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The purpose of the study is to examine how awareness of the prior year fraud detection testing strategy impacts auditor judgments at differing levels of engagement risk.

A 2 × 2 between-subject experiment was conducted using 64 practicing auditors as participants. The independent variables are manipulated at two levels – awareness of prior-year testing strategy (aware versus unaware) and engagement risk (high versus low). The dependent measures are identified risk factors, targeted areas of auditors’ risk assessments, proposed audit procedures and the desire to consult with a forensic specialist.

Although continuing auditors anchor on prior-year audit strategies, new auditors (who are unaware of prior-year testing strategies) focus on generally known high-risk areas and firm standard procedures while planning the audit.

This paper contributes to the ongoing debate regarding how auditor tenure impacts auditors’ decision-making at a time when the profession and US regulators are focused on enhancing audit quality. The findings further suggest that auditors should take steps to enhance their judgments and avoid potential biases, particularly when planning continuing engagements.

Although the extant literature document anchoring by continuing auditors, this paper is the first to examine successor auditors’ fraud testing strategies. The findings suggest auditors on high-risk engagements who are unaware of the prior-year testing strategy may process information at a deeper level, as they are more likely to seek consultation with a forensic specialist rather than relying on simple heuristics.

This paper aims to explore drivers of the effectiveness of risk assessments in risk workshops.

This study uses an agent-based model to simulate risk assessments in risk workshops. Combining the notions of transactive memory and the ideal speech situation, this study establishes a risk assessment benchmark and then investigates real-world deviations from this benchmark. Specifically, this study models limits to information transfer, incomplete discussions and potentially detrimental group characteristics, as well as interaction patterns.

First, limits to information transfer among workshop participants can prevent a correct consensus. Second, increasing the required number of stable discussion rounds before an assessment improves the correct assessment of high but not low likelihood risks. Third, while theoretically advantageous group characteristics are associated with the highest assessment correctness for all risks, theoretically detrimental group characteristics are associated with the highest assessment correctness for high likelihood risks. Fourth, prioritizing participants who are particularly concerned about the risk leads to the highest level of correctness.

This study shows that by increasing the duration of simulated risk workshops, the assessments change – as a rule – from underestimating to overestimating risks, unraveling a trade-off for risk workshop facilitators. Methodologically, this approach overcomes limitations of prior research, specifically the lack of an assessment and process benchmark, the inability to disentangle multiple effects and the difficulty of capturing individual cognitive processes.

With the growth of unstructured data, opportunities to generate insights into supply chain risks in low cost countries (LCCs) are emerging. Sourcing risk has primarily focused on short-term mitigation. This paper aims to offer an approach that uses newsfeed data to assess regional supply base risk in LCC’s for the apparel sector, which managers can use to plan for future risk on a long-term planning horizon.

This paper demonstrates that the bulk of supplier risk assessments focus on short-term responses to disruptions in developed countries, revealing a gap in assessments of long-term risks for supply base expansion in LCCs. This paper develops an approach for predicting and planning for long-term supply base risk in LCC’s to address this shortfall. A machine-based learning algorithm is developed that uses the analysis of competing hypotheses heuristic to convert data from multiple news feeds into numerical risk scores and visual maps of supply chain risk. This paper demonstrates the approach by converting large amounts of unstructured data into two measures, risk impact and risk probability, leading to visualization of country-level supply base risks for a global apparel company.

This paper produced probability and impact scores for 23 distinct supply base risks across 10 countries in the apparel sector. The results suggest that the most significant long-term risks of supply disruption for apparel in LCC’s are human resource regulatory risks, workplace issues, inflation costs, safety violations and social welfare violations. The results suggest that apparel brands seeking suppliers in the regions of Cambodia, India, Bangladesh, Brazil and Vietnam should be aware of the significant risks in these regions that may require mitigative action.

This approach establishes a novel approach for objectively projecting future global sourcing risk, and yields visually mapped outcomes that can be applied in forecasting and planning for future risks when considering sourcing locations in LCC’s.

The prevention through design (PtD) concept has been widely recognized as one of the most effective approaches to eliminate or reduce construction site hazards. It encourages engineers and architects to consider occupational safety and health during the planning and design phases. Nevertheless, the implementation of PtD is often inhibited because designers lack adequate knowledge about construction safety and the construction process, and limited design-for-safety tools and procedures are available for designers to use. The purpose of this paper is to provide designers a tool for assessing construction risks during early phases of multistory building projects at an activity level and on a daily basis in a 4D environment. By using the tool, proactive measures could be taken in the design and planning phase to reduce site hazards.

The proposed method consists of four steps including risk quantification at a design element level, 4D model integration with risk values, risk assessment, and design alternative selection and model acceptance. A case study was carried out to test and verify the proposed method.

The proposed tool has the capability to assess the safety risk for an entire multistory project and visualize safety risk in a particular time period, work space and task prior to construction. It benefits designers in conducting risk assessments and selecting design alternatives concerning safety. Contractors could also utilize the visualization and simulation results of the 4D model for site safety planning so that a range of risk mitigation strategies could be implemented during construction.

The study provides an innovative PtD tool targeting designers as primary end-users. The proposed tool helps designers assess construction risks and has potential to incorporate the top levels of the hierarchy of risk controls.

There is significant literature to demonstrate that people with intellectual disabilities are at higher risk of premature death, however there is relatively little evidence of research carried out on risk assessment in hospital for this patient group. This paper aims to share the outcomes from a patient safety project conducted in an acute hospital by the Trust's intellectual disabilities team.

A project structure was used, supported by the Trust patient safety team through association with the National Institute for Innovation and Improvement: leading improvement in patient safety (LIPS) programme. The aim of the project was to bring together the current evidence, to understand the risk issues for this group and develop a robust risk assessment tool that could be embedded into the care processes in acute hospitals.

A six month pilot concluded that a short assessment in a familiar format was more likely to be used by nurses. Risk assessment on its own does not deliver better and safer care. It must be accompanied by a series of clear, evidence based actions that used together ensure the patients' total safety and care needs are met. This tool is used throughout the Trust and in a number of other hospitals across the eastern region. Its use has contributed to reducing length of stay and improving health outcomes.

The paper shows the need for further research and data gathering.

This study demonstrates that risk for patients with intellectual disabilities in hospital is complex. Education is essential to underpin new assessment tools for clinical practice.

The purpose of this paper is to explore whether internal audit's reporting relationship with the audit committee and the client's business risk environment impact external auditors' reliance on the work of internal audit.

An experiment is conducted using a 2×2 between‐subjects design where we manipulate the above two factors at strong and weak levels. Participants are 66 audit partners, managers and seniors, all experienced with clients having internal audit functions.

The results indicate that both factors affect external auditors' reliance on work already undertaken by internal audit and their use of internal auditors (IA) as assistants. The results also indicate that external auditors are more likely to use internal audit for control evaluation tasks than for substantive tests of balances. The study does not find any significant interaction effects between the two factors.

No prior studies have examined the influence of reporting relationship and client business risk on external auditors' reliance decisions in the current governance environment. Further, the paper examines the impact of these factors on reliance on work already undertaken by internal audit and on using IA as assistants, with respect to both control evaluation work and substantive testing of balances.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the joint effect of supervisor influence and investor perspective on novice auditors’ assessments of accounting estimates.

The experiment used a 2 × 2 between-subjects design, randomly assigning proxies of novice auditors among four conditions. The authors manipulated the supervisor’s level of emphasis on evidence that suggests accounting estimate adjustment and whether auditors are prompted to take an investor perspective. Participants were asked to assess the misstatement risk of the allowance for doubtful accounts of the client company.

The authors find that auditors assign a higher (lower) risk of misstatement when their supervisor places high (low) emphasis on evidence suggesting accounting adjustment. The authors also find that contrary to the belief that taking the perspective of investors could enhance objectivity and independence, investor perspective leads to a decrease (rather than an increase) in auditors’ perceived risk of misstatement when the supervisor places low emphasis on evidence suggesting accounting adjustment.

This study provides early evidence on the efficacy of investor perspective and is one of the first to document an unintended consequence of asking auditors to take an investor perspective.

The purpose of this paper is to apply signal detection theory (SDT) to the problem of detecting management fraud. The use of SDT methodology significantly strengthens understanding of the relationships among audit technology, base rates of management fraud, costs of Type I and Type II errors, extensions of audit procedures, and risk assessments prior and during the audit. The analysis suggests that the auditor must accept disproportionate false alarm rates in order to maintain audit effectiveness in the presence of management fraud. This condition becomes even stronger as the costs of Type II errors increase compared to costs of Type I errors. The study also provides policy implications for auditor practice and standard‐setters.

The purpose of this paper is to record and analyse clinicians’ views of the proposed FACE Child and Adolescent Risk Assessment Suite (CARAS). This is a novel risk assessment system comprising a set of screening questions and domain specific sub‐schedules intended to be implemented in electronic format within a youth mental health setting.

A qualitative approach was adopted with a series of focus groups conducted with three Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service (CAMHS) teams drawn from general and specialised services in a large NHS Trust in North‐East England. A thematic analysis was used to explore the perceived clinical relevance, clarity and utility of the items that are contained within the FACE Child and Adolescent Risk Assessment Suite.

Emerging themes highlighted that items such as criminality and fire‐setting be added to the violence risk assessment schedule; a structured approach for risk of sexual harm be utilised; and an eating disorder risk assessment be included.

Clinicians viewed the FACE Child and Adolescent Risk Assessment Suite as a structured and comprehensive risk management tool that also demonstrated potential clinical utility. CAMHS clinicians’ views of the potential benefits of risk assessment schedules appear to be influenced by the perceived balance between comprehensiveness and ease and rapidity of administration. Further studies relating to validity and reliability are currently ongoing.

This is the first qualitative exploration of a comprehensive and flexible approach to risk assessment in a youth mental health setting.

The purpose of this paper is to develop a model for upstream supply chain risk management linking risk identification, risk assessment and risk mitigation to risk performance and validate the model empirically. The effect of a continuous improvement process on identification, assessment, and mitigation is also included in the model.

A literature review is undertaken to derive the hypotheses and operationalize the included constructs. The paper then tests the path analytical model using partial least squares analyses on survey data from 162 large and mid‐sized manufacturing companies located in Germany.

All items load high on their respective constructs and the data provides robust support to all hypothesized relationships. Superior risk identification supports the subsequent risk assessment and this in turn leads to better risk mitigation. The model explains 46 percent of the variance observed in risk performance.

This study empirically validates the sequential effect of the three risk management steps on risk performance as well as the influence of continuous improvement activities. Limitations of this study can be seen in the use of perceptional data from single informants and the focus on manufacturing firms in a single country.

The detailed operationalization of the constructs sheds further light on the problem of measuring risk management efforts. Clear evidence of the performance effect of risk management provides managers with a business case to invest in such initiatives.

This is one of the first large‐scale, empirical studies on the process dimensions of upstream supply chain risk management.