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This paper aims to examine the effect of the auditors’ burnout determinates on audit quality and performance. It also analyses whether the demographic characteristics of gender, age group, education and job positions affect auditors’ decisions for burnout, audit quality and performance.

A questionnaire was distributed on a sample of auditors in the top ten auditing firms in an emerging market including the Big 4. Factor analysis, correlation matrix and structural equation modeling were used for the analysis of the collected data and testing the developed hypotheses.

The results show that burnout has negative consequences for both the auditor and the auditing firm. While good organizational climate has a negative significant association with audit quality, nonethical decisions and audit performance, role clarity has positive significant association with the audit quality and performance and has an insignificant association with nonethical decisions. Also, turnover intention has significant positive association with nonethical decision, audit quality and performance.

This research is among the first to focus on auditor’s burnout determinates on audit quality and performance in an emerging market characterized by different socioeconomic, political and cultural factors compared with those of developed markets. Auditors, regulators and professional policymakers can benefit from the results of this research.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact hosting the Super Bowl has on audit completion and financial reporting timeliness for companies headquartered in Super Bowl hosting cities.

Using 16 years of financial reporting data, this study uses the Super Bowl and related activities, combined with required filings during “busy season,” as a natural experiment to examine how audit firms navigate short-term, exogenously imposed but anticipated, audit team capacity constraints.

Companies headquartered in a city hosting the Super Bowl, during busy season, have longer audit report lags (by approximately three days, in comparison to non-hosting busy season audits) and less timely securities and exchange commission (SEC) (10-K) filings. The authors find no evidence that Super Bowl hosting affects audit fees or earnings announcement timeliness.

When confronted with anticipated capacity shocks, audit firms take longer to complete the audit, absorbing the financial costs of the delay and maintaining audit quality, resulting in less timely financial reporting.

This study demonstrates the costs of Super Bowl-related inefficiencies and contributes to our understanding of how auditors navigate capacity shocks. This study provides evidence that auditors can effectively manage business risk and continue to facilitate providing timely and accurate information to financial statement users in the face of a capacity shock.

Even though the gender literature has addressed the independent effects of female audit committee members and female audit partners on audit quality, this research primary analyses whether the association between the presence of a female audit partner and audit quality depends on (fe)male participation on the audit committee of the audited client-firm. It further examines whether the relationship between female participation on the company's audit committee and audit quality is contingent on having a (fe)male audit partner.

A large sample of firm-year observations from the Swedish Corporation has been analyzed for the period that covers the years 2010–2019. The research hypotheses have been analyzed using the year and the industry fixed effect estimations clustered at the firm level.

In accordance with “the similarity-attraction theory”, the research findings provide support for a positively (negatively) significant relationship between female audit committee female representation and both audit fees and the audit reporting lag (earnings management) in client-firms of female audit partners, albeit insignificant in client-firms of male audit partners. This underscores that the presence of a female audit partner leads the beneficial link between female audit committee directorship and audit quality. Regression results on whether the relationship between female audit committee directorship and audit fees is contingent on having a (fe)male audit partner indicate that female audit partners earn higher (lower) audit fees in companies with gender-diverse (all male) audit committees. This corroborates (in somewhat) the male-female disparities in compensation within the public-audit firms' leading ranks, regarded as a male-dominated workplace worldwide. In conjunction with the argument that (compared to their male rivals) female auditors face more difficulties to reach partnership positions in the public-audit firms and are, thereby, more cautious about the loss of these positions through (in almost cases) exerting more audit efforts, and preventing their audited client-firms from manipulating earnings, the authors reveal that female audit partners are associated with longer (lower) audit reporting lags (earnings management) in both companies with gender-diverse and companies with all-male audit committees. The authors therefore conjuncture that the beneficial female auditor effect on audit quality is not contingent (in somewhat) on (fe)male participation on the company's audit committee. Collectively, the baseline reported results seem sound as they dissipate for a host of alternative metrics for both the dependent and the independent variables. Collectively, the baseline reported results seem sound as they dissipate for a host of alternative metrics for both the dependent and the independent variables.

This study heeds the recent claim for examining the gender effect on the interpersonal interaction between the main participants in the company's auditing process.

The purpose of this paper is twofold. First, this study examines the relationship between the presence of a female (rather than a male) audit partner and the client firm’s accruals quality. Second, this study explores whether and how the female audit partners’ specific attributes influence the gendered auditor effect on the quality of the client firm’s accruals quality (if it exists).

Research hypotheses have been tested by conducting both univariate and multivariate empirical analyses based on a large sample of firm-year observations from the Swedish Corporation for the years 2010–2019. During the sample timeframe, the client firms have been audited by 56 female and 231 male audit partners.

The research findings first indicate that client firms of female audit partners are associated with downward earnings management, indicating a beneficial female auditor effect on client firm’s accruals quality. Results from the audit partner change analysis exhibit that the adverse female auditor effect on the client firm’s earnings management, and hence, the beneficial female auditor effect on the client firm’s accruals quality occurs from the first year of the assignment of a female audit partner to replace a male audit partner. When looking at how specific attributes of female audit partners influence accruals quality of their audited clients, this study reveals that the favorable female auditor effect on the client firm’s accruals quality holds constant for all the female audit partners’ specific attributes included in the researched models. This underscores that the mere presence of a female audit partner constrains earnings management and enhances, thereby, the client firm’s accruals quality.

This research supports regulators calling for the appointment of more women to the audit firms’ leading ranks (e.g. leadership).

This study aims to examine the mediating effects of corporate governance mechanisms like the board of directors on the association between disruptive technology adoption by audit clients and the risk of material misstatements, including inherent risk and control risk. In particular, the authors study the mediating effects of board characteristics such as board size, independence and gender diversity.

Based on a sample of 100 audit clients listed on the FTSE 100 from 2015 to 2021, this study uses structural equation modelling to test the research objectives.

The findings indicate a significant and negative association between disruptive technology adoption by audit clients and inherent risk. However, there is no significant evidence observed for control risk. The utilisation of disruptive technology by the audit client has a significant impact on the board characteristics, resulting in an increase in board size, greater independence and gender diversity. The authors also find strong evidence that board independence mediates the association between disruptive technology usage and both inherent risk and control risk. In addition, board size and gender exhibit distinct and differential mediating effects on the association and across the two types of risks.

The study reveals that the significant role of using disruptive technology by audit clients in reducing the risk of material misstatements is closely associated with the board of directors, which makes audit clients place greater emphasis on the construction of effective corporate governance.

This study offers essential primary evidence that can assist policymakers and standard setters in formulating guidance and recommendations for board size, independence and gender quotas, ensuring the enhancement of effective governance and supporting the future of audit within the next generation of digital services.

With respect to relevant stakeholders, it is imperative for audit clients to recognise that corporate governance represents a fundamental means of addressing the ramifications of applying disruptive technology, particularly as they pertain to inherent and control risks within the audit client.

This study contributes to the existing literature by investigating the joint impact of corporate governance and the utilisation of disruptive technology by audit clients on inherent risk and control risk, which has not been investigated by previous research.

This research aims to revisit Gul and Goodwin (2010), which focuses on exploring the relationship between debt maturity structure, credit ratings and audit fees. Furthermore, the authors investigate whether this association varies based on firm size, firm life cycle and financial reporting quality.

To investigate the research question, the authors use an extended sample period, 2004–2017, in comparison to the sample period, 2003–2006, used in Gul and Goodwin (2010). The authors use ordinary least squares regression as a baseline methodology along with two-stage least-squares regression and change analysis to control for endogeneity concerns.

According to Gul and Goodwin (2010), auditors charge lower audit fees for firms with higher short-maturity debt and better credit ratings, indicating a lower likelihood of financial misreporting. Further, Gul and Goodwin (2010) find that lower credit rated firms benefit more from short-term debt. Primarily, the findings are consistent with Gul and Goodwin (2010) and provide further evidence that the beneficial effects of short-maturity debt for firms with poor ratings are evident for small firms, firms in the growth stage of their life cycle and firms with poor earnings quality.

The findings imply that practitioners in the audit profession and investors should take a more nuanced and comprehensive approach to varied firm and financial factors, taking into consideration the intricate relationships between many elements impacting a firm’s financial health. As a result, audit professionals may give more accurate appraisals of a firm’s financial condition, and investors can make better investment decisions.

The authors reconfirm the findings of Gul and Goodwin (2010) using an extended sample. The findings are novel, which evidence that the lower audit fees for rated firms with short-maturity debt are moderated by firm size, life cycle and financial reporting quality.

Following recent high-profile audit failures, concern has been expressed that auditors are not demonstrating sufficient skepticism when exercising professional judgment. In particular, client assumptions and estimations relating to hypothetical valuations in financial reporting are not being challenged. This paper seeks to address the issue by advancing a decision-making framework aimed at guiding auditors beyond regulatory reductionist thinking towards an enhanced understanding of the cognitive processes which shape professional judgment in forming a reliable audit opinion.

Drawing on the normative philosophical and theological teachings of Bernard Lonergan, the authors' decision-making framework embodies reflective thinking and the data of consciousness to highlight the central role played by enquiry in the dynamics of understanding, judgment and decision-making. Such enquiry elicits challenge of the management bias inherent in hypothetical valuations.

Auditing through a Lonerganian lens allows auditors to reflect on their approach to objective decision-making by offering a set of cognitive tools to enhance the enquiry essential for nurturing professional skepticism.

This paper contributes to the literature by developing the somewhat neglected discourse on the cognitive processes essential for professional skepticism and audit judgment. The authors demonstrate how Lonerganian self-appropriation intensifies an awareness of the recursive cognitive activities pertinent to objective judgment and decision-making. This awakened consciousness has the potential not only to change how auditors question evidence to make informed judgments and decisions, but also to normalize the practice of challenge.

To the best of the authors' knowledge, this is the first study that aims to present a comprehensive view of the auditing ethics literature by unboxing 40 years of efforts in the field.

This study combined bibliometric, social network and content analysis by analyzing 114 articles published in accounting and top business ethics journals on the Web of Science database from 1980 to 2021.

The results show a rising interest in this topic and reveal auditors’ ethical decision-making and moral reasoning as the most discussed topics in the literature. The work also clusters the literature according to keywords and scopes, identifying literature gaps and suggesting new avenues for future research.

The research results assist provide an overarching image of the auditing ethics field. In addition, these results draw possible future avenues to bridge the void in the current auditing ethics literature by presenting indispensable directions for potential research. For example, future research could pay more attention to whistleblowing, fraud, personal auditor characteristics, auditor ethical sensitivity, auditor ethical conflict, ethical climate and underreporting of time. Moreover, the rapidly changing business environment necessitates the auditing ethics research to move to more practical implications to mitigate previous mistakes and avoid any future risks.

All crises are an ideal breeding ground to motivate fraud and audit failures. In fact, auditing ethics research has been subordinated to the different economic crises. However, despite increasing awareness of the topic’s relevance, no comprehensive study focuses on auditing ethics literature. Now, the devastating effects of the COVID-19 crisis are producing a new wave of financial distresses and avoiding former mistakes is timelier than ever. With this novel and integrated approach, this work goes one step forward, developing a comprehensive picture of the auditing ethics literature.

A company needs to use auditing procedures to ensure the reliability of financial statements while also providing transparency to stakeholders. The extent of risk associated with the company depends on the directors’ involvement in its daily operations. This paper aims to study the relationship between busy chief executive officers (CEOs) and audit fees.

This study uses 1,037 data samples from companies listed on the Indonesia Stock Exchange from 2010 until 2018. It adopts the ordinary least squares method to test the hypothesis. Furthermore, this study performs robustness tests, such as propensity score matching (PSM) and Heckman’s two-stage least square tests (Heckman, 1979), to address the endogeneity issues.

This study finds that the appearance of a busy CEO in a company will significantly increase the audit fee. It also concludes that a long tenure of a busy CEO will substantially weaken the positive relationship between the CEO and the audit fee. However, this study discovers that, in a company with a busy CEO, a monitoring mechanism through the independent commissioner and risk management committee will only help to maximize the firm’s practical risk evaluation a little. This result is robust because the PSM and Heckman tests display consistent results, so it is free from endogeneity issues.

This study is valuable for theoretical and practical development in Indonesia. Due to the minimum regulation about multiple positions on boards in Indonesia, the shareholders must be aware of the need to choose a board with more skill and commitment to improve the position of the company. This result also warns the C-level of the company to pay more attention to its risk-monitoring process to make it more effective and efficient.

Indonesia is one of the countries that have implemented the two-tier governance system. With the minimum regulation about multiple directorships in Indonesia, this study offers new insights into how a busy CEO will be related to the audit outcomes.

This study aims to examine the changes in the correlations between stressors and performance in French chartered and accounting firms.

The linkages between role stressors and performance were analyzed through a quasi-longitudinal study of 476 chartered public accountants and trainee-chartered accountants surveyed before and after the busy season, using the partial least squares approach.

Only challenge appraisals are positively related to motivation before and after the 2018 busy season. Stress arousal is positively associated with burnout and physical symptoms. However, the associations between role ambiguity and conflict, and hindrance appraisals became insignificant after the busy season. The challenge appraisals–role ambiguity linkage persisted but reduced significantly. The burnout–performance association was insignificant in the two time periods.

A busy season with its increased challenge stressors has positive effects on performance through motivation but also negative effects through strains, which explains the observed insignificant net impact.

This quasi-longitudinal study first suggests the role of appraisals, motivation and physical symptoms as mediators of the effects of role stressors on performance. Then, it aids in the broad generalization of certain findings from previous studies. Finally, it demonstrates the applicability of the partial least squares approach, which has been hitherto under-used in behavioral accounting.