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The purpose of this paper is to investigate the connection between the type of negotiation tactics auditors use when they ask their clients to make adjustments to their financial reports, focusing on three distributive and two integrative negotiation tactics, and whether the auditors identify with their clients.

A survey was used to capture 152 experienced Swedish audit partners’ perspectives on what type of negotiation technique they would use thinking about their largest client in a hypothetical situation.

The results show that the more auditors identify with their clients, the more likely they are to adopt two of the distributive negotiation tactics, conceding and compromising.

Building on the findings in the accounting literature that auditors’ identification with clients constrains their judgments, this study finds that auditors’ identification with clients also has an impact on the auditors’ initial selection of negotiation tactics.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate whether transformational leadership affects auditor objectivity.

The investigation is based on a field survey of 198 practicing auditors employed by audit firms operating in Sweden.

This study finds that transformational client leadership negatively affects auditor objectivity and that the effect is only partially mediated by client identification. Given these results, suggesting that auditors are susceptible to influence by their clients’ perceived exercise of transformational leadership, leadership theory appears relevant to the discussion of auditor objectivity in the accounting literature.

Previous accounting research has applied the social identity theory framework and found that client identification impairs auditor objectivity. However, the effect of transformational client leadership on auditor objectivity, which reflects an intense auditor-client relationship, has been neglected before this study.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate how competence trust (i.e. trust regarding the ability of the counterpart) and goodwill trust (i.e. trust regarding the benevolence and integrity of the counterpart) affect the probability that the auditor or the client stand up to the respective negotiation partner’s position in situations of disagreement in the auditing relationship.

Two experiments were conducted, one with 149 auditors and one with 116 chief financial officers (CFOs). Both auditors and CFOs had to indicate the likelihood that they stand up to the other party’s preferred position in a disagreement on the materiality of unrecorded liabilities. The data derived from these experiments were analyzed using hierarchical OLS.

The results indicate that both auditors and CFOs who take their respective negotiation partner in the audit for highly competent are less likely to stand up to them in situations of disagreement. Interestingly, goodwill trust appears to be irrelevant for the negotiation outcome.

The findings are highly relevant for regulators, because they inform about the crucial importance of competence trust for the auditing negotiation outcome and thus put the so-called “trust-threat” into perspective.

The study adds to the literature on the role of the context for auditor-client negotiations by exploring the role of two distinct forms of trust on the outcome of these negotiations.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the relationship between anti‐money laundering (“AML”) and combating of financing of terrorism (“CFT”) customer due diligence (“CDD”) measures in the financial services industry, and exclusion from financial services.

An introduction to the concept of financial exclusion is provided as well as an overview of international AML/CFT CDD standards. The paper highlights a softening of national CDD measures in South Africa and the UK to lessen the impact on financial exclusion.

Countries should consider the impact that CDD requirements may have on financial exclusion when they design their AML/CFT systems.

Multi‐discilinary research is required to improve the understanding of the broader interaction between AML/CFT objectives, financial exclusion and economic development, especially in countries with a large informal economy.

CDD requirements may unnecessarily exacerbate financial exclusion if they are not formulated with care to reflect the reality of the particular country setting.

The paper offers insights into the international standards resulting to the identification of clients and the experiences in the UK and South Africa regarding the implementation of these standards on financial exclusion.

The purpose of this paper is to identify key questions that should be addressed to enable the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) to provide guidance regarding the alignment of anti‐money laundering, combating of financing of terror and financial inclusion objectives.

The paper draws on relevant research and documents of the FATF to identify questions that are relevant to consider when it formulates guidance regarding the alignment between financial integrity and financial inclusion objectives.

The FATF advises that its risk‐based approach enables countries and institutions to further financial inclusion. It is, however, not clear what the FATF means when its uses the terms “risk” and “low risk”. It is also unclear whether current proposals for financial inclusion regulatory models will necessarily limit money laundering as well as terror financing risks to levels that can be described as “low”. The FATF will need to clarify its own thinking regarding low money laundering and low terror financing risk before it will be able to provide clear guidance to national regulators and financial institutions.

This paper was drafted to inform current FATF discussions regarding guidance on financial inclusion. The questions are relevant to all stakeholders in financial regulation.

This study aims to examine the internal brand knowledge dissemination process in the banking sector and its effects on employees. Specifically, it focuses on the key roles of employee identification with both the organization and with the customer as antecedents of behaviors supportive of the brand, i.e. employee citizenship behaviors and recommendation behaviors.

An empirical study was carried out in a major Spanish bank. Data gathered from a survey of 315 employees were analyzed through structural equation modeling.

The results showed that employees' perceptions of brand value congruence are key in explaining their identification with both the organization and with the customer. However, the employees' perceptions of the brand's authenticity explained only their recommendations of the bank as a good place to work.

These findings contribute to the advance in the current knowledge of the role of variables such as brand authenticity and employee–customer identification in internal brand management. From a managerial viewpoint, the results provide insights into the importance of employees' perceptions and attitudes when it comes to brand knowledge dissemination.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the potential impact of two affiliation factors, as encapsulated by the chief financial officer's (CFO) prior organizational (alumnus vs non‐alumnus) and professional background (audit vs non‐audit ex‐partner), on auditor independence in post‐Enron and post‐HIH era.

The study is a 2×2 factorial between subjects experimental design with 52 audit partners and managers as participants. The two manipulated independent variables are client CFO prior firm affiliation (alumni vs non‐alumni) and professional background (audit partner vs non‐audit partner providing taxation, accounting and other non‐audit services).

The results of the study do not appear to signal loss of independence and professional skepticism in auditors' judgment when dealing with an alumni or ex‐auditor CFO. On average, auditors' endorsement of the client's preferred aggressive accounting treatment is low and the audit adjustment is material and significantly greater than the client's proposed adjustment.

The 2001 corporate collapses of Enron in the USA and HIH in Australia have reshaped the auditing profession. HIH, the most publicized corporate fraud in Australia resulting in estimated losses of $5 billion, was partly blamed on Arthur Andersen yielding to management's aggressive accounting policies and failure to display independence as a result of close relationships between the former partners and the audit team. As distinct from a number of prior studies conducted pre‐Enron and pre‐HIH, the results of this study, conducted with experienced audit professionals in Australia, do not support a loss of independence and professional skepticism by auditors in the current post‐Enron and post‐HIH environment and are consistent with the findings of the only other recent experimental study by Kerler III and Killough examining the closeness of the auditor‐client relationship. The results are also consistent with results of recent archival studies which find a decline in earnings management behavior, either because of reduced management incentives or reduced auditor willingness to consent. The evidence of this study lends supports to the latter explanation.

The purpose of this paper is to examine circumstances under which auditors subordinate their judgment. More specifically, the authors investigate factors associated with auditors’ propensity to accept client-preferred accounting methods that conform to accounting standards but do not faithfully represent the entity’s financial position, financial performance and cash flows.

Based on the theory of planned behavior (TPB), the authors developed a survey that was sent to auditors at a non-Big 4 audit firm.

Main results suggest that auditors tend to agree with a client’s preferred accounting method when they anticipate little fallout from this decision, they believe they can easily justify the method, and they perceive that colleagues, shareholders and creditors would also agree with the decision.

Results benefit auditing standard setters and regulators and are relevant for accounting institutes and audit firms because practitioners can learn about circumstances under which auditors subordinate their judgment.

This study contributes to the audit literature by using the TPB to identify factors associated with auditors’ judgment subordination. In addition, it applies the TPB in a context where a client-preferred accounting method is considered acceptable but is not the most appropriate in light of the audited entity’s specific circumstances.

Many criticisms questioning the role and the efficiency of business consultants have been addressed. However, although a great deal of research has been carried out on business consultancy, little has been written on business consultancy from the consultant's viewpoint. In order to gain a detailed view of the situation from an internal consultant's perspective, an investigation of how business consultants perceive their role and contribution within their clients' organisations was undertaken. Drawing on different perspectives, this study aims to demystify the role of business consultants, and to ascertain how they perceive their role within their clients' organisations.

A series of interviews were conducted, where business consultants were asked to comment on issues related to the nature of the relationship with their clients, the pros and cons of their role and also the amount of control and discretion they exercise over the different projects in which they are engaged. Interview data from 17 business consultants from a variety of fields, such as change management, information technology, corporate finance and human resource, are analysed using an interpretive frame.

The research findings reveal that differences exist between the rather pejorative conclusions of previous research and the conclusions of this study. Whereas previous research highlighted the omnipotence and the more or less deontological practice of consultants, the data analysis from this study concludes that business consultants appear very humble in their approach to their relationship with clients, and believe that moving clients forward is their ultimate goal. The findings also enable the study to demonstrate that business consultants are conscious of the amount of control and discretion that is passed on to them by clients, and do recognise that criticisms of their role can be at times justified.

The study has value for both consultants and clients. The role determinants model presented in the study highlights the main characteristics of the role of business consultants and helps both clients and consultants to rethink their approach to the consulting process.

Quality function deployment (QFD) is a method for structured product planning and development that enables a development team to specify clearly the wants and needs of customers. This method has been successfully employed in the construction industry in developed countries. However, the benefits of QFD have not been practically realised in developing countries such as Nigeria. Hence, this research aims to investigate the awareness and effectiveness of QFD as a quality control technique that enhances the satisfaction of clients in terms of quality, cost and project delivery time in design and build projects.

A qualitative and quantitative research approach in the form of in-depth telephone interviews and questionnaires was used to obtain the views of construction professionals such as civil engineers, architects, project managers, chief executive officers and trades people involved in design and build projects in the Nigerian construction industry, as well as 50 clients to ascertain the level of satisfaction derived from these design and build projects.

The results of this research are derived from statistical analysis and show that there is currently little awareness of QFD within the Nigerian construction industry or its potential effectiveness in design and build projects.

There has been little previous research into the use of QFD in the Nigerian construction industry, hence this paper provides insight but also highlights the need for further research.