Farah Maham Arshad

Assistant Professor

Dr. Farah Maham Arshad is an Assistant Professor of Accounting at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam in the School of Business and Economics. Her research focuses on management accounting, particularly how contemporary challenges and opportunities shape management control systems such as performance evaluation and reporting. Using experimental methods, she investigates behavioral aspects of accounting, including corporate responsibility, internal controls, and decision-making under uncertainty.Farah earned her PhD in Accounting from Tilburg University in 2020. Before joining VU Amsterdam, she served as an Assistant Professor at the University of Manchester. Her work has been supported by research grants and published in leading academic outlets. She is also actively involved in projects exploring the intersection of technology, communication, and professional judgment in accounting

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

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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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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