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It is well documented in cross-country research that institutions, both economic and political, affect the reporting behavior of auditors and audit services. These findings are based on the assumption that institutions vary across countries but are more homogeneous within a country. However, cross-country research suffers from the problems of country-specific cultures, accounting rules, and regulations, and can be criticized for the use of small sample sizes, potential endogeneity, and the correlation of omitted variables. This study overcomes these problems by engaging in within-country research. Specifically, this study examines how variations in the institutional environment within China affect auditor reporting behavior. Since the initiation of the open door policy in the early 1980s, China’s institutional environment has, from both the economic and political perspectives, undergone different development stages that have moved east to west across the provinces. This thesis takes advantage of these special institutional characteristics in China to test the influence of institutions on auditor reporting behavior within a single country. Based on the NERI Index (2001) of Marketization (NIM) (Fan and Wang, 2003), I classify China’s 30 provinces into “good” and “poor” institutional regions. In poor regions, the local economy is more influenced by local governments, and suffers from an underdeveloped credit market and a poorer legal environment. Taking into account the close relationship between local governments and local government-owned companies, the absolute power of resource allocation by governments, and the low litigation risk, I hypothesize that auditors in poor institutional regions tend to be lenient to local government-owned companies by issuing them with more unqualified initial and subsequent audit opinions. I collected 8,039 firm-year observations from the Chinese stock market, the results from which provide evidence to support the hypotheses. This study extends the previous research of Chan, Lin and Mo (2006) by revealing that the lenient reporting behavior of local auditors toward local government-owned companies is more prevalent in regions with a poor institutional environment. The findings of this thesis have rich implications for policy-makers and regulators in China. One implication is that institutional improvement is a key factor in the creation of a quality audit profession, even when uniform national auditing regulations have been established.

Workplace bullying has gained widespread attention as contributing to the increase in organizational costs and the reduction in employee productivity. Organizations and human resource departments have conducted studies and developed prevention programs to address bullies, but few studies or programs have focused on the role of victims in the onset of bullying. This quantitative study examined the relationship between bullying victimization in the workplace, focusing on personality traits, specific problem solving, and a victim's locus of control belief. A sample (N = 94) of male and female college students completed the Negative Acts Questionnaire-Revised, Heppner's Problem-Solving Inventory, Levenson's Locus of Control Scale, and the NEO-5 Factor Inventory. Data were initially analyzed using a 2-tailed MANCOVA with subsequent ANOVAs. Results showed that victims and nonvictims of workplace bullying had significantly different instrument scores. Specifically, victims scored significantly higher than nonvictims in Neuroticism, Approach/ Avoidance, Personal Control, and Powerful Others, whereas nonvictims' scores were significantly higher than victims for Extroversion related to workplace bullying. This study may contribute to social change by identifying and addressing the behaviors of individuals who could become the victims of workplace bullying and how to address victimization through educational awareness and training, allowing victims to be more proactive and reducing the risk of being bullied. Future studies are recommended to examine the relationship between bullied victims who score high on problem-solving and their locus of control.