Audit quality research projects receive AICPA support

The AICPA’s Assurance Research Advisory Group, a group of practitioners and academics formed in collaboration with the American Accounting Association, selected three projects to receive funding and/or access to accounting firm personnel for research addressing assurance topics of interest to the profession.

All proposals were related to audit quality, evolving skill sets, risk assessment and response, and sufficiency and appropriateness of audit evidence. After reviewing 16 submissions, the group chose the following projects:

• “Auditing With Data and Analytics: External Reviewer Perceptions of Audit Quality,” by Scott Emett, assistant professor, and Steve Kaplan, director and professor, at Arizona State University; Jeffrey Pickerd, assistant professor at the University of Mississippi; and Elaine G. Mauldin, professor of accountancy at the University of Missouri.
• “Analyzing the Audit Risk Assessment Process: Real World Insights,” by Mark Beasley, professor of accounting at North Carolina State University, and Omar Watts, assistant professor of accounting at St. John Fisher College.
• “Non-Global Network Firms’ Use of Technology-Based Audit Tools and Implications for Audit Quality,” by Jay C. Thibodeau, professor, and Annie L. Witte, doctoral student, at Bentley University.