Le sujet de la thèse de doctorat porte sur "le contrôle de la Cour des comptes sur la gestion publique et sur l’anticorruption administrative."La brûlante actualité de ce sujet résulte du récent "Classement de la corruption perçue" - le « Corruption Perception Index 2014 de Transparency International» - publié en Décembre 2014, qui, sur la base des évaluations des observateurs internationaux sur le niveau de corruption de 175 pays du monde place l'Italie, sur le podium (avec la Roumanie, la Grèce et la Bulgarie) des Pays les plus corrompus parmi ceux qui font partie de l'Union européenne.Ces données qui imposent au législateur italien une profonde réflexion sur les «moyens» utilisés et à utiliser dans la lutte contre la corruption administrative, se situent dans un moment de grandes difficultés économiques et financières pour l'Etat italien, à cause de la propagation du phénomène de la corruption administrative dans les administrations publiques.Toutefois, il convient de noter que, à partir d'une analyse de l'histoire récente de la législation nationale, il surgit la tentative de l'État italien de mettre fin à ce phénomène par des techniques et des instruments autres que ceux de la loi pénale.D’ une part, il suffit de rappeler que, dans la même année, 2012,le législateur italien , avec la « loi Severino » ( 190/2012) envisagé,pour la première fois de manière organique et suivant une approche administrative, la «pathologie » de la corruption (par exemple, à travers la nomination d'une «autorité nationale de lutte contre la corruption, ou par la promotion de l'éthique publique,de la transparence administrative). D’ autre part, avec le décret loi 174/2012 (converti dans la loi 213/2012) afin de remédier à la détérioration progressive de la finance locale, causée par les nombreux scandales impliquant certains des Conseils régionaux italiens, a lancé une phase de la réforme du système de contrôle, débouchée sur l'émanation du décret loi 174/2012 intitulé "Renforcement de la participation de la Cour des comptes au contrôle sur la gestion financière des collectivités locales."La thèse de doctorat analyse,donc, l’ effervescence du législateur italien dans le domaine du contrôle de la Cour des compte safin de mettre fin au phénomène de la corruption administrative focalisant aussi l’« attention », en termes de comparaison, àl’ organisation française.Le dernier chapitre du travail est, en fait, consacré à l'approfondissement du thème de la lutte contre la corruption administrative et au rôle joué par la Cour dans l’ organisation française qui, en effet, presqu’ une décennie avant l'Italie, en 1993, a élaboré une loi organique visant à lutter contre la corruption administrative, la loi Sapin.En bref par le biais d’ une comparaison entre le système français et le système italien ce travail vise à encourager la réflexion sur la question délicate des contrôles de gestion de la Cour des comptes sur les administrations publiques et sur la lutte contre la corruption. / The general theme discussed in the doctoral thesis focuses on"the control of the Court of Auditors on public management andadministrative Anticorruption".The current importance of this theme is evident if only weconsider the recent "Feels Ranking of Corruption" - the CorruptionPerception Index 2014 of Transparency International-published in December 2014 that, in reporting the assessments of internationalobservers on the level of corruption of 175 countries of the world, putsItaly on the podium (together with Romania, Greece and Bulgaria) ofthe most corrupt countries among those belonging to the EuropeanUnion.These data require the Italian legislature a deep reflection onthe strategies adopted or that will be adopted in the fight againstadministrative corruption, especially in a time of great economic andfinancial difficulties for the Italian state, which derived among otherthings, from the spread of the phenomenon of administrativecorruption in public administrations.Importantly, from the analysis on the recent history of thenational legislative landscape it has also to be noted the attempt of theItalian state to put a stop to the phenomenon of the corruption alsowith more strategies and tools than those typical of criminal law. For istance in 2012 the Italian legislature approved on the onehand, the so-called law Severino (law 190 / 2012) which prescribes,for the first time in an organic way, an administrative approach to the"disease" of corruption (through, for example, the appointment of a'National Anti-Corruption Authority, the promotion of ethics public,the administrative transparency), and on the other hand, the decree 174/2012 (converted into Law 213/2012), entitled "Strengthening ofthe participation of the Court of Auditors in auditing the financialmanagement of local authorities", which represent a starting point fora phase of reform of the controls in order to remedy the gradualdeterioration of the local finance, also caused by numerous scandalsinvolving some of the Italian regional councils, has launched a phaseof reform of the controls.The doctoral thesis, which analyzes the "leaven" of the Italianlegislature and the attempt to put a stop to the phenomenon ofadministrative corruption also turn the 'attention', in a comparison key,to the French law. The last chapter of the thesis is, in fact, dedicated to thedeepening of the theme of the fight against administrative corruptionand the role played by the Court of auditors in 'French law whichalmost a decade before Italy ( in 1993) drafted a comprehensive lawaimed at combating administrative corruption (the so-called LoiSapin).In summary, the thesis through a comparison of the French lawand Italian law, aims to encourage reflection not only on the delicate issue of the controls of the Court of Auditors on public managemen tbut also on administrative anticorruption.

Comparability is a central feature of financial reporting systems. Comparability is defined by FASB (2010, 19) as “the qualitative characteristic that enables users to identify and understand similarities in, and differences among, items.” The Accounting Principles Board ranked comparability as one of the most important objectives of financial reporting and Generally Accepted Accounting Principles have underscored the importance of comparability for the past four decades. Using empirical measures of financial statement comparability, studies confirm that comparability plays an important role in analyst following, audit fees, credit risk, acquisition decisions, stock price volatility, the cost of debt, the cost of equity, and cash holdings. This dissertation, investigates the impact of comparability on trade credit, earnings management through classification shifting, and on non-Big4 auditors. Prior studies find that comparable firms enjoy a lower cost of equity capital and a lower cost of debt. They should, therefore, require less trade credit. I also find that comparable smaller and/or financially distressed firms require less trade credit whereas they normally require higher levels of trade credit. The results presented in my first essay support this hypothesis in that comparability and trade credit are significantly negatively associated. The results presented in my second essay show that managers’ earnings management through classification shifting is significantly influenced by the degree of financial statement comparability with other firms. I also find that comparable firms engage in less classification shifting and that the impact of comparability is more pronounced after the passage of the Sarbanes Oxley Act. The results presented in my third essay show that companies audited by non-Big4 auditors are less comparable than the companies audited by Big4 auditors. Non-Big4 auditors are thus less likely to be able to apply the same audit process to multiple clients. I find that this results in greater audit effort, as proxied by higher audit fees, for Non-Big4 firms.

Auditor´s professional judgement is often discussed. The aim of this paper is to see how structure affects auditor’s professional judgement in audit planning. The empirical analysis is based on qualitative interviews with seven auditors with different experience. The study shows that there is not a trend toward less structure in audit firms, rather more. It is clear that auditor´s professional judgements are affected by the degree of structure and structure occurs in most of auditors’ work. The study shows that structure and professional judgements are not two separate things; instead they support each other. Even if auditors have access to structure when planning an audit they need to make professional judgements, especially when identify risks and decide materiality.

On all Swedish audits on fiscal years starting 1st of January 2011 or later, the clarified ISAs should be applied. Before that, the Swedish auditing standards were called RS, which were a direct translation of the elder version of the ISAs but with considerations of Swedish law and Swedish traditions. The EC states that there will be no fundamental changes for the Swedish audits when the clarified ISAs is implemented, and IFAC states that all audits will realize significant changes when the clarified ISAs is implemented. The purpose of this study is therefore to explain how the audit process has been affected by the implementation of the clarified ISAs and what effects it has given rise to. The study also aims at explaining the relationship between audit firm size and impact on the audit process. This study was conducted using qualitative methods for both collecting and analyzing data. The data have been collected using both primary and secondary data. The primary data was collected through questionnaires in order to get as many opinions as possible but interviews were conducted as well in order to get a deep insight about the subject and to make sure that the questions in the questionnaire was relevant. What emerged in this study is that both the EC and IFAC were right about the implementation of the clarified ISAs in Sweden. The auditors that participated in this study explained that the way they are doing an audit has not changed, which means that no fundamental changes have occurred in the audits. However, the auditors have experienced some changes in the audit process, for example an increased amount of requirements on documentation and a more complicated and time consuming auditor’s report. How much the audit process has changed differs depending on the size of the audit firm. Generally, the impact on the audit process at the “big four” are less than it is on small audit firms due to the fact that many of the “big four” have worked with ISA before. Overall, the auditors have experienced that the implementation of the clarified ISAs have meant an increased cost for doing audits, in the form of updates in audit methodologies, educations and more procedures to perform. However, the auditors have not experienced that the audit quality has increased due to this. This means that the costs for an audit have increased while the quality remains the same.

På senare tid har finansiella skandaler fått ett allt större utrymme i media, vilket skapat en debatt bland allmänheten och näringslivet om revisorns förtroende. Revisionsbranschen utgör en av de viktigaste grundstenarna i samhällsekonomin och ett minskat förtroende för dem är problematiskt. Då förtroende är viktigt, är det nödvändigt att känna till hur revisorer skapar ett förtroende och vad det påverkas av. Uppsatsen avser att beskriva hur revisorer skapar förtroende, vad som påverkar revisorernas förtroende samt att belysa de konsekvenser och risker som finns med minskat förtroende. Studien använder sig av beskrivande metoder, där primärdata består av intervjuer med respondenter och sekundärdata tillhandahölls av vetenskapliga artiklar, böcker, tidningsartiklar och webbsidor. Studien har genomförts med en kvalitativ metod, där verkligheten studerades genom att tillämpa abduktion. Igenom studien kontrolleras det att uppsatsen håller en hög reliabilitet, validitet och objektivitet. Denna empiriska studie visade att revisorns kompetens är centralt för att dess klienter och intressenter ska kunna lita på denne. För att det ska säkerställas att revisorn har de kunskaper som krävs och att det inte finns oseriösa revisorer, är det viktigt att revisorer kvalitetskontrolleras. Författarna har kommit fram till att revisorerna arbetar förhållandevis lika när det gäller kraven och dess ansvar för att skapa förtroende. Detta troligen på grund av att de stora revisionsbyråerna har goda förutsättningar i form av interna system, utbildningar och tillgång till expertis. Förtroendet mellan en revisor och dess klient samt övriga intressenter är relationsbaserat och växer fram med tiden. Förutom kompetens- och kvalitetskontroll bygger revisorers förtroende på att dagens regelverk är bra utformad, revisorers tystnadsplikt och oberoende samt att revisorn har de rätta personliga kvalifikationerna. En konsekvens av ett minskat förtroende för revisorer kan vara att fler bolag kan helt enkelt väljer bort revisionen, vilket även kan komma att påverka hela samhällsekonomin. Slutligen har studien klarlagt att strikt reglering gentemot företagsledningar/internrevisorer och revisorer när det gäller olagliga former av vinstmanipulering inte finns idag. Ett möjligt område för vidare forskning inom ämnet skulle vara att undersöka stora respektive små företags förtroende för revisorer eller att fördjupa sig i om det finns några skillnader i förtroendet för godkända respektive auktoriserade revisorer samt varför. Ett annat tänkbart område är att kontakta några stora respektive små aktiebolag för deras kommentarer och då fördjupa sig i frågan varför revisorer är inblandade i vissa finansiella skandaler. Slutligen skulle ett tänkbart område kunna vara att undersöka massmedias påverkan i revisionens förtroendeskapade process.

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Internal control plays a pivotal role in enhancing security operations and quality control in an organization. The process of evaluating internal auditors is a powerful tool for the management team. It does not only prevent frauds, but also boosts profitability. From the perspective of management, internal auditors work for ensuring effective operations and improving performance for all the management systems within the organization. They bear great responsibility and play a key role. Therefore, the study attempts to explore the personal attributes and work characteristics, to analyze job satisfactions among internal auditors and finally to finds a list of key factors effecting job satisfaction. This study is conducted in three parts. First, a preliminary conceptual framework is established via literature review. This conceptual framework goes through constant modifications before being introduced into the empirical research architecture of this study. Questionnaires are thus designed based on this architecture. In the process of questionnaire design, opinions from eight senior auditor executives serve as expert validity. Expert opinions are modified and incorporated into questionnaires to quantify the correlation of personal attributes, work characteristics and job satisfactions among internal auditors. This research selected samples of the internal auditors from domestic companies, i.e. members of the Institute of Internal Auditors, in Taipei, Hsinchu, Taichung, and Kaohsiung. A total of 567 questionnaires are issued and 376 questionnaires are collected with responding rate of 66%. After deleting 104 invalid questionnaires, the number of valid questionnaires is 272. Statistical analysis, such as variance, correlation and regression, is conducted with SPSS software. Empirical findings are as follows: 1. Significant difference exists between the demographic variables, such as job titles, the years of work experience, disciplined personal traits of internal auditors, certain dimensions of work properties and internal and external satisfactions in terms of job satisfaction. 2. There is significance difference between the ages and the competition dimension factors of achievement motivation. 3. General auditors are found to be significantly more satisfied with work than senior auditors or entry-level auditors. It is also apparent that the more senior the positions, the more job satisfactions. 4. The demographic variables, work characteristics, achievement motivations, and job satisfactions are partially correlated. At a closer look, we find that the friendliness as a personal attribute is significantly positive correlated with job satisfaction. Neuroticism as a personal attribute is significantly negative correlated with job satisfaction. 5. Personal attributes of internal auditors impose significant impacts to achievement motivations and job satisfactions. 6. Personal attributes are affected by achievement motivations and, in turn, they affect job satisfactions. Achievement motivations have intervening effects though the effects are mild.

As the economics prospers and large scale of enterprise, the concerned government authorities, enterprise and the public investors need quality accounting information to make decisions. CPA firms play a vital role in the providing of most accounting information. And the auditor of CPA firms is a key factor to affect the quality of auditing. Some studies have found that high job satisfaction will strengthen organizational commitment and lower the intention to quit. And the auditors will have better job performance. Therefore, it is important for the CPA firms to promote the auditors¡¦ job satisfaction. In this study, leadership style is used as independent variable, perception of job characteristics as an intermediary variable, and job satisfaction as a dependent variable. Besides, this study uses one way anova, regression analysis and lisrel to testify the hypothesizes based on data collected from 122 auditors from five big CPA firms. The result are as follows¡G 1.Overall, some supportive results of this study illustrate the significant difference in perception of job characteristics and job satisfaction among diverse personal characteristics. 2.Leadership styles have made significant difference in perception of job characteristic and job satisfaction. Of the four leadership styles, auditors under high-consideration and high-initiating perceive greater extent of perception of job characteristics and job satisfaction than those who under ant other leadership styles. 3.The perception of job characteristics has direct positive impact on auditors¡¦ job satisfaction. Especially the intrinsic satisfaction is influenced deeply by the perception of job autonomy and variety. 4.Leadership styles through the intermediary perception of job characteristics have indirect positive impacts on auditors¡¦ job satisfaction. According to the result above, this study suggests that the supervisor of accounting firms should put equal emphasis on consideration and initiating behaviors to enhance the auditors¡¦ perception of job characteristics. Therefore, the auditors will have more job satisfaction and better job performance.

The article develops a multidimensional scale that measures to what extent different moral philosophical dimensions influence auditors’ decision-making in their managerial role. An additional aim was to explore if auditors perceive differences in the ethical decision-making process as managers and as auditors. The scale was developed based on eight ethical dimensions from a priori theory. The scale was converted into a webbased questionnaire and sent to Swedish authorised auditors. Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) was used to test the scale, since it is a suitable method for scale development and early stages of research. The EFA indicates a five-dimensional scale; however, the eight-dimensional scale is to some extent supported, since two of the five dimensions, both connected to duties, are multidimensional in themselves. Hence, the study implies that the concept of duty is a wider concept in the auditing context than in moral philosophical theory, which could be explained by the nature of the profession and that auditors do not perceive a difference between the managerial and auditing role. However, since the study is limited to the Swedish auditing context, the scale needs to be tested in other geographical and cultural contexts. Other implications and suggestions for further research are also presented.

Zugl.: Hannover, Universiẗat, Diss., 2007.