IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/taf/euract/v27y2018i4p595-621.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Audit Team Attributes Matter: How Diversity Affects Audit Quality

Author

Listed:
  • Mara Cameran
  • Angelo Ditillo
  • Angela Pettinicchio

Abstract

How audit teams are structured and function plays a crucial role in determining the level of audit service quality. Despite this claim, little empirical research has been conducted on this effect. Using private data from two of the Big 4 audit firms, we fill this gap and document how diversity of audit teams influences audit quality. By combining the existing work in psychology and sociology with that in auditing, we develop our model by arguing that teams are composed not simply of single auditors but of sub-teams of individuals whose various combinations affect team performance. Starting from this premise, we study how the diversity of audit teams in terms of the different mix of work assigned to staff, seniors, managers, and partners influences audit quality and how this effect varies depending upon years of tenure. We also show that the proportion of leading auditors characterized by a common educational background and the percentage of female leading auditors affect audit quality. As an additional analysis, we examine how team diversity affects audit efficiency. The same elements found relevant for audit quality also affect audit efficiency.

Suggested Citation

  • Mara Cameran & Angelo Ditillo & Angela Pettinicchio, 2018. "Audit Team Attributes Matter: How Diversity Affects Audit Quality," European Accounting Review, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 27(4), pages 595-621, August.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:euract:v:27:y:2018:i:4:p:595-621
    DOI: 10.1080/09638180.2017.1307131
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/09638180.2017.1307131
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1080/09638180.2017.1307131?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Owusu, Andrews & Zalata, Alaa Mansour, 2023. "Credit rating agency response to appointment of female audit partners: Evidence from the UK," Journal of International Accounting, Auditing and Taxation, Elsevier, vol. 50(C).
    2. Mehdi Nekhili & Fahim Javed & Haithem Nagati, 2022. "Audit Partner Gender, Leadership and Ethics: The Case of Earnings Management," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 177(2), pages 233-260, May.
    3. Bustos-Contell, Elisabeth & Porcuna-Enguix, Luis & Serrano-Madrid, José & Labatut-Serer, Gregorio, 2022. "Female audit team leaders and audit effort," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 140(C), pages 324-331.
    4. Jaehong Lee & Suyon Kim & Eunsoo Kim, 2022. "Environmental Responsibility, Social Responsibility, and Governance from the Perspective of Auditors," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(19), pages 1-14, September.
    5. Muhammad Nadeem & Ernest Gyapong & Ammad Ahmed, 2020. "Board gender diversity and environmental, social, and economic value creation: Does family ownership matter?," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 29(3), pages 1268-1284, March.
    6. Amondarain, Josune & Aldazabal, M. Edurne & Espinosa-Pike, Marcela, 2023. "Gender differences in the auditing stereotype and their influence on the intention to enter the profession," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Finance, Elsevier, vol. 37(C).
    7. Rita Lamboglia & Daniela Mancini, 2021. "The relationship between auditors’ human capital attributes and the assessment of the control environment," Journal of Management & Governance, Springer;Accademia Italiana di Economia Aziendale (AIDEA), vol. 25(4), pages 1211-1239, December.
    8. Carrera, Nieves & Mareque, Mercedes, 2023. "Does gender affect qualifying decisions? Evidence from public sector audits," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 154(C).
    9. Wang, Ying & Liu, Zisen & Wang, Xin, 2022. "The supply of analysts and earnings forecasts," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 84(C).
    10. Kevin Koh & Li Li & Xuejiao Liu & Chunfei Wang, 2023. "The Effect of Audit Partner Diversity on Audit Quality: Evidence from China," Abacus, Accounting Foundation, University of Sydney, vol. 59(1), pages 340-380, March.
    11. Tarek Abdelfattah & Mohamed Elmahgoub & Ahmed A. Elamer, 2021. "Female Audit Partners and Extended Audit Reporting: UK Evidence," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 174(1), pages 177-197, November.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:taf:euract:v:27:y:2018:i:4:p:595-621. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Chris Longhurst (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.tandfonline.com/REAR20 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.