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This paper aims to examine the role of Blockchain in the accounting and auditing literature and profession. Specifically, the paper investigates auditors' perceptions about the role of blockchain in accounting and auditing and the perceived potential benefits and challenges of blockchain-based accounting systems in Egypt. Moreover, what are the capabilities required for successfully implementing blockchain-based accounting systems?

A mixed-method approach was adopted to achieve the research objectives. The qualitative study included 11 in-depth interviews with external auditors, and the results of the interviews and the literature review helped develop a survey collected from 58 auditors.

The findings revealed low-to-moderate awareness of Blockchain-based accounting systems. Also, there were significant differences between auditors from large audit firms and small-and-medium audit firms regarding the benefits and challenges associated with Blockchain-based accounting systems.

The results provide valuable insights for practitioners, researchers and policymakers.

Understanding blockchain-based accounting systems and the benefits and challenges associated with their application is crucial for developing effective strategies and frameworks to overcome barriers and realize the transformative potential of blockchain in the accounting and audit market.

The present study's goal is to analyze the impact of audit quality (AQ) on earnings quality (EQ) using different audit attributes. The study shows empirical evidence from India, considered an emerging market.

The sample selected represents the 376 non-financial firms listed on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE). With a 20-year time frame, the authors used the absolute value of discretionary accruals (McNichols, 2002) (DA) as a proxy for EM, which is inversely related to EQ. The authors analyzed data using OLS, fixed effect (FE), 2SLS and Panel-IV estimators.

The authors found that most audit attributes positively affect EQ. In the Indian context, joint auditor (JA), auditor size (A_SIZE), auditor fee (A_FEE) and auditor tenure (A_TENURE) have a negative association with EM indicating high EQ. In contrast, auditor rotation (A_ROTATON) positively affects EM confirming low EQ.

The present study uses Big-4 and its member firms as a proxy of auditor size (A_SIZE); instead, other bases may be taken for it, like the dominant audit firms in a particular industry in sample data, etc. The authors have started audit tenure from the base year, i.e. 2001, which may ignore the association of auditor and auditee just before 2001.

The study findings would enhance policymakers' willingness to prepare appropriate regulations regarding JAs and auditor rotation, which might improve financial market efficiency and reduce financial fraud among Indian corporates.

To the best of the authors' knowledge, this is the first study to incorporate “Joint Auditor” (JA) as a proxy for audit quality in the Indian context, which might significantly contribute to the literature.

This study aims to explore the use, effectiveness, motives and obstacles of analytical procedures (APs) used by auditors in Palestine, a context characterised by a pool of small and medium enterprises (SMEs), a limited skill set, poor quality of data, political uncertainty and a community-based business culture.

The study considers the audit market in Palestine using a sequential mixed-methods approach combining a questionnaire survey and a series of in-depth interviews. A total of 129 Big-4 and non-Big-4 auditors were surveyed.

The use of APs is driven by the auditor size (Big-4 vs non-Big-4) and the client size (large vs SMEs). Even though the use of APs has increased over the past decade, audit objectives, know-how, and personal, family and social connections among auditors and clients influence the quality of the audit process.

Small firms take advantage of the lack of audit governance in Palestine. Our findings suggest that the regulators should help bridge the knowledge-sharing programmes between the small and large audit firms to help improve audit quality.

Studies on audit quality, particularly using APs, in the context of politically unstable cases such as Palestine are limited. The study has implications for the use of APs in the case of SMEs to prepare for the technological revolution that will modernise audit procedures and quality soon.

This paper aims to examine whether the cultural distance between an international audit firm and target audit clients in emerging countries is associated with auditor choice decisions.

Based on a sample of 104,699 firm-year observations from 20 countries over 2009–2020, logit regression analysis is used to investigate the research questions.

The authors find strong evidence that cultural distance affects the auditor selection decision. The results suggest Big N auditors are more likely to be chosen by target audit clients in emerging countries with less cultural distance. In other words, target audit clients in emerging countries prefer to choose international audit firms whose cultural characteristics are similar. Moreover, results from two-stage least squares regression further suggest that the observed effect of cultural distance on auditor choice is unlikely to be driven by potential endogeneity.

The auditor choice is limited to companies hiring Big N auditors; the authors exclude any switches to non-Big N auditors or switches between Big N auditors. The study also suffers from the concerns about methodological and conceptual criticism that most studies about national culture have to deal with. Finally, through this paper, the authors carry out the auditor selection process from the target audit clients’ side; the authors do not discuss the supply side of the process.

The authors contribute to the audit choice literature by providing evidence that the cultural distance between the countries of audit firms and target audit clients plays a role in the auditor choice decision. The study complements the prior auditor choice literature, focusing primarily on Western economies, by structuring the sample scope to emerging market economies.

This paper aims to investigate the impact of gender diversity in the composition of engagement auditors on the disclosure of key audit matters (KAMs) in a dual-signature environment.

The authors used the unique institutional setup of Taiwan, where the law requires that audit reports be signed by two audit partners. The authors examined the effect of gender diversity composition among engagement auditors on KAM disclosure, considering behavioral differences between female and male auditors.

The empirical results indicate that gender diversity composition in the dual-signature environment is associated with the number of disclosed KAM items (KAMIT) and the length of the explanations for each KAMIT. Furthermore, the authors found that gender diversity composition, particularly when led by female audit partners, has a more pronounced impact on the explanation of each KAMIT rather than on the disclosure of KAMIT. The authors also noted that the moderating effect of audit firm specialization does not influence the gender diversity composition of audit partners in disclosing KAMs.

This study’s empirical findings demonstrate that the interaction between different gender compositions in a dual-signature environment influences KAM disclosure.

This study aims to investigate whether and how auditors responded to the documented increases in earnings management after split-share structure reform (SSSR) in China, as manifested in auditors’ propensity to issue modified audit opinions (MAOs) after the SSSR. This study further investigates how client importance and auditor size influence auditors’ response to earnings management after the SSSR.

This study adopts logit regression models to investigate auditors’ propensity to issue MAOs to their clients that appear to manage earnings after the SSSR. Initially, including all Chinese publicly listed firms from the CSMAR database, the sample for final analyses consists of 21,904 firm-year observations for 1,290 unique listed firms during the period 2001–2020. The sample period surrounds the implementation of the SSSR, which started in 2005, allowing the examination of auditors’ propensity to issue MAOs after vis-à-vis before the SSSR.

The authors find that non-Big10 auditors in China were less likely to issue MAOs to their economically important clients who appear to manage earnings after SSSR. However, in the years of non-tradeable shares being released to the markets, both Big10 and non-Big10 auditors were less likely to issue MAOs to their economically important clients who appear to manage earnings. The findings suggest that auditors may have compromised auditor independence in response to earnings management after the SSSR, likely due to the pressure from their economically important clients.

This paper contributes to the literature, specifically the practice and theory in auditing, by shedding light on ever-changing auditors’ reporting behaviour, especially with regard to auditor independence. It also adds to the growing body of literature on the impact of institutional changes on auditing practices worldwide. The findings of this study further suggest that the recently documented declining demand for high-quality audits after the SSSR may be motivated by the clients’ intention to manage earnings after the SSSR.

This study aims to investigate the link between audit quality and in-court debt restructuring. The aim is to understand whether the confirmation of debt restructuring plans is affected by audit quality, which, in the light of agency theory, reduces information asymmetries between outsiders (creditors and the court) and insiders (shareholders and managers) of the debtor company.

A logistic regression is performed to test whether higher audit quality is associated with an increased probability of successfully completing a debt restructuring proceeding (RP). Consistent with the literature, audit quality is assessed ex ante based on auditor size, which is used as a proxy for independence. The analysis considers private Italian companies.

Audit quality positively affects debt restructuring. Among financially distressed companies, those audited by an audit company are more likely to succeed in RPs than those audited by a single practitioner. There is no evidence of a Big N effect.

This study fills a gap in literature as, in contrast to other financial and governance characteristics, audit quality has never been studied before as a determinant of efficient restructuring. It contributes to the literature on auditing and governance by highlighting the importance of audit quality in complex situations such as RPs, and it expands on debt restructuring literature by considering the importance of the information exchanged during RPs.

This study aims to investigate whether auditors compromise their independence for economically important clients in family business settings.

The authors empirically examine the research question based on China for the years 2011 to 2020. The dependent variable is the auditors’ propensity to issue modified audit opinions, which is a proxy for auditor independence. The authors use relative client audit fees as a proxy for client importance. To address endogeneity issues in the selection of family firms, the authors use the two-stage least squares regression model and, subsequently, the propensity score matching and Hausman firm fixed effect modeling.

This study reveals that the propensity to issue modified audit opinions is positively correlated with client importance. Big-N auditors are more likely to issue modified audit opinions for their economically important family firm clients, whereas such evidence is not found for non-Big-N auditors. Results are consistent and robust to endogeneity test and sensitivity analysis.

This study enriches the literature on auditor independence and the effect of family firms’ ownership structure factors on audit reporting behavior for their economically important clients. Findings may prove useful for managers and practitioners interested in family business.

This study aims to examine the association between Iranian auditors' narcissism and the auditors' professional skepticism.

The authors' sample is comprised of 355 professional auditors working in the private and public sectors in Iranian firms in 2022. The authors use cross-sectional multivariate regression as the main methodology, along with the structural equation modeling (SEM) technique.

The authors find that a higher level of narcissism leads to a greater level of professional skepticism among auditors, which ultimately can enhance the quality of the audit process. The results provided via the robustness tests also supported this finding.

The authors' findings further the understanding of the role of narcissistic personality traits in improving professional skepticism among auditors of an Islamic and emerging country. In addition, audit firms and audit partners can also consider the findings of this study and enhance the effectiveness of audit processes by assigning appropriate employees with certain personalities to specific tasks.

This study aims to investigate the impact of audit fees on audit quality, the impact of audit quality on firm value and whether these effects are conditional on audit tenure by bringing evidence from an emerging market.

Different regression techniques are used, such as logistic regression, probit regression, ordinary least squares regression and fixed effects regression. The authors used panel data of 80 nonfinancial Egyptian-listed firms over 2016–2020.

The authors found a significant positive relationship between audit fees and audit quality and a significant positive relationship between audit quality and firm value. Furthermore, the authors found that the positive relationship between audit fees and audit quality is less pronounced for higher audit tenure firms. Finally, the authors also found that the positive relationship between audit quality and firm value is stronger for lower audit tenure firms.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study to bring evidence from an emerging African market about the joint association between audit tenure, audit fees, audit quality and firm value. It provides beneficial insights to regulators regarding the possibility and the benefits of improving audit quality, which is critically needed in contexts with weak governance systems.