The CAQ announces five academic grants for audit research

By Admin

June 1, 2017

The Center for Audit Quality (CAQ) announced on Wednesday that they will award five grants this year to fund independent academic research on audit-related projects.

The CAQ has now funded over $600,000 in academic research via 35 awards since starting the program nine years ago. The grant program focuses on topics ranging from critical policy issues, cybersecurity, fraud, and audit value.

“The CAQ and the public company auditing profession enthusiastically support independent research to improve audit quality and better serve investors and our capital markets,” stated the CAQ’s executive director Cindy Fornelli. “We’re pleased to fund important academic research to help inform audit practice for the ninth year in a row.”

This year’s projects were selected by the CAQ’s Research Advisory Board (RAB), which contains academia members and auditing professionals alike.

This year’s selected projects are:

Improving Auditors’ Consideration of Evidence Contradicting Management’s Complex Estimate by Assumptions by Ashley Austin (University of Richmond), Jacqueline Hammersley (University of Georgia), and Michael Ricci (University of Georgia)

Auditing Non-GAAP Measures: Signaling More than Intended by Jessen Hobson (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign), Spencer Anderson (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign), and Ryan Sommerfeldt (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign)

Auditor Use of Root Cause Analysis and Its Effect on Professional Skepticism and Judgment in an Integrated Audit by Marcus Doxey (University of Alabama), Todd DeZoort (University of Alabama), and Troy Pollard (University of Alabama)

Deception in the Audit Environment: The Hidden Benefit of Email Communication? by Mary Parlee Durkin (University of San Diego), Jane Kennedy Jollineau (University of San Diego) and Sarah Lyon (University of San Diego)

A “Perfect Storm” for Professional Skepticism among Senior Auditors: Depletion, Reversion to Staff Processing Habits, and Complex Tasks by Sarah Bonner (University of Southern California), Kathryn Kadous (Emory University), and Tracie Majors (University of Southern California)