Dr. Sara Bibler

Assistant Professor

Sara Bibler earned her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in accounting from the University of Georgia. She obtained her certified public accountant license and worked as an auditor for PwC in both the U.S. and the Netherlands before pursuing her PhD in Accounting at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. Her research examines how innovation and technology interact with human judgement to influence audit quality. She joined the University of Amsterdam as an Assistant Professor in September 2025.

More on her LinkedIn page.

Auditor judgments and decisions in the digital era: the role of mindset, medium, and mode
New technologies like data analytics, artificial intelligence (AI), and smartphones are profoundly changing the work of auditors. Yet, we still know relatively little about how these digital tools influence auditors’ thinking and decision-making. Sara Bibler’s research sheds light on this and shows that not only technology, but especially the interaction between people and technology, determines the quality of audits. Innovative mindset strengthens fraud detection The research shows that auditors who are encouraged to think more innovatively perform better in a data-analytic work environment. They detect fraud more effectively, provide more useful insights for clients, and work more efficiently. According to Bibler, this emphasizes that technological progress alone is not enough: the way professionals think and work plays a crucial role. Smartphone or laptop makes a difference Even seemingly small choices, such as the device used to send advice, appear to have an impact. Advice shared via a smartphone is, on average, less critical and skeptical than advice prepared via a laptop, especially when auditors are deeply engaged in the task. When auditors have more psychological distance from the assignment, this difference largely disappears. This finding suggests that the context in which professionals work can have subtle effects on their judgment. This may prompt organizations to be more mindful of their communication channels in situations where critical judgment is essential. Doubts about AI’s dominant role Bibler further shows that auditors are less inclined to trust advice when AI plays a leading role in audit preparation, compared to situations where AI only plays a supporting role. Auditors with a less innovative mindset, in particular, appear to be hesitant. This means that the way AI is integrated into work processes can significantly determine how effectively this technology is ultimately used. Broad societal impact The results are relevant for accounting firms, supervisory bodies, and policymakers. They demonstrate that audit quality depends not only on technological innovation but also on human factors such as mindset, work context, and trust. For organizations, this means that investing in technology must go hand in hand with attention to training, work processes, and behavior. For supervisory bodies, the research emphasizes that rules and guidelines must consider the human side of digitalization. At a time when AI and digital tools are rapidly gaining ground, the research shows that successful innovation is not just about new systems, but especially about how people work with them.
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Thinking Outside the Box: Engaging Auditors’ Innovation Mindset to Improve Auditors’ Fraud Judgments and Actions in a Data-Analytic Environment
Data analytics has become a prominent tool for audit firms, which exalt its capabilities to promote audit quality. However, whether auditors have the appropriate mindset to fully leverage the capabilities of data analytics is yet unclear. Further, as data analytics becomes more prevalent in audit engagements, auditors are encouraged to also use this technology to provide client insights. This use has sparked concern from regulators that this additional goal could negatively impact audit quality by shifting an auditors’ focus and/or impacting independence. This could happen as these goals may compete for the same cognitive resources and auditors face time constraints. In addition, the focus on providing insights could be viewed as an auditor operating in more of an advisory (non-audit) role. In this study, we seek to understand whether encouraging auditors to be creative by employing an innovation mindset and instructing them to identify clients’ insights, when using data analytics, has a meaningful positive? impact on audit quality. We examine this using an experiment in which audit quality means the ability to address seeded fraud in a hypothetical engagement. Our results indicate that encouraging auditors to be creative increases their cognitive flexibility, which results in better identification of effective audit procedures (i.e., procedures targeting fraud). In addition, when a creative prompt is paired with a new goal to provide client insights, auditor judgments improve even more. Finally, encouraging auditor creativity also appears to improve their identification of value-added client insights. We recommend that firms look at creativity as a tool to improve auditor judgments. We point out for those concerned about adding a goal to provide client insights that this goal may not have a negative impact and in some instances may even improve audit quality.  
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Thinking Outside of the Box: Engaging Auditors’ Innovation Mindset to Improve Auditors’ Fraud Actions in a Data-Analytic Environment
Data analytics can help auditors effectively respond to the risk of material misstatement due to fraud. However, harnessing this potential may require auditors to adopt an innovation mindset as urged by firms and regulators. Innovation is defined as creativity in action. Building on the creativity literature, we develop an innovation mindset designed to improve auditors’ ability to generate effective fraud audit procedures when interpreting data analytic output. Further, with the advent of data analytics, auditors are asked to provide value-added, client insights, in addition to their primary goal of obtaining high audit quality. We predict that incorporating this secondary goal may strengthen the innovation mindset effect by enhancing auditors’ cognitive flexibility. We experimentally demonstrate that the innovation mindset significantly improves  auditors’ development of effective fraud procedures. Moreover, this effect is amplified when auditors generate client insights, as this intervening goal boosts creativity and cognitive flexibility, further enhancing auditors’ decision-making quality.
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How AI’s role and an innovation orientation influence auditor reliance on a hybrid specialist team’s advice
As artificial intelligence becomes a staple in audit engagements, firms increasingly pair AI with human specialists to tackle complex estimates. But does the way these roles are structured, AI as the preparer or as the reviewer, change how much auditors trust the advice? And can an auditor’s openness to innovation make a difference?
This review explores the following key dynamics:
  • Workflow roles matter. When AI prepares an estimate and a human reviews it, auditors tend to rely less on the advice, driven by algorithm aversion and concerns about overreliance on technology. Conversely, when the human prepares and AI reviews, auditors perceive the advice as more credible and are more willing to challenge management.
  • Transparency and uncertainty. If auditors know AI is involved but not its role, uncertainty amplifies skepticism, further reducing reliance.
  • Innovation orientation as a buffer. Auditors who are more open-minded and comfortable with new ideas, those with a high innovation orientation, are less prone to algorithm aversion and more willing to integrate hybrid advice into their judgments.
The study argues that as AI adoption accelerates, audit firms must consider not only how they assign roles within hybrid teams but also how they foster innovation-oriented thinking among auditors. Doing so can help overcome biases, improve reliance on high-quality advice, and ultimately enhance audit quality.
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Sent from Mobile – The Influence of Communication Devices and Psychological Distance on Professional Skepticism Enhancing Advice
As audit firms increasingly rely on mobile phones for work-related tasks, understanding how different communication devices impact auditor behavior is essential for maintaining professional skepticism and audit quality. Using a setting where an audit supervisor writes a message in response to advice sought by a subordinate auditor, we examine how the audit supervisor’s use of different communication devices (mobile phone versus PC) affects the extent to which their informal advice to the subordinate contains  skepticism-enhancing language. We predict that audit supervisor’s advice will be less skepticism-enhancing or the subordinate when communicated by a message sent through a mobile phone compared to a PC. However, this effect is expected to be stronger for advisors with lower compared to higher psychological distance to the task workflow. We conduct a 2×2 between-participants experiment and use Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count (LIWC) textual analysis to measure skepticism in participants’ responses to advice sought by a subordinate. We find that a message conveyed through a mobile phones compared to a PC contains less skepticism-enhancing advice, but only when psychological distance is low. Our study underscores the behavioral implications of device choice and psychological distance, offering important insights for audit firms and practitioners as they navigate the increasing use of digital communication tools in fostering audit quality.
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Sent from Mobile: The Influence of Communication Devices and Psychological Distance on Professional Skepticism-Enhancing Advice
Audit firms are increasingly adopting mobile communication devices, but their impact on the advice given by supervisors remains unclear. This study examines whether and how the choice of communication device (mobile phone vs. PC) and the psychological distance supervisors feel from the task, affect the advice they give to their subordinates, particularly in terms of enhancing professional skepticism. Using an experiment, we find that mobile phones make skepticism-enhancing advice less persuasive compared to PCs, particularly when supervisors are closely involved in the task. However, when supervisors are more distanced from the task, mobile phones do not significantly reduce the quality of advice and may even enhance certain aspects of professional skepticism. These findings highlight the importance of understanding the behavioral effects of communication tools and being purposeful when making communication choices.
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“Sent from Mobile”: The Influence of Communication Devices and Psychological Distance on Professional Skepticism-Enhancing Advice

Abstract: As audit firms increasingly rely on mobile phones for work-related tasks, understanding how different communication devices impact auditor behavior is essential for maintaining professional skepticism and audit quality. Using a setting where an audit supervisor writes a message in response to advice sought by a subordinate auditor, we examine how the audit supervisor’s use of different communication devices (mobile phone versus PC) affects the extent to which their informal advice to the subordinate contains skepticism-enhancing language. We predict that audit supervisor’s advice will be less skepticism-enhancing for the subordinate when communicated by a message sent through a mobile phone compared to a PC. However, this effect is expected to be stronger for advisors with lower compared to higher psychological distance to the task workflow. We conduct a 2×2 between-participants experiment and use Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count (LIWC) textual analysis to measure skepticism in participants’ responses to advice sought by a subordinate. We find that a message conveyed through a mobile phones compared to a PC contains less skepticism-enhancing advice, but only when psychological distance is low. Our study underscores the behavioral implications of device choice and psychological distance, offering important insights for audit firms and practitioners as they navigate the increasing use of digital communication tools in fostering audit quality.

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February 25, 2026

PhD Dissertation: auditor judgments and decisions in the digital era

On 24 February Sara Bibler (in the middle of the picture with Academic Director Anna Gold and COO Klaas Springer of FAR) defended her dissertation about how technology and innovation are becoming increasingly embedded into the auditing process. Data analytics, communication tools, and artificial intelligence shape how auditors perform their work, collaborate with one another, and evaluate evidence. Yet these advancements do not operate in isolation. In a profession with high judgment, such as auditing, quality continues to depend critically on the human auditors who interact with technology. This dissertation examines how auditors’ mindset, the medium through which they communicate, and the mode by which technology is embedded into workflows influence auditors’ professional skepticism, judgment, and reliance. Across three experimental studies, this dissertation highlights behavioral dynamics that emerge in technology-enabled audit environments. The first study shows how cultivating an innovation mindset enhances fraud judgments and supports auditors in balancing audit quality and client insight objectives. The second study demonstrates that the device used in digital communication can shape the way skepticism is conveyed in audit advice. The third study reveals that auditors’ reliance on AI–human hybrid specialist advice is sensitive to how AI is positioned in the workflow and to auditors’ openness to innovation. Together, these studies underscore how certain factors in a technology-driven environment can influence judgments and communication, in turn influencing audit quality.
November 12, 2023

FAR research team wins EARNet Best Paper Award!

During the Earnet Symposium, held in Thessaloniki, Sara Bibler, CPA, Tina Carpenter, Margaret Christ and Anna Gold won the Best Paper Award with their paper ‘Thinking Outside of the Box: Engaging Auditors’ Innovation Mindset to Improve Auditors’ Fraud Actions in a Data-Analytic Environment’. Congratulations on this gr…

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