perceive a performance benefit from their accountants’ business advice provides support for the profession’s strategy.

This research extends the empirical literature investigating the link between the business advice of an external accountant and SME performance. It explains small firms’ demand for business advice by extending the application of the resource-based view of the firm and provides new evidence consistent with “knowledge spillover” from auditing to business advice in the small firm environment.

Along with accounting scandals in the past, academics, researchers, and legislators have focused on fraud. The purpose of this study is to examine postgraduate and doctoral studies, articles, and books about forensic accounting and fraud audit published between the years 2008 and 2018 in Turkey. For this purpose, a total of 96 studies have been examined and 35 of these are master’s theses, 10 of them are PhD theses, 45 of them are articles, and six of them are books. These studies were presented in tables as classified. The studies examined in our research are summarized as year they were published, the author, and the scope of the topic and in terms of results. The conclusions of this study can be summarized as follows: (a) the majority of thesis published about forensic accounting and fraud audit are in 2011 and following years. In addition, most of the theses are focused on forensic accounting review rather than fraud audit. (b) Results in the articles reviewed are in the same direction with theses. (c) There are very few books about fraud audit and forensic accounting. One of them is related to fraud audit, while the rest of them are related to forensic accounting and forensic accounting profession. We suggest extending the scope of the study and making to other countries.

Accounting and audit scandals, economic disputes, and the use of non-fraudulent financial statements during early 2000s have led to the emergence of the profession “Forensic Accounting” in many countries and its day-by-day increasing importance. At the present time, it is seen that since the acceptance of the fact that this profession is a quite important need, the education of forensic accounting is provided in undergraduate and graduate programs in the USA and Europe as a separate field of study. By this way, the aim of our study is to determine the perceptions and awareness, of the members of the profession and the accounting department students who have the potential to make this profession in the future, about the importance of the forensic accounting education and practices. In our research, we conducted a survey study with the members of the profession and the students of accounting department on the topic of forensic accounting education. The results show that the demand and interest in the forensic accounting profession will increase in the future. At this point, accountants and students emphasize that it would be very important for educational institutions to support students about professional career opportunities for forensic accounting. The results also show that there are some important differences of opinion among students and accountants about the current scope of forensic accounting.

Accounting-based financial scandals caused by fraudulent financial reports negatively affect the financial markets and cause loss of confidence in investors. Financial reporting quality needs to be improved in order to build and maintain trust in financial markets. To increase the quality of financial reports, fraudulent financial reporting risks should be defined. At this point, regulators, practitioners, and researchers are in constant search.

There are improved approaches to the detection of financial reporting frauds in the literature. Many studies have been conducted on the “Fraud Triangle Theory” and the “Fraud Diamond Theory” approaches. The Fraud Triangle Theory argues that while fraudulent action is taking place in defining the elements of press, rationalization, and opportunity, the Fraud Diamond Theory approach argues that in order to achieve these three elements, the capability to carry out a fraud in individuals must be improved.

In this study, it is aimed to investigate the effect of Fraud Diamond elements on fraudulent financial reports. For the scope of the research, data of 26 companies from Manufacturing Industry enterprises operating in BORSA ISTANBUL between 2013 and 2017 were used. Financial reports of the companies are divided into two groups: (1) Fraudulent Financial Reports and (2) Non-Fraud Financial Reports. The hypotheses developed within the scope of the research were tested using the Logistic Regression analysis in IBM SPSS Statistic 20 program.

As a result of the study, it has been determined that there is a negative correlation between borrowing level, asset profitability, independent audit firm, auditor exchanges and institutionalization level, and fraudulent financial reports. It was understood that the change in assets and the size of the audit committee did not have any effect on the fraudulent financial reports.

The purpose of the financial statements is to present the situations of the enterprises, such as the financial situation, results of operations, etc., in the decision-making processes to the related parties in a suitable, comparable, and realistic manner. In recent years, professional frauds in enterprises have been seriously reflected in financial statements and this has resulted in the manipulation of financial information.

In this study, we aim to determine financial firms, which might manipulate the financial information, by applying the Beneish model and then determine the financial indicators of possible financial statement manipulation, using logistic regression. For this purpose, companies included constantly in Borsa İstanbul-50 (BIST-50) 2015, 2016, and 2017 were examined. After the enterprises which have the possibility of financial manipulation are determined by the Beneish model, it is understood that there is a positive relationship between the probability of manipulating financial information and the Asset Quality Index and Sales, general and administrative expenses index.

Together with the globalization, the markets throughout the world entered into an intense competition and it led the companies in capital markets into a panic. During the competition for being at the top, the companies may sometimes have recourse to various frauds, corruption, or manipulations. The advancing technology is the most useful instrument of companies for this purpose. Countering these frauds and corruptions, which are gradually becoming more complex, is the profession of “auditing” which entered into an institutionalization and professionalization process. One of the most important milestones in this process is the emergence of the forensic accounting profession. The forensic accounting services, especially in the USA and Canada, provide courts and lawyers with support by making use of accounting, auditing, and analytical investigations on legal issues involving financial disputes. The forensic accountants offer service to relevant persons and institutions in order to determine the frauds made by the companies and support the lawsuits.

The objective of the present study is to provide information about the forensic accounting profession and its development in the world, as well as contributing to the development and recognition of forensic accounting practices.

Professionals who carry out the forensic accounting profession must have an extensive knowledge of accounting, as well as an effective knowledge of law, auditing, internal audit, business management, psychology, crime science, and, in particular, computer technologies. In today’s digital business environment, it has become difficult to identify fraudulent transactions with traditional methods. Developments in information (data) and information technology have helped increase anti-fraud control programs and fraud research opportunities. In particular, fraudulent financial reporting disrupts the reliability, accuracy, and efficiency of financial markets in terms of existence and continuity. The forensic accounting profession has been able to improve the effectiveness of inspections by using big data techniques, data analytics, and algorithms (Rezaee, Lo, Ha, & Suen, 2016; Seda & Kramer, 2014; Singleton & Singleton, 2010).

The aim of the author, in this chapter, is to evaluate the contribution of using big data techniques in forensic accounting applications and the skills that will be provided to students while integrating these techniques in forensic accounting trainings. For this purpose, studies on forensic accounting education and their applications were reviewed. In addition, opinions were evaluated by considering the relevant literature about the importance of big data, benefits of big data, use of big data techniques, and interest shown of them.