Abstract: Title: The emergence of Big Data and Auditors' Perception (A comparative study on India and Bangladesh) Aim: The aim of the study is to explore and compare the perception of auditors in India and Bangladesh towards the implementation of big data analytics in audit. Method: In this study a qualitative method has been applied using semi-structured interviews. The study is an exploratory research and has been analysed thematically. Results and conclusions: Employing the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) as a conceptual framework, this study conducted a comparative analysis of auditors' perceptions, emphasizing the components of perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, intention to adopt, and their interactions. The results of the study show that the intention to adopt big data analytics tools emerges as a shared aspiration among auditors from both India and Bangladesh.

This dissertation examines the litigation and legal liability exposure of auditors related to the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 (SOX). Three separate studies were conducted to examine how auditor's litigation exposure is evaluated by potential litigants (lawyers), and how auditor liability is evaluated by jurors, following the bankruptcy of a client. The first study examines whether the auditor's SOX Section 404 reporting decisions influence lawyers' assessments of their litigation exposure. The second study investigates whether voluntary disclosures of significant deficiencies in internal controls within the SOX Section 404 report, and the subjectivity of the internal control judgments made by the auditor, influence jurors' perceptions of auditor liability for negligence. The third study examines how the requirements of SOX Section 302 related to audit committee independence and audit committee expertise influence jurors' perceptions of auditor independence and auditor liability for negligence. Overall, these three studies provide insights on how different provisions of SOX, specifically the Section 404 report and audit committee requirements, influence the likelihood that auditors will be sued and the likelihood that they will be held liable by a jury.

Automated and assisted decision-making has become prevalent across a myriad of domains, often including sensitive and critical tasks where guarantees regarding the operation of artificially intelligent systems from an ethical standpoint become essential. Different parties have made efforts to develop guidelines to establish general ethical requirements these systems should comply with. The translation from moral values to norms and then into precise system requirements is not trivial. The Glass-box framework is an approach meant to address the challenge of auditing autonomous systems' adherence to ethical values. It offers a two-stage process: an interpretation stage, where translation from ethical values into system requirements is performed; and an observation stage, where the adherence of an autonomous system to the desired values is tested using the system's inputs and outputs. The Glass-box approach allows for great flexibility in implementation, and its disregard for the inner mechanisms of the observed systems enable its application over a wide range of contexts, however its concrete practical implementation can be challenging. Prior work has addressed the formalisation of the Glass-box; covering the logical implementation of the reasoning involved in both the interpretation and observation stages. Yet, implementing the testing mechanisms required to translate input-output pairs into logical statements within the observation stage, remains an uncharted territory.  This thesis presents an implementation of the Glass-box's observation stage, considering also its further extension to not only audit the system under observation, but also to intervene it when adherence to the relevant moral bounds is not achieved. By making use of Bayesian generalized linear models, propositional logic, and formal argumentation, an implementation capable of handling a relevant class of scenarios in the audit of autonomous systems is presented; showcasing the generality-granularity trade-offs, the challenges of translating input-output pairs into logical statements, and the extension of the Glass-box approach to handle intervention via human-on-the­loop approaches. The implementation is validated through the case study of auditing a binary classifier's adherence to the value of fairness in the context of predicting criminal recidivism. The necessary loss of generality of the Glass-box framework to allow for its practical implementation is discussed, and directions for future work are proposed. / Automatiserat och assisterat beslutsfattande är numera vanligt förekommande inom en mängd olika områden, ofta i samband med känsliga och kritiska uppgifter där etiska garantier för hur artificiellt intelligenta system fungerar är av yttersta vikt. Olika parter har ansträngt sig för att utveckla riktlinjer, principer och lagstiftning, för att fastställa generella etiska krav som dessa system ska uppfylla. Att översätta moraliska värderingar till normer och sedan till exakta systemkrav ar inte trivialt. Ramverket Glass-box ar ett tillvägagångssätt som är avsett att bemöta den utmanande uppgiften att granska autonoma systems efterlevnad av etiska värderingar. Det erbjuder en tvåstegsprocess: tolkning, där översättning från etiska värderingar till systemkrav utförs, och observation, där ett autonomt systems efterlevnad av de önskade värdena testas med hjälp av systemets in- och utgångar. Glass­box-metoden tillåter stor flexibilitet rörande dess utförande och metodens oberoende av de observerade systemens inre mekanismer gör att den kan tillämpas i manga olika sammanhang, men att implementera den kan vara utmanande. Tidigare arbeten har behandlat formaliseringen av Glass-box­metoden, vilket omfattar det logiska genomförandet av de resonemang som ingår i både tolknings- och observationsfaserna. Genomförandet av de testmekanismer som krävs för att översatta input-output-par till logiska påståenden i observationsfasen har dock förblivit ett outforskat område.  I denna avhandling presenteras en implementation av Glass-boxens observationsstadium, som även innefattar dess ytterligare utvidgning för att utöver granskning av det observerade systemet också möjliggöra ingripande när systemet inte håller sig inom de relevanta moraliska gränserna. Genom att använda Bayesianska generaliserade linjära modeller, satslogik och formell argumentation presenteras en implementering som kan hantera en relevant klass av scenarier för granskning av autonoma system. Den exemplifierar nödvändiga avvägningar mellan generalitet och granularitet, utmaningarna med att översatta inmatnings- och utmatningspar till logiska påståenden och utvidgningen av Glass-box-metoden för att hantera ingripanden via mänskliga metoder i loopen. Implementationen valideras med hjälp av en fallstudie som granskar en binär klassificerares efterlevnad av rättvisevärden i samband med förutsägelser av återfall i brottslig verksamhet. Den nödvändiga reduktionen av generalitet i Glass-box-ramen för att möjliggöra ett praktiskt genomförande diskuteras, och riktlinjer för framtida arbete föreslås.

Jämställdhet är ett omdiskuterat och aktuellt ämne som påverkar flera verksamheters utfall. Den svenska revisionsbranschen genomgår en successiv förändring och flera kvinnliga revisorer börjar klättra i organisationshierarkin vilket minskar den manliga dominansen. Idag rekryteras nästintill lika många kvinnliga som manliga revisorer och könsfördelningen bland revisionsassistenter är jämn. Ledningspositionerna i organisationshierarkin är däremot mansdominerade vilket har skapat en vertikal könssegregering i revisionsbranschen. Syftet med studien är att förklara vilka aspekter som påverkar kvinnors och mäns karriärmöjligheter i den svenska revisionsbransch utifrån social role theory. Följande frågeställningar har därmed framställts:  i Vad påverkar könsfördelningen på de högre uppsatta positionerna?  ii Hur upplever kvinnliga och manliga revisorer sina förutsättningar för karriärutveckling?  Den teoretiska referensramen presenterar revisionsbranschens organisationsstruktur och vilka faktorer som påverkar revisorernas karriärmöjligheter. Studien utgår ifrån SRT för att förstå kvinnor och mäns olika könsroller i samhället. Studien undersöktes genom en kvalitativ ansats i form av semistrukturerade intervjuer. 14 respondenter intervjuades, sju kvinnliga och sju manliga revisorer för att erhålla en bredare förståelse utifrån båda könsperspektiven.  Studiens slutsats förklarar att det fortfarande förekommer negativa normer och beteenden i revisionsbranschen dock inte i samma utsträckning som förr. Förutsättningarna för att lyckas karriärmässigt är densamma för revisorerna, oavsett kön. Däremot är män och kvinnors livsprioriteringar olika vilket förklarar den vertikala könssegregeringen i revisionsbranschen. Kvinnor tenderar att prioritera familjeansvaret i större omfattning vilket resulterar i att män kan avancera mer effektivt på arbetsplatsen. / Gender equality is a discussed and topical topic that affects the outcome of several businesses. The Swedish auditing industry is undergoing a gradual change and several female auditors are starting to climb the organizational hierarchy, which reduces male dominance. Today, almost as many female as male auditors are recruited and the gender distribution among audit assistants is even. The management positions in the organizational hierarchy, on the other hand, are male dominated, which has generated a vertical gender segregation in the auditing industry. The purpose of the study is to explain which aspects affect women’s and men’s career opportunities in the Swedish auditing industry based on social role theory. The following research questions has been formulated:  i What affects the gender distribution in the higher positions?  ii How do female and male auditors experience their opportunities for career development?  The theoretical reference framework presents the organizational structure of the auditing industry as well as the factors that influence auditors’ career opportunities. The study is based on social role theory and serves as a foundational explanation for women’s and men’s various gender roles. This was investigated through a qualitative approach in the form of semi-structured interviews. 14 respondents, seven female and seven male auditors have been interviewed to obtain a broader understanding from both gender perspectives.  The study’s conclusion indicates that negative norms and behaviors still exist in the auditing industry, however, the norms have changed and no longer have the same effect on auditors’ career opportunities as before. The conditions for the auditors to develop career-wise are the same regardless of gender. On the other hand, men’s and women’s life priorities are different, which explains the vertical gender segregation in the auditing industry. Women tend to prioritize family responsibilities to a greater extent, which results in men being able to advance more efficiently in the industry.

During the recent year of 2023 Artificial Intelligence (AI) have been a major talking point and subject matter where the question is how AI implementation in certain areas can affect the current society. Whilst many jobs and industries already have experienced major changes and digital advancements, auditing have not changed as much in the recent time. Auditing is seen as an important role in society ensuring that companies and other entities follows laws and regulations when conducting business. With the possible implementation of AI in auditing the question is how it will affect the legitimacy of the audit and the audit process. The purpose of this study aims to explore from the auditor’s viewpoint how AI might affect auditing in the near time and future. To get a better understanding and identify the areas and factors in auditing that might be changed and affected the most. The study used a qualitative method and interviewed auditors working at different audit firms in Sweden. Where the auditors where asked questions of which their own thoughts and viewpoints surfaced. When conducting this study, on one hand it became clear that AI in auditing is seen as positive thing, where the participants acknowledged the analytical capabilities of AI and how it can make the auditing process more effective and precise at the same time. Leading to the possible change in audit classifications and the replacements of certain work tasks in the future. Auditors of the study also exhibited a certain level of distrust towards AI currently, even though they see it as a possible addition to the field in the near future.  The result of this study derived from the interviews is the findings of four themes where AI implementation affects auditing and its legitimacy. These themes are Scoping, Laws and Regulation, Competencies and Distrust. The findings of this study can contribute to better understand the factors and areas affected if AI implementation in auditing is conducted and how the legitimacy of the audit is affected.

The increasing effort to develop auditing expert systems raises many questions about their impact on public accounting firms. This research examines the status of expert systems in auditing and investigates the possible future impacts of expert systems on auditing firms. The research involved two separate studies. First, a Delphi study involving auditing and expert-systems experts investigated the likelihood of the proposed future impacts of expert systems on auditing firms. The purpose of the Delphi study was not only to identify the most and least likely impacts, but also to explore the reasons why respondents felt they were the most or least likely. The Delphi panel suggests that expert systems will very likely have an impact on auditing firms in the next decade. The most likely impact identified was that use of an expert system for an audit task provides documentation references for audit judgements and reasoning. other specific impacts that were identified as very likely include distribution of expertise, increased ability to handle complex analyses, and improved decision consistency and quality. The panel also indicated that use of expert systems in auditing is very likely to impact the education of auditors. Second, a case study of an auditing firm using an audit planning expert system provided evidence concerning the impact of an expert system in use. The case study confirmed that, even today, expert systems may be used to provide documentation references and enhance decision consistency and quality. In the situation studied, the impacts were most evident for the less experienced users. The primary contribution of the research is to address questions and concerns about the impact of expert systems on the aUditing profession. The pool of potential impacts of expert systems that has been discussed in the literature can now be narrowed to focus on the most likely impacts. This research is the first step in developing a theory of expert systems impacts. It provides (1) the impetus for further research addressing more specific areas of potential expert systems impact and (2) case study evidence about expert systems impacts that are occurring today. Reasons for the most probable impacts of expert systems on auditing in the future are identified. / Ph. D.

No / In recent years, corporate failures and accounting irregularities have led to concerns about the effectiveness of audit committees in the financial reporting process. In response, corporate governance committees in different countries have made specific recommendations designed to enhance the role of the audit committee in executing its financial reporting oversight duties. We investigate in this study, the effect of some of the recommendations by empirically examining the relationship between selected audit committee characteristics and the level of disclosure in interim reports of a sample of 262 UK listed companies. Specifically, the audit committee characteristics examined are shareholding of audit committee members (as a proxy for audit committee independence), audit committee size and audit committee financial expertise. Employing both a weighted and unweighted index to measure interim disclosure, the results indicate a significant negative association between shareholding of audit committee members and interim disclosure. Our results provide evidence of a significant positive association between interim disclosure and audit committee financial expertise. We find no significant relationship between audit committee size and the extent of disclosure in interim reports. Overall, however, our results suggest that audit committee characteristics have an impact on its monitoring effectiveness of the financial reporting process. These results have important implications for corporate governance policy-makers who have a responsibility to prescribe appropriate corporate governance structures to ensure that shareholders are protected

No / In this article, the authors examine how the internal audit function maintains its legitimacy when enterprise resource planning systems are introduced. This work centers on an in-depth case study of a multinational bank and finds that enterprise resource planning systems impose an institutional logic of control based on interlinked assumptions. These assumptions motivate changes in the practice and structure of the internal audit function to become an integrated and comprehensive function to maintain its legitimacy.

Background: For the last decade, the Swedish audit industry has experienced a turnover problem as there is a steady decline in authorized auditors. Furthermore, studies shows that more than half of the entry-level auditors leave the profession within the first three years of employment.  Purpose: The purpose of this thesis is to examine the impact professional identity and organizational identity has on job satisfaction among entry-level auditors. In addition to that, to investigate the impact job satisfaction has on job performance.  Methodology: This study adopts a positivistic perspective of research philosophy and employs a deductive approach, using a quantitative method. A survey was distributed to Swedish entry-level auditors who have worked within the profession for a maximum of three years. The collected data were analyzed through a Pearson Correlation matrix and multiple regression analysis. Findings: When studying the combined effect of organizational identity and professional identity on job satisfaction, the findings show that organizational identity has a positive impact on job satisfaction while professional identity do not. Furthermore, the findings show that job satisfaction has a positive impact on job performance.

A company’s board of directors is ultimately responsible for putting effective corporate governance (CG) structures in place as mechanisms to enhance its accountability to stakeholders. An audit committee (AC), which is a subcommittee of the board, is one component of the company’s CG structures. In South Africa, legislation, the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) listing requirements, and the King code and report of Governance for South Africa 2009 (King III) deal with the composition and responsibilities of ACs. As the shares of AltX listed companies, which are categorised as high-growth potential, small to medium-sized listed companies, are traded publicly, they are required to comply with the Companies Act and to establish an AC according to the Act’s composition requirements to fulfil mandatory responsibilities. In terms of the JSE listing requirements, AltX listed companies must appoint an AC or explain their reason(s) for not doing so. As the total market capitalisation of AltX listed companies has increased by 87% over the past three years, greater numbers of stakeholder groups are being affected. Since stakeholder groups are protected when companies implement effective CG processes, the purpose of this study is to understand the way in which the AC of an AltX listed company, as an example of a high-growth potential, small to medium-sized listed company, adds value to the company and its stakeholders. Attributes that contribute to the value added by ACs were identified as being the characteristics of AC members; the fulfilment of responsibilities through optimised activities; and the fulfilment of responsibilities by maintaining healthy relationships with the board and information providers. An explorative qualitative case-based research design was applied in terms of which a single AltX listed company was selected according to predetermined selection criteria. Data were collected using individual semi-structured interviews, field notes and company documents. Descriptive open coding techniques were used for data analysis with the findings of the study subsequently being presented in terms of a theoretical framework of the attributes that influence the extent to which the AC adds value. The findings of the study confirm that these attributes of the AC facilitate its ability to add value to the AltX listed company investigated and its stakeholders in terms of enlightened shareholder theory. / Auditing / M. Com. (Auditing)