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Wisdom is considered as crucial in decision-making in both management and auditing practice. This research aims to investigate the concept of wisdom in auditing, thereby empirically exploring the determinants of wisdom in audit decision-making and explaining inter-relations among these determinants.

This study employs grounded theory methodology that is based on in-depth interviews with twenty-seven practicing auditors who are audit partners, managers, seniors and assistants of auditing firms. Guided by the grounded theory, data collection and data analyses were conducted simultaneously to look into the new insights of the research phenomenon. The coding process was constantly compared until the research's theoretical saturation is reached after four rounds. At the end of the research process, the study conducted a survey to confirm the proposed framework as well as examine the inter-relationships between the defined determinants.

Results suggest developing a conceptual framework to interpret wisdom-based decision-making process in auditing. A wise process of audit decision-making is defined as an integrated exercise of multiple determinants including knowledge assimilation, judgmental ability and ethical orientation. The research also explains and examines the potential interrelationships among these determinants in the audit decision-making process.

Wisdom is a valuable tacit ability for all external auditors. The development of wise decision-making abilities of auditors should be considered an integral part of multiple virtues including knowledge and judgmental and ethical aspects.

The contributions of this study are original and significant because it proposes a new approach to explain for the audit decision-making process and enhances better understandings of the concept of wisdom in auditing practices and its roles in audit decision-making.

The aim of this paper is to investigate the mediation effect of whistleblower in relationship between auditor’s ethic, auditor’s commitment and auditor’s independence to audit quality – a survey on provincial audit boards in South, Central and West Sulawesi, Indonesia.

The population in this research were auditors of audit board, amounting to 249 people, distributed in three provinces, namely, South Sulawesi, Central Sulawesi and West Sulawesi, using purposive sampling. The method used for analyzing the data in this research is structural equation modeling with auxiliary program analysis of moment structural version 20.

The main finding of this research is that the whistleblower is not the mediation variable of the relationship between auditor’s ethic, auditor’s commitment and auditor’s independence to audit quality. However, it does not mean that auditors will be whistleblowers who will disclose all cases into the public domain. Facts on the field are that Badan Pemeriksa Keuangan Republik (BPK) or The Audit Board of the Republic of Indonesia auditors do not become whistleblowers due to unsupportive atmosphere and less response from superiors. The results support the agency theory. This research supports the agency theory because of the fact in the field that BPK auditors are not committed to be whistleblowers. Meanwhile, there is positive effect of commitment to audit quality. This research supports stewardship theory and setting theory, as BPK auditors are already committed to the organization and demonstrate high levels of participation in the organization and stronger willingness to keep working and contribute to achievement of better audit. The BPK auditors maintain their independence in the inspection, but for them to be whistleblowers to reveal findings to the public is not allowed by their superiors. The research results support the agency theory.

Whistleblower needs special attention in BPK, as it is proven that whistleblowing system has not been implemented, and support is needed from superiors and the agencies concerned if one of the auditors in carrying out their auditing tasks turn out to be a whistleblower due to their conscience. Although whistleblower is not regulated in Inspection Standard Statement, Regulation No. 01 of 2007 on Standards of State Audit (SKPN) of BPK, BPK should accommodate the application of the whistleblowing system, such as that adopted by institutions under the Ministry of Finance (Tax Office); hence, the existence of independent auditor profession regains public trust, something that has been dropped for all this time due to many cases involving independent auditors in business sector or the government sector. The government should provide a strong legal protection to ensure the protection to whistleblowers, as the existing legislation is still general in characteristics, as outlined in Law No. 13 of 2006 on Protection of Witnesses and Victims. Furthermore, the researchers should use qualitative research to study the behavior of the government auditors; why some areas receive Wajar Tanpa Pengecualian (WTP) or unqualified opinion predicate but are coupled by a tremendous increase in corruption; and whether BPK auditors have become whistleblowers in disclosing the actual facts.

Whistleblower need special attention in BPK as it is proven that whistleblowing system has not been implemented, and support is needed from superiors and the agencies concerned if one of the auditors in carrying out their auditing tasks turn out to be a whistleblower due to their conscience. Although whistleblower is not regulated in Inspection Standard Statement, Regulation No. 01 of 2007 on Standards of State Audit (SKPN) of BPK, BPK should accommodate the application of the whistleblowing system, such as that adopted by institutions under the Ministry of Finance (Tax Office), hence the existence of independent auditor profession regain public trust, something that has been dropped for all this time due to many cases involving independent auditors in business sector or the government sector. The government should provide a strong legal protection to ensure the protection to whistleblowers, as the existing legislation is still general in characteristics, as outlined in Law No. 13 of 2006 on Protection of Witnesses and Victims. Furthermore, the researchers should use qualitative research to study the behavior of the government auditors; why some areas receive WTP predicate but are coupled by a tremendous increase in corruption; and whether BPK auditors have become whistleblowers in disclosing the actual facts.

The government needs to provide a strong legal framework to ensure the protection of whistleblowers, because the existing legislation is still general as outlined in the Act – Act No. 13 of 2006 on the Protection of Witnesses and Victims.

The originality of this research is using the government whistleblower as the mediation variable in relationship between auditor’s ethics, auditor’s commitment and auditor’s independence on audit quality, with the object being auditor in South Sulawesi, Central Sulawesi and West Sulawesi, Indonesia.

The purpose of this paper is to examine how experience and gender relate to the auditors’ moral awareness.

Hypotheses are informed by a neurocognitive approach to ethical decision-making and tested using survey data from 191 auditors of a Big Four audit firm in The Netherlands.

The main findings indicate that more experienced auditors (i.e. those with more years of work experience, a higher rank and a higher age) show higher levels of moral awareness. This positive relationship is stronger for morally questionable situations related to accounting and auditing, compared to general business moral dilemmas. In addition, the results support the expectation that on average, female auditors have higher moral awareness than their male counterparts.

To the knowledge of the authors, this is the first study that considers a neurocognitive approach to inform hypotheses about the antecedents of auditors’ moral awareness. The findings suggest that the involvement of experienced auditors in ethical decision-making processes may be beneficial given their enhanced ability to identify ethically disputable situations as such. Furthermore, increasing the number of women in senior positions may positively affect ethical decision-making in audit firms. Finally, this paper presents directions for future research.

Examines the influence which the Institute of Internal Auditors′ Code of Ethics has on its members′ ethical perceptions. Also determines whether this influence is greater than members′ personal moral philosophies (i.e. idealism and relativism), and corporate ethical values. Data for the study were obtained by questionnaires sent to 1,000 members of the Institute of Internal Auditors, located in the Southeastern United States. The results generally indicate that professional values, as operationalized by the members′ use of the code of ethics, influence their perceptions of ethical problems in a positive way. However, no significant linkages were found to exist between the internal auditors′ personal moral philosophies or corporate ethical values and their perceptions of ethical problems.

A notion of auditor independence, envisaged as crucial to the credibility of the audit function, resides in professional Codes of Ethics in much of the western world. Since the beginning of the 1990s, the auditor independence construct has been imported eastwards and incorporated into legislation and Code of Practices amongst central and eastern European economies (CEE), together with other requirements, as the countries prepare for their accession to the European Union. This study is aimed at ascertaining the meanings conveyed by the auditor independence construct and its state of realisation in one of the transition economies of the CEE region, the Czech Republic. Also, the study seeks to understand how local culture impacts upon a particular understanding of auditor independence. In order to examine the auditor independence in this part of the world, a framework for analysis incorporating structural conditions, local traditions and culture is proposed. The analysis is conducted first de jure, and is based upon a review of the Czech law and professional regulation. This is complemented with a de facto analysis based upon interviews with audit practitioners, regulators and financial statement users in the Czech Republic and on a review of Czech media coverage. What emerges from the study is a particular local understanding of the auditor independence construct, perceived primarily as an economic concept in the context of market instability and the immature legal framework. It appears that there is a tendency to follow the form of audit procedures without substantial rationalisation. We conclude that socio‐economic and cultural pressures appear to far outweigh any formal safeguards implemented to maintain professional integrity and competence in the CEE region.

The paper aims to examine the corporate social responsibility (CSR) activity of audit firms.

Using hand-collected data on all Chinese audit firms’ CSR activities from 2007 to 2020, this study constructs two measures to proxy for audit firms’ CSR engagement: a dummy variable to indicate whether an auditor engages in CSR activities in year t and the frequency with which auditors conduct CSR activities in year t. The authors use ordinary least squares regression as a baseline methodology, along with the entropy balancing method and instrumental variable approach to alleviate potential endogeneity concerns.

The baseline results show that socially responsible audit firms provide higher quality audit services than their counterparts. In particular, the authors find that clients audited by socially responsible audit firms are less likely to receive an aggressively clean opinion. Moreover, the findings suggest that CSR activities related to community and employees are more relevant in improving audit quality compared with those related to other dimensions of CSR. Further analyses show that capital markets and audit clients react positively to audit-firm CSR activity. Audit firms engaging in CSR increase their audit inputs in response to risky clients, as compared with their counterparts. Finally, cross-sectional analyses show that the positive relationship is more pronounced for non-Big 4 and non-industry experts and is attenuated by within-firm geographic dispersion. In terms of client characteristics, the positive effect of audit-firm CSR is stronger when their clients face the higher financial risk or have lower CSR awareness than others. Taken together, these findings are consistent with the ethical view of audit-firm CSR engagement.

The study advances investors’ understanding of audit-firm CSR engagement and helps them evaluate the credibility of audited financial reports. Besides, the findings may also help guide the audit firms to conduct more CSR activities and help guide the audit clients to choose CSR audit firms.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study provides the first large-sample evidence by empirically examining the association between audit-firm CSR activity and audit service performance. Besides, this paper also explores audit-firm CSR activity from two competing perspectives, thereby providing a comprehensive understanding of this issue. Finally, this work responds to the call for more CSR research in emerging markets.

The purpose of this paper is to encourage ethical discernment as a dimension of business decision‐making.

Development of ethical discernment and a process of ethical evaluation in the analysis of decisions made by the auditors and management in the Adelphia accounting scandal.

The paper finds that accounting may benefit from an increased focus on ethical discernment and ethical behavior. Ethical behavior may help restore trust and confidence in the capital market system and reduce fraudulent financial reporting.

This paper presents an alternative to regulation for restoring trust in the financial oversight function.

The purpose of this paper is to consider how ethics is currently taught to trainee auditors and to evaluate whether some ethical instruction techniques can be assessed as more effective than others.

Two separate cohorts of auditing students (262) provided responses to audit/accounting ethical scenarios. Each cohort was then subject to three separate ethics teaching techniques (either active or passive), from the two different teaching methodologies (active v. passive) over a semester. Their ethical attitudes to the scenarios were then re‐assessed and the teaching techniques evaluated.

Both methodologies were found to impact positively, as both cohorts selected more ethical responses to the scenarios post instruction. Some evidence of active techniques having more effect than passive techniques, on ethical decision making was revealed.

More research is needed into the impact of active and passive teaching methodologies on trainee auditors, in the ethics area.

Teaching ethics to the audit practitioners of tomorrow is critical. If the optimum mix of ethical teaching methodologies can be assessed, it will result in more effective ethical instruction. This study's results imply careful consideration must be taken in designing ethical training programs for trainee auditors.

Improvement in the ethical behaviour of auditors will provide more confidence for users of accounting information in the business environment.

This paper is original in that it evaluates the impact of a series of ethical instruction methods, as opposed to a single teaching method (the focus of many previous papers) on ethical training. The tentative finding of active methods proving more effective than passive methods is significant, and paves the way for future research.

Taking a cognitive perspective of internal auditor independence, the purpose of this study is to develop measures for the concepts of commitment to independence, role conflict and role ambiguity in the context of the internal auditor's work environment, in order to provide evidence of the effects of role conflict and ambiguity, and their sub‐dimensions, on the internal auditor's commitment to independence.

To measure these concepts, scales are developed for a questionnaire by drawing on measures established in the organizational behavior literature and adapting these to the internal auditor's context. The questionnaire is sent to a sample of internal auditors drawn from the database of the Institute of Internal Auditors Malaysia in which listed companies with an in‐house internal audit function are extracted. There are 101 useable responses.

The results reveal that both role ambiguity and role conflict are significantly negatively related to commitment to independence. The underlying dimensions found to have the greatest impact on commitment to independence are: first, ambiguity in both the exercise of authority by the internal auditor and time pressure faced by the internal auditor; and second, conflict between the internal auditor's personal values and both management's and their profession's expectations and requirements.

The results extend the literature on internal auditor independence and provide insights for auditing standards setters and corporate governance designers.

The aim of this exploratory research is to compare three sectors of the auditing profession – internal auditors, external auditors from larger international firms, and external auditors from smaller/regional firms – in regard to the influence of situational context on their ethically‐related decision‐making and judgment evaluations.

Against the backdrop of five vignettes applied with a survey, the paper examines the potential influence of social consensus and magnitude of consequence on the ethical decision path of these three auditor groups.

The paper finds that, in all cases, social consensus and magnitude of consequences exert influence on the ethical decision path. In the case of social consensus, however the paper finds that the ethical decision path is fully mediated for large firm auditors but is only partial mediated for the other two groups of auditors.

This research examines responses from both internal and external auditors. Comparison between such groups is unique because these groups have not been well researched in the past literature.