International Journal of Auditing 

About: International Journal of Auditing is an academic journal published by Wiley-Blackwell. The journal publishes majorly in the area(s): Audit & Joint audit. It has an ISSN identifier of 1090-6738. Over the lifetime, 578 publications have been published receiving 17934 citations. The journal is also known as: IJA.

Audit quality, corporate governance, and earnings management: A meta-analysis.

Abstract: Earnings management is of great concern to corporate stakeholders. While numerous studies have investigated the effects of various corporate governance and audit quality variables on earnings management, empirical evidence is rather inconsistent. This meta-analysis identifies 12 significant relationships by integrating results from 48 prior studies. For corporate governance, the independence of the board of directors and its expertise have a negative relationship with earnings management. Similar negative relationships exist between earnings management and the audit committee's independence, its size, expertise, and the number of meetings. The audit committee's share ownership has a positive effect on earnings management. For audit quality, auditor tenure, auditor size, and specialization have a negative relationship with earnings management. Auditor independence, as measured by fee ratio and total fee, is also a deterrent to earnings management.

Audit Committees and Quarterly Earnings Management

Abstract: Regulators have frequently expressed concerns about corporate earnings management. Audit committees are expected to monitor managers’ financial reporting, including attempts to manipulate earnings numbers. The extant literature has focused on managers’ incentives to manipulate annual earnings numbers. However, managers also have incentives to manage quarterly earnings, due to, for example, pressures to meet quarterly analyst forecasts. We test the association between audit committee characteristics and measures of quarterly earnings management. Using a sample of 896 firm-year observations for the years 1996–2000, we report three findings. First, quarterly earnings management is lower for firms whose audit committee directors have greater governance expertise. Second, the extent of stock ownership by audit committee directors is positively associated with quarterly earnings management. Third, the average tenure of audit committee directors is negatively associated with quarterly earnings management.

Identifying Organizational Drivers of Internal Audit Effectiveness

Abstract: This study attempts to understand the organizational drivers of internal audit effectiveness in the light of recent changes in the ‘mission’ of internal auditing and its central role in corporate governance. On the basis of data from 153 Italian companies, our survey shows that the effectiveness of internal auditing is influenced by: (1) the characteristics of the internal audit team, (2) the audit processes and activities, and (3) the organizational links. Internal audit effectiveness increases in particular when the ratio between the number of internal auditors and employees grows, the Chief Audit Executive is affiliated to the Institute of Internal Auditors, the company adopts control risk self-assessment techniques, and the audit committee is involved in the activities of the internal auditors.

Current Developments and Trends in Social and Environmental Auditing, Reporting and Attestation: A Review and Comment

Abstract: This is a discursive paper which attempts to provide a personal review of current and recent developments in social and environmental reporting with particular emphasis on the attestation and auditing implications. The paper takes the essential desirability of social, environmental and sustainability reporting as a crucial element in any well-functioning democracy as a given. It further assumes that any civilised, but complex, society with pretensions to social justice, that seeks a potentially sustainable future and which wishes to try and rediscover some less exploitative and less insulated relationship with the natural environment, needs social and environmental reporting as one component in redirecting its social and economic organisation. With reporting being such a central issue, the paper further takes good quality attestation of that information as essential to both its reliability and its ability to fulfill its required role in developing transparency and accountability. The paper has three motifs: the need to clarify terminology in the field of social and environmental ‘audits’; the current weakness of attestation practices in the area; and the significant — but unfulfilled — promise offered by professional accounting and auditing education and training. The paper concludes with a call for a substantial re-think of accounting education and training.

The Audit Society — Second Thoughts

Abstract: This essay reviews the central arguments of The Audit Society (Power, 1999) and re-considers the causes and consequences of the audit explosion. It is argued that many of the claims require further empirical support and that more research is needed, particularly to demonstrate that the audit explosion is not simply a UK phenomenon. Although the word ‘audit’ may have decreased in significance since the book was written, the arguments can be applied to other forms of monitoring activity.