The BAR Special Issue/Conference: Audit Firm Governance
The British Accounting Review
Advancing accounting and finance knowledge since 1969 - The flagship journal of the British Accounting and Finance Association
The British Accounting Review
Special Issue Conference Call for Papers
Audit Firm Governance
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16-17 December?2023
Southern University of Science and Technology, Shenzhen, China
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Special issue conference information
In recent years, audit failures have occurred frequently in the global capital markets. Improving the audit firm governance can prevent audit failures and improve audit quality, which would ultimately contribute to efficient resource allocation, better investor protection, and healthy development of capital markets and national economies. Therefore, how to improve the audit firm governance has become increasingly important for regulators, audit firms, and investors. The audit firm governance, however, remains under-studied, resulting in insufficient theoretical guidance for practical decisions. In this special issue, we invite researchers to conduct an in-depth study on various issues involving audit firm governance, such as auditor independence and objectivity; audit quality control; ethical behaviour; board oversight; risks related to liability and litigation; and county institutions and culture.
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Guest Editors
Hongping Tan, McGill University, Montreal, Canada
Email: [email protected]
Marleen Willekens, KU Leuven, Belgium
Email: [email protected]
Donghui Wu, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China
Email: [email protected]
Liansheng Wu, Southern University of Science and Technology, Shenzhen, China
Email: [email protected]
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Conference Organizations
The British Accounting Review
SUSTech School of Business, Southern University of Science and Technology
Accounting Development and Research Center, Southern University of Science and Technology?
Keynote Speakers
Professor Marleen Willekens : She is a full professor in Accounting and Auditing at KU Leuven. Her research interests include audit regulation, corporate governance and audit, audit and innovation, and intellectual property (IP) valuation. She holds a PhD from University of Warwick.
Professor Jieying Zhang : She is an Associate Professor at University of Texas at Dallas. Her research focuses on the use of accounting information in debt contracting, accounting conservatism, and auditing. She holds a PhD in Accounting at Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
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Rationale and Scope
Audit firm governance is crucial for regulators, audit firms and investors worldwide. For regulators, improving audit firm governance is an important way to improve the efficiency of resource allocation and promote the healthy development of capital markets. For audit firms, enhancing audit firm governance is an effective strategy to reduce audit risks and increase market share. For investors, good audit firm governance is an important safeguard for their interests.
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Audit firm governance can be divided into internal and external governance. In terms of internal governance, the regulatory authorities in various countries have continuously implemented and improved regulations to guide audit firms to establish an effective internal governance system. The Financial Reporting Council (FRC) of the UK and the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW) jointly prepared and published the Audit Firm Governance Code (FRC 2010), which was subsequently revised in 2016 and 2022 (FRC 2016; 2022), providing an important reference for audit firms to establish internal governance systems. The Australia Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) requires audit firms to publish an annual audit transparency report regarding internal quality control systems, legal structures, ownership, and governance structures (ASIC 2001), urging audit firms to continuously improve internal governance. The Authority for the Financial Markets (AFM) in Netherlands made specific requests in 2014 for improving audit firms’ internal governance, including quality control procedures, organizational culture, executive board, and internal supervision (AFM 2014). Under the guidance of the regulatory authorities in various countries, the internal governance system of audit firms gradually evolves and has become an important cornerstone for safeguarding audit quality (Deloitte 2018; EY 2019).
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In terms of external governance, the regulatory authorities of various countries play an essential and important role. For example, the ASIC regularly inspects audit firms and provides professional recommendations on how to improve audit quality (ASIC 2001). The Ministry of Finance (MOF) and the Chinese Institute of Certified Public Accountants (CICPA) in China conduct rigorous annual inspections of audit firms’ audits (MOF 2022). The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB) in the United States and the Canadian Public Accountability Board (CPAB) routinely conduct inspections of audit firms, looking into both the specific audit work and overall quality control systems and putting forward rectification requirements. Under the strong regulatory supervision, the audit quality has significantly improved (DeFond and Lennox 2017; Lennox and Pittman 2010).
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Despite the continuous improvement of internal and external governance of audit firms, however, audit failures are still occurring in global capital markets (Coffee 2019; Dart 2011), suggesting that there are many problems and rooms for improvement in the existing audit firm governance systems (Maroun and Atkins 2014). There is an urgent need for the public, including regulators, investors, and audit firms, to understand and improve the current state of audit firm governance. At present, the academic research on audit firm governance is relatively inadequate, and there are still large gaps in the field to be filled by researchers (DeFond and Zhang 2014; Van Lent 1999). This special issue conference aims to solicit high quality academic research on audit firm governance to further deepen the public’s understanding of the issue and inform their decision-making. We invite submissions on the following, but not limited to, potential topics for this special issue conference:
- Auditor independence and objectivity
- Audit quality control
- Ethical behaviour
- Board oversight
- Risks related to liability and litigation
- County institutions and culture
- Information disclosure by audit firms
- Governance of branches in audit firm
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- Equity arrangement and compensation incentive in audit firms
- Organizational structure of audit firms
- Influence of laws and regulators on audit firms
- Influence of media on audit firms
- Influence of investor pressure on audit firms
- Influence of market competition on audit firms
- Social capital and audit firms
- Other topics related to audit firm governance
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Processes for Submission
This special issue conference of the British Accounting Review (BAR) will be held at SUSTech School of Business, Southern University of Science and Technology. Registration for the event can be done via email: Yandong Chen ([email protected]).
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We encourage researchers to conduct a broad and critical in-depth study of these topics based on different theories, methodologies, data, and institutional contexts. Articles for this special issue should be submitted to the conference by 15November 2023 via email: [email protected]. All submitted papers will be initially screened by the guest co-editors of the special issue. Papers presented at the conference to be considered for inclusion in the special issue will undergo a double-blind review process and must be submitted through the journal website. All papers must be original and meet the journal’s high publication quality standards. The co-editors of the BAR will monitor the final batch of accepted papers prior to publication. Although presentation at the conference is strongly encouraged for a paper to be considered for inclusion in the Special Issue, presentation does not guarantee publication of the paper. Meanwhile, papers not presented at the conference may also be considered for the Special Issue.?
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It is anticipated that the special issue will be published in 2025. The guest editors welcome informal enquiries from those who are interested in submitting a paper for consideration. Initial queries about the special issue should be directed to Professor Liansheng Wu (email: [email protected]).
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Timeline
- Conference submission deadline: 15 November 2023 (email: [email protected])
- Notification of acceptance to the Conference: as soon as possible (before 22 November 2023)
- Conference registration: 23 November 2023 (email: [email protected])
- Conference dates: 16-17 December?2023
- Final submission for Special Issue: 30 April 2024
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References:
Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC). 2001. Australian Corporations Act. Sydney: ASIC. Available at: https://www.asic.gov.au.
Authority for the Financial Markets (AFM). 2014. Results of the inspection of the quality of statutory audits at the Big 4 audit firms. Amsterdam: AFM. Available at: https://www.afm.nl/nl-nl/professionals/nieuws/2014/sep/rapport-controles-big4.
Coffee, J. C. 2019. Why do auditors fail? What might work? What won’t? Accounting and Business Research 49(5): 540-561.
Dart, E. 2011. UK investors’ perceptions of auditor independence. The British Accounting Review 43(3): 173-185.
DeFond, M., and C. S. Lennox. 2017. Do PCAOB inspections improve the quality of internal control audits? Journal of Accounting Research 55(3): 591-627.
DeFond, M., and J. Zhang. 2014. A review of archival auditing research. Journal of Accounting and Economics 58(2-3): 275-326.
Deloitte. 2018. Transparency Report. New York: Deloitte. Available at:
Ernst & Young. 2019. Transparency report 2019. New York: EY. Available at:
Financial Reporting Council (FRC). 2010. Audit Firm Governance Code. London: FRC. Available at: https://www.frc.org.uk/getattachment/6464d708-24c6-4299-8365-ec952bc1a56f/The-Audit-Firm-Governance-Code.pdf.
Financial Reporting Council (FRC). 2016. Audit Firm Governance Code. London: FRC. Available at: https://www.frc.org.uk/getattachment/8e2026c0-cac0-4faa-8326-4713511f139a/Audit-Firm-Governance-Code-July-2016.pdf.
Financial Reporting Council (FRC). 2022. Audit Firm Governance Code. London: FRC. Available at: https://www.frc.org.uk/getattachment/9e3421a7-22b3-4c98-9d94-a583a7b640e6/-;.aspx.
Lennox, C., and J. Pittman. 2010. Auditing the auditors: evidence on the recent reforms to the external monitoring of audit firms. Journal of Accounting and Economics 49(1-2): 84-103.
Maroun, W., and J. Atkins. 2014. Section 45 of the auditing profession act: Blowing the whistle for audit quality? The British Accounting Review 46(3): 248-263.
Ministry of Finance (MOF). 2022. Audit firm supervision and inspection methods (in Chinese). Available at: https://www.gov.cn/gongbao/content/2022/content_5699931.htm.
Van Lent, L. 1999. The economics of an audit firm: the benefits of partnership governance. The British Accounting Review 31(2): 225-254.
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Assistant Professor of Accounting at ASA , Ph.D, Freelance in Accounting, Financial consulting
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