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This paper aims to investigate the relationship between audit partner perfectionism traits and audit quality in Egypt, emphasizing the mediating role of professional skepticism.

A mixed-methods approach was used, combining a questionnaire and scenario-based questions for audit partners with secondary data from audited financial statements. The relationships between study variables were tested using structural equation modeling.

Results denote a significant indirect effect between partner perfectionism traits and audit quality through their professional skepticism. Perfectionism has a significant positive impact on partner professional skepticism, and skepticism influences audit quality.

This study offers opportunities to enhance financial reporting quality, allowing investors to confidently allocate financial market resources. Audit firms can consider the personality traits of auditors in the selection process, team formation and designing training programs. Regulators can use these findings to consider the role of personality traits and attitudes in audit quality when developing regulations and quality assurance systems in Egypt.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, no studies have examined the effect of partners’ perfectionism traits on professional skepticism and audit quality, especially in Egypt. By examining audit partners, who shape the tone at the top and are accountable for reputation, this study adds a novel dimension to understanding the impact of their qualities on audit outcomes. Moreover, combining survey and secondary data allows us to link these qualities with audit quality, objectively testing our hypotheses.

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.

The purpose of this study is to explore the impact of remote auditing on audit quality in non-Big 4 firms in Jordan. It also examines the role of auditors’ capabilities in this relationship, emphasizing their importance in implementing this technology effectively.

The perspectives of non-Big 4 audit firms regarding the influence of remote auditing on audit quality were gathered through the administration of a comprehensive questionnaire.

This study demonstrates that remote auditing can enhance audit quality in non-Big 4 firms. The strength of this effect is bolstered by the auditor’s technical knowledge, communication skills and professional skepticism.

Remote auditing is a promising alternative to traditional methods for non-Big 4 firms, with significant implications. Effective remote audits require technical knowledge, communication skills and professional skepticism. To succeed, firms must invest in training programs that equip auditors with the necessary remote auditing techniques.

This groundbreaking study investigates the effects of remote auditing on audit quality in Jordanian non-Big 4 firms and examines the influence of auditors’ capabilities. Results show that auditors’ capabilities enhance the positive impact of remote auditing on audit quality.

This study aims to investigate the factors affecting the professional judgment of auditors in Iraq (personality type, audit firm size and age).

The statistical population includes 1,750 participants, and the sample size was determined to be 309 participants using Cochran’s sampling formula. The required data has been collected through a questionnaire. Regression factor analysis, Kolmogorov–Smirnov, t and Friedman(f) tests were used to analyze the variables and examine their relationships.

The results show a significant relationship between neuroticism, extroversion, flexibility, agreeableness and conscientiousness and auditors’ professional judgment. No relationship was observed between the size of the auditing firm and professional judgment. The results also showed a significant relationship between seniority and auditors’ professional judgment.

This study will help increase the knowledge of investors and regulators, providing information to researchers and those interested in auditors’ professional judgment. It can also be a starting point for research in this field. This research investigates the auditor characteristics, including personality traits of auditors, audit firms’ size and age and their impact on auditors’ professional judgment.

In a rapidly changing career landscape where lifelong job security is no longer guaranteed, this study investigates how audit firms play an important role in shaping their employees’ career perceptions and the subsequent effects on auditor behavior. Specifically, it explores the link between audit firms’ career development initiatives and auditors’ perceptions of external employability – an important determinant of auditor behavior. Using the framework of social exchange theory, the study investigates how perceived external employability affects both relational and operational behaviors of auditors.

The study employs structural equation modeling on survey data from 359 auditors.

The results indicate that when audit firms actively support career development, it positively contributes to auditors’ perceived external employability. A higher perceived external employability, in turn, leads to positive behavioral outcomes among auditors, including stronger relational behaviors (such as professional commitment) and operational behaviors (including heightened professional skepticism and reduced behaviors that could compromise audit quality).

This study uncovers a paradox where perceived external employability, typically viewed as a risk, emerges as a potent driver of desirable auditor behavior. In today’s dynamic career landscape, emphasizing individual-centered and flexible careers, these results highlight the benefits of perceived external employability. Rather than undermining audit services, increased perceived external employability driven by firm investments in auditors’ careers acts as a catalyst for desirable auditor behavior. Organizational support in terms of career development practices creates an environment where auditors are more committed, professionally skeptical and uphold the quality of audit services.

The purpose of this study is to explore how the risk of management motives for fraud can be assessed in external audits.

Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 26 experienced external auditors to explore their perspectives on the methods they employ to assess the risk of management motives for fraud.

The study identifies six methods external auditors can use to assess management motives for fraud. It emphasises that assessing management motives requires auditors to go beyond understanding these motives and necessitates a sceptical and analytical mindset. Auditors need to identify the accounts most vulnerable to management manipulations, observe management attitudes and assess the credibility of management assertions. The auditors in this study highlight specific accounts frequently manipulated by management. Still, manual year-end journal entries are the most vulnerable to management manipulations as they are subject to fewer controls. They recommend increasing the sample size to 100% and assigning more experienced staff, particularly, those with qualifications in fraud examination or anti-fraud training, to audit these vulnerable accounts thoroughly. They also provided examples of how auditors can identify management motives for fraud, observe management attitudes and assess the credibility of management assertions.

Audit standards (e.g. ISA 240, SAS99) lack explicit guidance on assessing management motives for fraud, but auditors are required to consider it in fraud risk assessment. This study proposes guidance recommendations to improve auditors' ability to assess this risk, which could be integrated into professional audit standards and training materials to improve auditors' professional scepticism, ability to challenge management and skills in fraud risk assessment.

Assessing the risk of management motives for fraud in external audits has received limited attention in the literature. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first to address this knowledge gap.

This study explores virtual platforms’ capabilities, particularly emphasising the influence of educational movies embedded with lifelike narratives to serve as a potent medium for immersive learning within the auditing discipline. Through this exploration, we aim to discern how cinematic depictions can educate and encapsulate the intricate dynamics of real-world auditing scenarios, thereby enriching the educational experience for budding auditors.

By employing an action research methodology, this study engaged 134 auditing students from China in an experiment, using a questionnaire to assess their grasp of auditing concepts like internal control, corporate governance, and professional ethics.

Preliminary findings underscore the efficacy of movies as pedagogical tools. These movie experiences bridge the gap between theoretical knowledge and its real-world application, particularly highlighting the nuances of professional ethics and corporate governance. Results show that such a method amplifies students’ comprehension of auditor skillsets, practical complications, and ethical insight and nurtures professional scepticism about tangible audit issues.

This study illuminates a novel virtual learning approach using movies that primes students to exercise critical thinking and augments cognitive skillsets, especially when navigating ethical conundrums. The broader implication is the potential enhancement of auditing education quality in China, presenting educators with an innovative teaching modality that bolsters students’ critical analysis and cognitive development.

This study has multiple implications for auditing education policy. It underscores the imperative need for curriculum revision in contemporary auditing education. Our study can significantly change contemporary auditing education by incorporating movie-based experiential learning. Educators and institutions in China and other parts of the world explore this avenue, customising it to fit the unique requirements of their respective courses and the country’s contexts. Our study also highlights the challenges and recommendations for real-world audit simulation for auditing education. While our research highlights the promise of educational movies, it also sheds light on the potential difficulties in their integration. Audit educators need adequate support and training for effective assimilation, ensuring they leverage educational movies to maximise learning outcomes. Careful curation and selection of movies, combined with strategic planning, are paramount to this teaching method’s success. With the continual evolution of video tools, there is an opportunity for a more immersive and holistic education model, shaping the next generation of auditors.

This study offers insights into innovative strategies to imbue real-world experience into traditional curricula, ensuring relevance and applicability across diverse educational landscapes.

The study aims to evaluate how different types of assurors and investors’ Big Five personality traits affect the relationship between levels of assurance for Greenhouse Gas (GHG) reporting and individual investors' decision-making in social responsible investment (SRI).

This study adopted an experimental approach with 315 individual investors as participants.

The results show that there are some differences in the individual investors’ decision-making. Accountants are the preferred assuror. Type of assuror and level of assurance for GHG reporting affect investors’ decision-making, in the presence of different levels of investors’ personality traits, extraversion, openness, conscientiousness and neuroticism. However, individual investors with different levels of agreeableness do not have similar influence.

This study extends the literature on individual investors’ decision-making in socially responsible investment by examining the combination of the type of assuror, level of assurance and investors’ personality traits. This study also observes three different assurors, accountants, engineers and specialists and four different assurance levels – reasonable, hybrid, limited and not specified.

This paper’s objective is to provide a systematic literature review of the contextual factors affecting downward communication from supervisors to subordinates in the audit environment. In addition, this review identifies emerging research themes and directions for future research.

I accomplish this review’s objectives by leveraging communication literature to establish a framework to identify and synthesize contextual factors affecting downward communication in the audit environment. The review identifies 50 published articles in the last 20 years from leading accounting and auditing journals.

This study consolidates research findings on downward communication under two primary contextual factors: (1) message and (2) channel. Findings indicate that empirical research examining communication in audit is fragmented and limited. Studies examining the message focus heavily on its content and treatment in the areas of feedback, nonverbal cues, and fraud brainstorming, and a handful of additional studies examine the effectiveness of the channel in these areas. Additional research is needed to understand a broader set of supervisor–subordinate communication practices, including those that are computer-mediated, and their effect on subordinate auditors’ judgments and behaviors in the contemporary audit environment.

Much of the audit literature examining communication to date is topic-versus construct-based, making it difficult to see how the research findings relate to one another. This review is the first to synthesize the literature to provide academics recommendations for a way forward, and inform practitioners of communication practices whereby supervisors can be trained to improve audit quality.

This paper aims to conduct a systematic literature review of Socially Conscious Investment (SCI) articles published in premier journals. Its objective is to shed light on the publication trend, leading authors, journals, countries and themes in contemporary SCI research. The article also provides a conceptual model of SCI to enhance understanding of the knowledge structure and the future research direction.

A systematic review followed the PRISMA guidelines and encompasses 264 full-text articles indexed in A* and A category journals listed in ABDC is reviewed. The literature synthesis adopts the theories, contexts, characteristics and methodology (TCCM) framework.

The article has identified the research trends related to author impact, journal impact, article impact and the outcomes derived from the TCCM framework. Additionally, it highlights three key themes: Performance of SCI, Behavioural issues and SCI development literature.

The insight on various aspects of SCI was explored for a comprehensive understanding. The authors also developed a conceptual model for socially conscious investment.