Jasmijn Bol

Prof. Jasmijn Bol

Professor

Jasmijn Bol is the PricewaterhouseCoopers Professor and Francis Martin Chair in Business at Tulane University’s A.B. Freeman School of Business. She earned her PhD in Management from IESE Business School and an MSc in International Business from Maastricht University. Her research focuses on management control systems, incentive design, operational risk management, and the role of AI in organizational controls. She has published extensively in leading journals such as The Accounting Review, Journal of Accounting Research, Contemporary Accounting Research, and Accounting, Organizations and Society. Jasmijn has received multiple awards, including the Notable Contribution to Management Accounting Literature Award and Best Early Career Researcher Award from the American Accounting Association. She is also an active keynote speaker and author, with her work influencing both academic research and business practice globally.

Cultivating Auditors Who Are More Committed to and Better at Ensuring Audit Quality

Using a multi-method approach, we first introduce the construct of well-calibrated professional skepticism and identify how it facilitates auditors’ response to heightened risk of material misstatement without also raising costly false alarms. We then draw on the management and management accounting literatures to identify several audit firm “soft” culture controls and auditor-specific characteristics that we predict, and find evidence consistent with being, antecedents of well-calibrated professional skepticism. We position well-calibrated professional skepticism as an internalized value and connect it to the psychology literature on calibration. We discuss how audit firms can improve the portion of their audit professionals who are well-calibrated professional skeptics by improved selection during recruitment of human talent and by investment in culture controls that credibly reveal a commitment to “walking the talk” when it comes to audit quality.

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Well‑calibrated professional skepticism: how culture and auditor values drive better audit judgments

This study introduces the concept of well-calibrated professional skepticism, auditors’ ability to respond critically when misstatement risk is high without overreacting when risk is low. Using interviews, experiments, and surveys with 399 auditors, the research shows that well-calibrated skeptics make better judgments and plan appropriate actions, improving audit quality.

Auditor pride, however, does not significantly influence judgment. Key drivers of calibrated skepticism include supportive leadership, sufficient resources, and personal values such as truth-seeking and contributing to society.

The findings suggest that audit firms can strengthen skepticism through cultural controls and by hiring auditors who value integrity and societal impact.

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The Effect of Audit Culture on Audit Quality

In 2014, the professional body for accountants in the Netherlands (NBA) indicated that audit quality did not live up to the public’s expectations. One of the main corrective measures suggested by the NBA was an improvement in audit culture (NBA, 2014). Although audit culture can be an important determinant of audit quality, the extant academic literature has not payed much attention to audit culture. This paper provides an overview of the literature on audit quality and audit culture as a determinant of audit quality

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The Effect of Audit Culture on Audit Quality

In this research note, we discuss why designing a management control system that directs effort towards audit quality is so tricky. We discuss the different ways that audit firms motivate effort and highlight “culture controls” where, through selection and socialization, audit firms create a workforce of auditors that value and, therefore, work hard to ensure audit quality. We also discuss the importance of directing auditors’ efforts towards audit quality and distinguish three critical elements. Auditors must: (1) understand the importance of audit quality, (2) possess the right tools and capabilities, and (3) prefer those tasks that lead to audit quality. We share some preliminary results of our research that examines how successful five Dutch audit firms are at this non-trivial task. This provides firms with the knowledge to critically examine and improve their own current management control system. Our study is relevant for Dutch audit firms as well as for auditors all over the world.

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FAR Conference 2022 Proceedings

On June 20-21 2022, the fifth physical conference of the Foundation for Auditing Research (FAR) was held at Nyenrode Business University. The theme of the conference was ‘Inside out and outside in’. This theme allowed for a broad array of sessions that took issue with the influence of internal (e.g., audit teams) and external (e.g., regulators) factors on the quality of auditing and assurance and attracted an audience comprised of practitioners, academics, regulators, standard setters and journalists. The majority of the more than 100 participants were practicing auditors (45 percent). Given FAR’s objective of using academic knowledge to improve audit quality in practice, this is a satisfying figure.

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