Newsletter June 2021
29 June 2021
Want to be the first to know? Then don't forget to follow our LinkedIn page. Did you know that FAR also has a YouTube channel? Here you can find all of the FARview Podcasts.
Latest publications:
- FAR Literature Review on "Learning in the auditing profession: A framework and future directions"
- FAR Practice Note on "Auditing: Lifelong learning"
- Society Paper entitled "Thinking like an advisor helps auditor with fraud risks: are the best steers on the shore after all?"
Also in this newsletter:
- FARview #15 with Tjibbe Bosman
- Online FAR International Conference 2021: The Human Factor - summary
- Online FAR International Conference - Interviews (part 2)
- Recording of the online FAR Masterclass by Prof. dr. Christian Hofmann and his team on "Internal control quality and audit quality" available
- FAR PhD students Lena Pieper and James Zhang participants at the 2021 EAA Doctoral Colloquium in Accounting
- Calls for Research 2021
- FAR update - Jeanine Lemstra to join FAR as Director of Operations
- Upcoming event – save the date!
Latest publications:
We have a FAR Literature Review available on "Learning in the auditing profession: A framework and future directions". It is written by Bart Dierynck, Kathryn Kadous and Christian Peters.
Rapid changes in capital markets, expanded assurance models, and technological developments have increased the need for auditors to learn in the workplace. Based on literature on auditing and workplace learning, this paper develops the Auditor Learning Framework. The Auditor Learning Framework is based on a general framework for workplace learning by Jacobs and Park (2009) and distinguishes auditor learning based on three dimensions: the location of learning, the degree of planning of the learning process, and the role of the supervisor.
The research team reviews the auditing literature and shares papers that directly or indirectly improve our knowledge of auditor learning in our framework to identify gaps in our understanding of auditor learning. The study provides a comprehensive picture of auditor learning and suggests future research aimed at improving auditor learning.
The second publication is a FAR Practice Note and is entitled "Auditing: Lifelong Learning." This paper was also written by Bart Dierynck, Kathryn Kadous and Christian Peters.
It is essential for accountants to learn continuously. The need for continuous learning is further increased by changing expectations of society and stakeholders, rapid technological evolutions and the increasing complexity of information systems. However, external regulators express concern that certain factors are impeding auditors' learning. To gain a better understanding of how accountants learn, it is important to distinguish the different learning processes in the accounting profession. Based on recent literature review, the research team distinguishes seven learning processes. In this FAR Practice Note, the most important findings from the scientific literature are explained for each learning process. Based on this, practical tools can be developed to improve these learning processes.
The third publication is a FAR society paper entitled "Thinking like an advisor helps auditors with fraud risks" This one was written by Dr. Luc Quadackers.
Deciding is different from advising. Deciding is often done instrumentally. Giving advice involves more thought and consideration. Auditors often act instrumentally: they follow audit programs, wishes of regulators and instructions from managers. This can lead to inefficient and/or ineffective audits. For example, fraud risks are identified, and in theory the auditor knows quite well what additional evidence needs to be collected, yet insufficient adjustments are subsequently made to the audit work. The idea behind this study is that auditors with 'advisory spectacles' are better able to propose such adjustments because they activate a different mindset in the advisory role than in the decision-making role.
Read the paper here (Dutch)
FARview #15 with Tjibbe Bosman
During the second break of the online FAR International Conference on June 21, you could listen to the 15th episode of FARview. In this episode, Tjibbe Bosman was interviewed about his paper "Robotic Process Automation for the Extraction of Audit Information".
The paper on this topic presents an open-source algorithm for extracting data from (draft) annual reports (PDF files) using Python to automate, rather than outsource, data extraction for reconciliations.
It was a joint project with Jeroen Bellinga, Seyit Hocuk, Wim Janssen and Alaa Khzam. Wim Janssen and Alaa Khzam developed the programming code.
Below are the links to the podcast, the paper, and the programming code and manual.
Online FAR International Conference 2021: The Human Factor - summary
As you all know, on Monday 21 June, the annual conference of FAR took place online.
The conference consisted of four sessions, with 'The Human Factor' as the overarching theme: the human influence that can lead to both improvements and deteriorations in auditing. The first three presentations concerned FAR studies. The fourth was about a recent integrity study based on US data.
The full article with a summary appeared on Accountant.nl (in Dutch), but you can read a translation via the button below.
Online FAR International Conference - Interviews (part 2)
For the past month, leading up to the online conference, we have been posting weekly interviews on LinkedIn with the various presenters at the conference. These include questions about the background of the researchers and their ideal studies in accountancy. The first interview with Ann Vanstraelen and Ulrike Thuerheimer could already be read in the previous newsletter. The last three interviews with Reggy Hooghiemstra, Eddy Cardinaels and Evelien Reusen, and the last one with Shane Dikolli can be read back in our program booklet via the link below. The aforementioned interview is also included here.
More information about the conference, such as links to the recordings and presentations, will follow as soon as possible.
Recording of the online FAR Masterclass by Prof. dr. Christian Hofmann and his team on "Internal control quality and audit quality" available
On Tuesday, May 18, a FAR Masterclass was presented by Christian Hofmann, Sebastian Kuhn, Jeroen van Raak and Nina Schwaiger. Except for Jeroen (who works at the University of Amsterdam), the team members are affiliated with LMU Munich in Germany. The masterclass is based on a related FAR study by Christian Hofmann and his team.
The recording of the Masterclass is now available via the below button.
You can find more information about the project on our website.
FAR PhD students Lena Pieper and James Zhang participants at the 2021 EAA Doctoral Colloquium in Accounting
The European Accounting Association (EAA) is the scholarly society of European accountancy academics.
Since 1985, the EAA, together with the EIASM, has also organized a Doctoral Colloquium (DC), during two days just ahead of the three-day annual congress. The DC, "... [aims to] provide an opportunity for European doctoral students in accounting to present and discuss their research with a distinguished faculty, supplemented with a menu of plenary sessions and group activities on a range of issues relevant for PhD students, such as the journal submission and review process; the job market and early career; reviewing and presenting, and other research and career-related topics."
Participation in the EAA DC is selective. Supervisors from all over Europe recommend doctoral students for participation, but available places are limited: 40 in 2021.
For the Foundation for Auditing Research (FAR) it was gratifying to see that 2 of these were FAR funded doctoral students: Lena Pieper and Deju (James) Zhang. More information about both can be found on the 'FAR Postdocs and PhD students' page on the FAR website. FAR invited both to provide a brief description of their DC experience for the Newsletter readership.
Calls for Research 2021
Aimed at enhancing knowledge exchange between academia and practice and academically informing practitioners and (public) policy makers in their continuous improvement efforts with regard to the auditing profession, the Foundation for Auditing Research issues two Calls for Research this year (2021):
Call for Empirical Research Project Proposals 2021
This is our regular yearly call for research projects, this year focused on three specific topics, while FAR is also open to empirical research proposals on other research questions and topics within the research objectives and focus set-out in this call. FAR supports research projects that adopt an interdisciplinary approach by using multiple research approaches and methods. Support that FAR will provide for empirical research projects may include, but is not limited to, access to (proprietary and publicly available) archival data and practitioners for survey research, experiments, interviews and field case/event studies of the nine participating Big 4 and Mid-Tier audit firms. FAR empirical research projects generally have a project timeline of one to four years (depending on the scope of the research project) and include a research synthesis at the start and proactive contributions to FAR’s knowledge dissemination strategy such as practice notes, society papers, masterclasses, and conference presentations. Please see the 2021 Call for Empirical Research Project Proposals here:
Special Call for “Thematic Research Program” proposals 2021
With this Call for “Thematic Research Program” Proposals 2021 we invite university auditing research departments and scholars to submit a proposal for a research program geared towards audit research themes that require an interactive dialogue and knowledge exchange between practice and science to develop a coherent series of empirical research projects. A FAR Thematic Research Program should add to achieving FAR’s objectives of stimulating in depth, relevant, and coherent audit quality research, increasing knowledge dissemination, and strengthening the auditing research faculty and community in the Netherlands through support of research financing and data access. The themes that FAR would like to develop over a period of time currently are (1) “Audit quality within the corporate reporting and assurance supply chain (eco system)” and (2) “Audit firm Quality Management Systems and audit quality”. Please see the application criteria, profile, and guidance here:
The application form for both Calls for Research proposals can be found here:
The application deadline for both calls is September 15th, 2021. For further information or questions, please contact FAR at info@foundationforauditingresearch.org
FAR update - Jeanine Lemstra to join FAR as Director of Operations
We are very pleased to announce that Mrs Jeanine Lemstra has joined the Foundation for Auditing Research as per June 1st as its Director of Operations. Jeanine has a background in Finance and Change Management and she has worked for, among others, PwC. Jeanine will lead the daily operations of FAR.
Together we will continue to develop the FAR in terms of world-class audit research and knowledge exchange – and support the ongoing ambition to academically inform the continuous improvement of the auditing profession.
Five years into its existence, FAR has matured to a full professional organization and reached its initial goals. Recently FAR secured its second five-year term (2021 - 2025) and is now expanding into its second phase. As Director of Operations Jeanine will have the space and responsibility, jointly with the Executive Board and the FAR team, to give substance to this next phase and ensure high-quality, state-of-the-art operational services in support of the FAR's strategy.
Upcoming event – save the dates!
FAR Young Auditing Academic Brown Bag Seminars
On Friday, September 17, from 3:30 - 4:30 p.m. CET, FAR is hosting its next Brown Bag Seminar for Young Academics and Young Pros. Are you part of the target group and would you like to attend as well? Please send an email to info@foundationforauditingresearch.org
Do you have suggestions on how to improve our newsletter or news you would like to share with us? Please let us know by sending an email to info@foundationforauditingresearch.org
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