A significant challenge faced by large auditing firms is offering consistent quality across the global network. Unfortunately, variation in judgments and decision-making, resulting from cultural differences, can undermine the provision of a uniform level of audit quality for these international firms. Previous research has determined that national culture influences an auditors’ professional judgments and decisions. Relying on Social Identity Theory, I explore whether inducing one’s organizational identification can both enhance auditor judgment and mitigate any deleterious impact that culture may have on the provision of a uniform level of audit quality. I also examine current cultural variations in auditor judgment in order to ensure that the results of earlier studies still typify the international auditing environment. National culture is assessed using two dimensions (individualism/collectivism, power distance) included in Hofstede’s 1980 cultural values framework. Participants from the United States are used to represent an individualistic/low power distance culture while individuals from India are used to represent a collectivistic/high power distance culture. Firms need mechanisms to elicit desired behaviors that may not be consistent with cultural tendencies in order to provide a uniform level of audit quality. Contrary to expectations, no significant differences are identified between the judgments of auditors from India and The United States. The results, however, do provide evidence that enhancing one’s organizational identification can impact certain professional judgments during the audit process. An association between national culture and auditor attitudes pertaining to client trust is also found. The implications of these findings for the professional auditing environment and future academic research are discussed. / Includes bibliography. / Dissertation (Ph.D.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2016. / FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection

Made available in DSpace on 2015-12-03T18:33:07Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Walther_Bottaro_de_Lima_Castro.pdf: 557339 bytes, checksum: 2d9f98e7478db9fee5e9e462c2f99ba5 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2014-02-12 / This research aimed to identify, analyze and describe the determinants of audit fees in Brazil. The sample studyed was the listed companies in 2012. Despite the mandatory disclosure of audit fees to be required since the year of 2009 , there were no surveys in other years , except 2009. This research showed that the size and complexity of the audited company, and the fact that the auditor be one of the big four audit firm, are positively related to audit fee. The variables: risk perceived by the auditor, corporate governance and exchange auditor behave differently according to the size of the audited company. The risk in larger companies, as measured by liquidity, is significant and corroborate the hypothesis that firms with higher risk tend to spend more on auditing. However in smaller companies the results were contradictory and suggest that firms with higher risk, in this case measured by leverage, tend to spend less with audit fees. Contradictorily was observed that smaller companies with best practices of corporate governance tend to spend more on auditing. It was also observed that in larger companies there charging lower fees in the first year of audit . Based on this study was noted the high concentration and market dominance of the big four audit firms / A presente pesquisa buscou identificar, analisar e descrever os determinantes dos honor??rios de auditoria das empresas brasileiras. Como amostra utilizou-se as empresas listadas na bolsa de valores de S??o Paulo no ano de 2012. Apesar da obrigatoriedade de divulga????o dos honor??rios de auditoria estar vigente desde o ano base de 2009, n??o foram observadas pesquisas em outros anos, exceto o de 2009. Como resultado desta pesquisa observou-se que o tamanho e complexidade da empresa auditada, e o fato do auditor ser uma das quatro grande empresa de auditoria est??o relacionados positivamente com os honor??rios de auditoria. As vari??veis: risco percebido pelo auditor, n??vel de governan??a corporativa e a troca do auditor se comportam de forma diferente de acordo com o tamanho das empresas auditadas. O risco em empresas de maior porte, quando medido pela liquidez, ?? significativo e corrobora a hip??tese de que empresas com maior risco tendem a gastar mais com auditoria. J?? em empresas de menor porte os resultados foram contradit??rios e sugerem que empresas com maior o risco, medido nesse caso pela alavancagem, tendem a gastar menos com auditoria. Ainda de forma contradit??ria foi observado que empresas de menor porte e com melhores pr??ticas de governan??a corporativa tendem a gastar mais com a auditoria. Foi observado tamb??m que em empresas de maior porte existe a cobran??a de menores honor??rios nos primeiro ano de auditoria. Como resultado do presente estudo pode se observar a grande concentra????o e dom??nio de mercado das quatro grande empresas de auditoria

Using tax accrual quality as a proxy for audit quality, I investigate whether companies that significantly decreased APTS surrounding the effective date of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board’s 2006 Rules on Ethics, Independence, and Tax Services experienced an improvement in audit quality after the change. Given the specific target of the PCAOB 2006 restrictions is companies aggressively avoiding taxes with the assistance of APTS, I also investigate whether companies associated with tax aggressive services are also more likely to experience an improvement in audit quality following the reductions in APTS. Results suggest an increase in audit quality due to a reduction in economic bonding following APTS restrictions. Consistent with the economic bonding theory, companies that significantly reduced APTS experienced a larger improvement in audit quality after the change compared to companies that did not significantly reduce APTS. For tax aggressive companies, those that reduced APTS did experience a significant increase in audit quality after the change compared to tax aggressive companies that did not significantly reduce APTS. Moreover, companies considered important tax clients by their audit firms that significantly reduced APTS did experience a marginally greater increase in audit quality after the change compared to other important tax clients that did not significantly reduce APTS. Overall, my results indicate that the PCOAB 2006 restrictions were effective in decreasing APTS and economic bonding, thereby leading to improved audit quality, especially among companies associated with tax aggressive services. Accordingly, concerns for loss of knowledge spillover seem to be minimal. There are few studies that investigate the effectiveness of the PCAOB 2006 restrictions on audit quality. Therefore, my study fills this void by using a tax specific measure of audit quality, tax accrual quality, to specifically examine the target of the restrictions— audit clients that are associated with aggressive tax services. My study confirms and expands APTS, economic bonding, audit quality, tax accrual quality, and tax aggressive research, and also provides insight into and support for current policy debates concerning APTS and tax aggressive services. / Includes bibliography. / Dissertation (Ph.D.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2017. / FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection

<p>Bakgrund: Den första januari 1983 infördes revisionsplikt för alla aktiebolag i Sverige. Idag gör EGs fjärde bolagsdirektiv det möjligt att undanta mindre företag från kravet på revision och debatten kring revisionsplikt i små bolag i Sverige är nu intensiv. Sedan årsskiftet 2004 gäller även ett nytt regelverk, Revisionsstandard (RS) i Sverige och detta såväl som ökade krav på oberoende har ytterligare intensifierat debatten. Enligt flertalet studier är ett borttagande av revisionsplikten inte realistiskt, dock anses att små och medelstora företag är i behov av enkla och ändamålsenliga regler. Det är således relevant att undersöka hur en ändamålsenlig revision skulle kunna se ut i mindre aktiebolag.</p><p>Syfte: Syftet med denna uppsats är att tydliggöra vad som kan avses när begreppet ”förenkling” används i debatten kring revision i mindre aktiebolag. Detta genom att undersöka vilka alternativ till förenkling av revisionen för mindre aktiebolag som kan finnas. Vidare är avsikten att, utifrån ett urval insatta personers åsikter kring revision, analysera styrkor och svagheter med dessa eventuella förenklingsmöjligheter.</p><p>Avgränsningar: Studien är avgränsad till att behandla vilka möjligheter som finns till att den lagstadgade externa revisionen skulle kunna förenklas förutsatt att den behålls. Vidare omfattas endast förenklingsmöjligheter i mindre aktiebolag. Mindre företag definieras i likhet med EGs fjärde direktiv som företag med färre än 50 anställda, en omsättning understigande 7,3 miljoner euro och en balansomslutning understigande 3,65 miljoner euro. Vidare är studien avgränsad geografiskt till att endast omfatta möjligheter till förenkling av revision i mindre aktiebolag i Sverige. Dock har en undersökning kring hur revisionen ser ut i England, Tyskland och USA gjorts för att se om Sverige möjligen skulle kunna använda någon strategi för förenkling som dessa länder använt sig av.</p><p>Genomförande: I denna studie har främst en kvalitativ metod använts, detta i form av såväl litteraturstudier som fem stycken semi-strukturerade intervjuer. De respondenter som intervjuades valdes ut på den grund att de ansågs vara väl insatta i det studerade området.</p><p>Resultat: Hur en förenkling skulle kunna se ut skiftar, men utgångspunkten ser ut att vara att minska omfattningen på revisionen och därmed hålla kostnader nere. Ett antal förslag på förenklingsmöjligheter framkom vid vår studie. Ett var det tyska alternativet där antingen revisorn eller en skatterådgivare skulle kunna lämna ett utlåtande om omfattningen på den bokföringskontroll som har skett. Ett annat var förslaget om revisorsintyg, vilket används i England och USA. Vidare gavs förslag om datorstödd revision, införande av ny bolagsform i form av AB-Light, ett slopande av förvaltningsrevisionen och förenkling av revision genom förenkling av redovisningen. Sammanfattningsvis var det i två av dessa förslag, slopad förvaltningsrevision och förenklad revision genom förenklad redovisning, som styrkorna såg ut att överväga svagheterna. I respondenternas diskussion kring de olika alternativen framkom även ett förslag om obligatorisk efterfrågestyrd revision, vilket framstod som det förslag som var mest motiverat att undersöka vidare.</p> / <p>Background: In January 1, 1983 mandatory audit was introduced for all companies in Sweden. It is today, through the fourth EC directive, possible to exempt small companies from the requirement on auditing, and the debate about mandatory auditing in small companies in Sweden is intense. Since the turn of year 2004 there is a new body of regulations in Sweden, Revisionsstandard (RS). This as well as increased requirements on independence has intensified the debate further. According to several papers a removal of the mandatory audit is not realistic. However small- and mediumsized companies are considered to be in need of simple and suitable rules. Thus, it is relevant to examine how a suitable audit could be designed in small companies.</p><p>Aim: The aim with this paper is to explain what can be considered when the concept ”simplification” is used in the debate about auditing in small companies. This is done through an investigation of which alternatives there are of simplification auditing of small companies. The intention is also to, on the basis of opinions from selected persons that is versed in the subject, analyse the strengths and the weaknesses with the possible simplification alternatives.</p><p>Delimitations: This paper is delimited to consider which possibilities there are to simplify the statutory external auditing, provided that it will still be kept. Only possibilities to simplification of the auditing for small companies are considered. Small companies are defined in the fourth EC directive as companies with fewer than 50 employees, a turnover of less than 7,3 million euro and a total balance sheet of less than 3,65 euro. The paper has a geographic delimitation and does only consider the possibilities to simplification of auditing in small companies in Sweden. However there has been an investigation about how auditing is designed in England, Germany and the USA to see if Sweden possibly could use any of the strategies of simplification that these countries have used.</p><p>Realization: In this paper mainly the qualitative method has been used. This as well as in form of a investigation of literature as well as five semi-structured interviews. The respondents that have been interviewed were chosen on the basis that they were considered to be versed in the examined subject.</p><p>Conclusion: How a simplification could be designed is varying, but a reduction of the extent of the auditing seems to be a good start to keep the costs low. Several suggestions on how to simplify auditing were made in the paper. One of them was a German alternative where either the auditor or the tax advisor is supposed to leave an opinion about the extent of the control that has been made of the accounting. Another suggestion was a certificate of auditing, which is used in England and in the USA. Suggestions were also made about a new form of company - AB-Light, a removal of the management audit and a simplification of auditing through a simplification of accounting. In two of these suggestions, a removal of the management audit and a simplification of auditing though a simplification of accounting, were the advantages dominating the weaknesses. The respondents also came up with the proposal that the auditing should be controlled by demand but still mandatory, which appeared as the most motivated suggestion to investigate further.</p>

Bakgrund: Den första januari 1983 infördes revisionsplikt för alla aktiebolag i Sverige. Idag gör EGs fjärde bolagsdirektiv det möjligt att undanta mindre företag från kravet på revision och debatten kring revisionsplikt i små bolag i Sverige är nu intensiv. Sedan årsskiftet 2004 gäller även ett nytt regelverk, Revisionsstandard (RS) i Sverige och detta såväl som ökade krav på oberoende har ytterligare intensifierat debatten. Enligt flertalet studier är ett borttagande av revisionsplikten inte realistiskt, dock anses att små och medelstora företag är i behov av enkla och ändamålsenliga regler. Det är således relevant att undersöka hur en ändamålsenlig revision skulle kunna se ut i mindre aktiebolag. Syfte: Syftet med denna uppsats är att tydliggöra vad som kan avses när begreppet ”förenkling” används i debatten kring revision i mindre aktiebolag. Detta genom att undersöka vilka alternativ till förenkling av revisionen för mindre aktiebolag som kan finnas. Vidare är avsikten att, utifrån ett urval insatta personers åsikter kring revision, analysera styrkor och svagheter med dessa eventuella förenklingsmöjligheter. Avgränsningar: Studien är avgränsad till att behandla vilka möjligheter som finns till att den lagstadgade externa revisionen skulle kunna förenklas förutsatt att den behålls. Vidare omfattas endast förenklingsmöjligheter i mindre aktiebolag. Mindre företag definieras i likhet med EGs fjärde direktiv som företag med färre än 50 anställda, en omsättning understigande 7,3 miljoner euro och en balansomslutning understigande 3,65 miljoner euro. Vidare är studien avgränsad geografiskt till att endast omfatta möjligheter till förenkling av revision i mindre aktiebolag i Sverige. Dock har en undersökning kring hur revisionen ser ut i England, Tyskland och USA gjorts för att se om Sverige möjligen skulle kunna använda någon strategi för förenkling som dessa länder använt sig av. Genomförande: I denna studie har främst en kvalitativ metod använts, detta i form av såväl litteraturstudier som fem stycken semi-strukturerade intervjuer. De respondenter som intervjuades valdes ut på den grund att de ansågs vara väl insatta i det studerade området. Resultat: Hur en förenkling skulle kunna se ut skiftar, men utgångspunkten ser ut att vara att minska omfattningen på revisionen och därmed hålla kostnader nere. Ett antal förslag på förenklingsmöjligheter framkom vid vår studie. Ett var det tyska alternativet där antingen revisorn eller en skatterådgivare skulle kunna lämna ett utlåtande om omfattningen på den bokföringskontroll som har skett. Ett annat var förslaget om revisorsintyg, vilket används i England och USA. Vidare gavs förslag om datorstödd revision, införande av ny bolagsform i form av AB-Light, ett slopande av förvaltningsrevisionen och förenkling av revision genom förenkling av redovisningen. Sammanfattningsvis var det i två av dessa förslag, slopad förvaltningsrevision och förenklad revision genom förenklad redovisning, som styrkorna såg ut att överväga svagheterna. I respondenternas diskussion kring de olika alternativen framkom även ett förslag om obligatorisk efterfrågestyrd revision, vilket framstod som det förslag som var mest motiverat att undersöka vidare. / Background: In January 1, 1983 mandatory audit was introduced for all companies in Sweden. It is today, through the fourth EC directive, possible to exempt small companies from the requirement on auditing, and the debate about mandatory auditing in small companies in Sweden is intense. Since the turn of year 2004 there is a new body of regulations in Sweden, Revisionsstandard (RS). This as well as increased requirements on independence has intensified the debate further. According to several papers a removal of the mandatory audit is not realistic. However small- and mediumsized companies are considered to be in need of simple and suitable rules. Thus, it is relevant to examine how a suitable audit could be designed in small companies. Aim: The aim with this paper is to explain what can be considered when the concept ”simplification” is used in the debate about auditing in small companies. This is done through an investigation of which alternatives there are of simplification auditing of small companies. The intention is also to, on the basis of opinions from selected persons that is versed in the subject, analyse the strengths and the weaknesses with the possible simplification alternatives. Delimitations: This paper is delimited to consider which possibilities there are to simplify the statutory external auditing, provided that it will still be kept. Only possibilities to simplification of the auditing for small companies are considered. Small companies are defined in the fourth EC directive as companies with fewer than 50 employees, a turnover of less than 7,3 million euro and a total balance sheet of less than 3,65 euro. The paper has a geographic delimitation and does only consider the possibilities to simplification of auditing in small companies in Sweden. However there has been an investigation about how auditing is designed in England, Germany and the USA to see if Sweden possibly could use any of the strategies of simplification that these countries have used. Realization: In this paper mainly the qualitative method has been used. This as well as in form of a investigation of literature as well as five semi-structured interviews. The respondents that have been interviewed were chosen on the basis that they were considered to be versed in the examined subject. Conclusion: How a simplification could be designed is varying, but a reduction of the extent of the auditing seems to be a good start to keep the costs low. Several suggestions on how to simplify auditing were made in the paper. One of them was a German alternative where either the auditor or the tax advisor is supposed to leave an opinion about the extent of the control that has been made of the accounting. Another suggestion was a certificate of auditing, which is used in England and in the USA. Suggestions were also made about a new form of company - AB-Light, a removal of the management audit and a simplification of auditing through a simplification of accounting. In two of these suggestions, a removal of the management audit and a simplification of auditing though a simplification of accounting, were the advantages dominating the weaknesses. The respondents also came up with the proposal that the auditing should be controlled by demand but still mandatory, which appeared as the most motivated suggestion to investigate further.

Relationsmarknadsföring används allt mer av revisorer för att behålla klienter. Eftersom relationsmarknadsföring kan leda till vänskap och eftersom vänskap försvårar revisorns oberoende kan detta påverka hur revisorsyrket uppfattas. För bland annat kreditgivare är det viktigt att redovisningen fått en opartisk granskning och om inte ett oberoende föreligger kan detta potentiellt bli ett problem. Syftet med denna studie var att se om kreditgivare tror att revisorernas relationsmarknadsföring kan resultera i ett uppfattat försvagat oberoende. I den teoretiska referensramen tas olika teorier upp som hänger ihop med revision. Bland annat talas det om tankesättet profession-independence; uppfattningen om revisorers förmåga att arbeta oberoende. Metoden som användes var kvalitativ. Totalt sex professionella kreditgivare intervjuades, i sex separata intervjuer. Intervjuerna var öppna och semistrukturerade, de spelades in på diktafoner och renskrevs efteråt. Empirin visade att nästan alla kreditgivare hade samma uppfattning, att relationsmarknadsföringen inte är ett hot mot oberoendet. Det fanns flera faktorer som gav kreditgivarna förtroende för revisorerna och detta förtroende var så starkt att de inte trodde relationsmarknadsföringen skulle orsaka problem. Analysen som gjordes av inhämtade data är att de intervjuade kreditgivarna ser revisionen som försäkran, samt att relationsmarknadsföringen inte tros leda till förstört oberoende eftersom den vänskap som relationsmarknadsföringen kan generera inte tros ha effekter på oberoendet. Svaren från de intervjuade förknippades med tidigare teorier, inkluderandes teori kring revisionsarenan, och studien finner potential till möjlig utveckling av befintlig teori. Slutsatsen var att det framkommit indikationer på att relationsmarknadsföring inte kommer att skada revisorernas profession-independence och att detta går att härleda till tre faktorer: Upplevda mekanismer som förhindrar beroendeställning, Goda erfarenheter av revisorer och Eget behov av att agera i oberoende projiceras på revisorerna. Ytterligare förslag till framtida forskning presenterades.

Thesis (M.B.A.)--University of Hong Kong, 1998. / Includes bibliographical references (leaf 74-75).

Introduktion: Revisionen har sedan länge haft en viktig roll i att säkerställa tillförlitligheten hos företags finansiella information men kan utöver detta ses som betydligt mer flerdimensionell i och med sin rådgivande funktion. Att utforska vilka värden de som företräder de redovisningsskyldiga bolagen upplever av revisionen kan vara värdefullt då de både påverkar och påverkas av denna. De kommunala bostadsaktiebolagen skiljer sig åt i både ägarstruktur och revision från privata bolag vilket kan påverka bolagsföreträdarnas upplevda värde av revisionen och är därav relevant att undersöka.  Syfte: Syftet med studien är att utforska företagsledares uppfattning om revisionens värde i kommunala bostadsaktiebolag.  Metod: Studien är av kvalitativ karaktär och har utgått ifrån en deduktiv ansats.             Empirin har samlats in genom semi-strukturerade intervjuer. Slutsats: Studiens resultat visar att företagsledarnas upplevda värde av revisionen i huvudsak uppkommer i och med dess kontrollerande och granskade funktion, vilket tyder på att dess traditionella funktion fortfarande är högst aktuell. En möjlig förklaring till detta kan vara bolagens kommunala ägande. Samtidigt visar studien att revisionen i olika utsträckning skapar värde i och med sin rådgivande funktion. Uppfattningen om lekmannarevisionen styrker dock inte en liknande slutsats, och bidrar enligt insamlad empiri inte  i någon större utsträckning till värde för bolagen. / Introduction The audit has long had an important role in ensuring the reliability of corporate financial information but can be seen as considerably more multi dimensional with its advisory function. Investigating what values company representatives are experiencing from the audit can be valuable as they both affect and are influenced by its function. The public housing companies differ in both ownership structure and auditing, which may affect the company representatives perceived value from the audit and is therefore relevant to investigate. Purpose The purpose of the study is to explore business executives views on the audit value creation in public housing equity companies. Method The study is of a qualitative nature and is based on a deductive approach. The empirical data has been collected through semi-structured interviews. Conclusion The results of the study show that the business executives perceived value of the audit is mainly due to its controlling and auditory function, which indicates that its traditional function is still highly relevant. A possible explanation for this may be the municipal ownership of the companies. At the same time, the study shows that the audit to varying degrees is creating value with its advisory function. The perception of the layman auditing does not however reinforce a similar conclusion, and does not contribute to the value to any significant extent according to the study.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-06-02T19:06:16Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 6267.pdf: 44806178 bytes, checksum: 21b3f47ab5e871c1735a3ef64b107233 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2014-05-26 / Financiadora de Estudos e Projetos / The privacy guarantee of a person s data is understood as the capacity of this person to manage, store, change, restrict or disclose for groups of individual of his choice. The data shared can be sensitive, revealing private content that deserves protection in sharing, for example financial personal information. In many computing services a lot of sensitive data does not have any mechanism that guarantees the owner s privacy. This work shows a mechanism that guarantees the privacy of the person who has the data accessed, the data owner, and the privacy of the person who accesses the data. It was developed a cloud monitoring mechanism for data whose access needs to be monitored with intrusion detection scenario available for the data owner. The propose feasibility was evaluated by response time test of a monitored page access, server overload and the server resource consumption through the prism of an application using the mechanism. Such mechanism has been a viable solution due to its minimal impact in computational resources and a solution that assists in sensitive data access monitoring. / A garantia de privacidade de um dado de uma pessoa é entendida como a capacidade desta pessoa gerenciar, armazenar, alterar, restringir ou divulgar para um grupo de indivíduos de sua escolha. O dado compartilhado pode ser sensível revelando algo de teor privado que merece uma proteção no seu compartilhamento, por exemplo a informação financeira pessoal. Nos diversos serviços de computação há muitos dados sensíveis sem qualquer mecanismo que garanta a privacidade de seus proprietários. Este trabalho apresenta um mecanismo que garante a privacidade da pessoa que tem os dados acessados, o proprietário do dado, e da pessoa que acessa o dado. Foi desenvolvido um mecanismo em nuvem de monitoramento a dados que precisam ter o acesso monitorado com cenários de detecção de intrusão disponível para o proprietário do dado. A viabilidade da proposta foi avaliada por testes de tempo de resposta do acesso à página monitorada, sobrecarga do servidor e consumo de recursos do servidor sob o prisma de uma aplicação usando o mecanismo. Tal mecanismo apresenta ser uma solução viável por ter um impacto mínimo nos recursos computacionais e uma solução que auxilia no monitoramento de acesso a dados sensíveis.

Fraud risk assessment is an important audit process that has a direct impact on the effectiveness of auditors' fraud detection in an audit. However, prior literature has shown that auditors are generally poor at assessing fraud risk. The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB) suggests that auditors may improve their fraud risk assessment performance by adopting a fraud specialist mindset. A fraud specialist mindset is a special way of thinking about accounting records. While auditors think about the company's recorded transactions in terms of the availability of supporting documentations and the authenticity of the audit trail, fraud specialists think instead of accounting records in terms of the authenticity of the events and activities that are behind the reported transactions. Currently there is no study that has examined the effects of the fraud specialist mindset on auditors' fraud risk assessment performance. In addition, although recent studies have found that fraud specialists are more sensitive than auditors in discerning fraud risk factors in situation where a high level of fraud risk is present, it remains unclear whether the same can be said for situation where the risk of fraud is low. Thus, the purpose of my dissertation is to examine the effects of fraud specialist and audit mindsets on fraud risk assessment performance. In addition, I examined such effects on fraud risk assessment performance in both high and low fraud risk conditions. The contributions of my dissertation include being the first to experimentally examine how different mindsets impact fraud-related judgment. The results of my study have the potential to help address the PCAOB's desire to improve auditors' fraud risk assessment performance though the adoption of the fraud specialist mindset. In addition, my study contributes to the literature by exploring fraud-related problem representation as a possible mediator of mindset on fraud risk assessment performance. I executed my dissertation by conducting an experiment in which mindset (fraud specialist or audit) was induced prior to the completion of an audit case (high or low in fraud risk). A total of 85 senior-level accounting students enrolled in two separate auditing classes participated in my study. The results from my experimental provide empirical support that it is possible to improve auditors' fraud risk assessment through adapting the fraud specialist mindset. My study also provides preliminary evidence that individuals with the fraud specialist mindset developed different problem representations than those with the audit mindset.