IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/accfor/v36y2012i1p51-61.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Regulating audit quality: Restoring trust and legitimacy

Author

Listed:
  • Holm, Claus
  • Zaman, Mahbub

Abstract

The global financial crisis, corporate failures and scandals in many countries raise significant questions audit quality. In the UK, the FRC took the unprecedented step of codifying audit quality in its ‘Audit Quality Framework’. We analyze the extent to which audit firms, professional bodies, and investors considered the FRC proposals sufficient for addressing concerns about audit quality. Using impression management and legitimacy as a framework to analyze stakeholder responses we go beyond audit quality drivers identified by the FRC. In contrast to the drivers identified by the FRC, our focus on transparency, expertise, professionalism and commercialization of the audit shows that FRC, audit firms and professional bodies have mainly focused on issues which possibly do not pose a threat to the commercial interest of audit firms. Overall, our analysis shows that regulatory and professional bodies engaged in image management and the promotion of audit quality in an attempt to remedy tarnished image and augment their legitimacy and standing. In attempting to restore trust and legitimacy regulatory bodies, such as the FRC, have to reconcile complex often contradictory stakeholder demands.

Suggested Citation

  • Holm, Claus & Zaman, Mahbub, 2012. "Regulating audit quality: Restoring trust and legitimacy," Accounting forum, Elsevier, vol. 36(1), pages 51-61.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:accfor:v:36:y:2012:i:1:p:51-61
    DOI: 10.1016/j.accfor.2011.11.004
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S015599821100069X
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

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

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Bedard, Jean, 2001. "The disciplinary process of the accounting profession: protecting the public or the profession? The Quebec experience," Journal of Accounting and Public Policy, Elsevier, vol. 20(4-5), pages 399-437.
    2. Cooper, David J. & Robson, Keith, 2006. "Accounting, professions and regulation: Locating the sites of professionalization," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 31(4-5), pages 415-444.
    3. Power, Michael, 2007. "Business risk auditing - Debating the history of its present," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 32(4-5), pages 379-382.
    4. Mahbub Zaman & Mohammed Hudaib & Roszaini Haniffa, 2011. "Corporate Governance Quality, Audit Fees and Non-Audit Services Fees," Journal of Business Finance & Accounting, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 38(1-2), pages 165-197, January.
    5. Knechel, W. Robert, 2007. "The business risk audit: Origins, obstacles and opportunities," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 32(4-5), pages 383-408.
    6. Bedard, Jean, 1989. "Expertise in auditing: Myth or reality?," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 14(1-2), pages 113-131, January.
    7. Brenda Van Tendeloo & Ann Vanstraelen, 2008. "Earnings Management and Audit Quality in Europe: Evidence from the Private Client Segment Market," European Accounting Review, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 17(3), pages 447-469.
    8. Peecher, Mark E. & Schwartz, Rachel & Solomon, Ira, 2007. "It's all about audit quality: Perspectives on strategic-systems auditing," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 32(4-5), pages 463-485.
    9. Preston, Alistair M. & Cooper, David J. & Scarbrough, D. Paul & Chilton, Robert C., 1995. "Changes in the code of ethics of the U.S. accounting profession, 1917 and 1988: The continual quest for legitimation," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 20(6), pages 507-546, August.
    10. Parker, Lee D., 1994. "Professional accounting body ethics: In search of the private interest," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 19(6), pages 507-525, August.
    11. Sikka, Prem, 2009. "Financial crisis and the silence of the auditors," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 34(6-7), pages 868-873, August.
    12. Grey, C., 1998. "On being a professional in a "Big Six" firm," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 23(5-6), pages 569-587.
    13. George Georgiou, 2004. "Corporate Lobbying on Accounting Standards: Methods, Timing and Perceived Effectiveness," Abacus, Accounting Foundation, University of Sydney, vol. 40(2), pages 219-237.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

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


    Cited by:

    1. Saori Matsubara & Takahiro Endo, 2016. "The Role of Local Accounting Standard Setters in Institutional Complexity: 'Explosion' of Local Standards in Japan," Discussion Paper Series DP2016-35, Research Institute for Economics & Business Administration, Kobe University.

    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:eee:accfor:v:36:y:2012:i:1:p:51-61. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: (Dana Niculescu). General contact details of provider: https://www.journals.elsevier.com/accounting-forum .

    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.

    If CitEc recognized a reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with 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.

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

    IDEAS is a RePEc service hosted by the Research Division of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis . RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.