International Archival Auditing and Assurance Research: Trends, Methodological Issues, and Opportunities

TLDR

Our review is of interest to researchers, practitioners, and standard setters/regulators involved in international auditing and assurance activities. The study aims to support evidence‑based international standard setting by reviewing 130 archival auditing and assurance articles published in eight leading journals (1995–2014) and mapping them to the IAASB Framework for Audit Quality. The authors conducted a comprehensive review of these studies, analyzing audit quality measures, data sources, and endogeneity approaches, and mapped the findings to the IAASB framework. The review summarizes findings in well‑studied areas, documents a marked evolution in audit quality metrics, data sources, and endogeneity methods over two decades, and highlights challenges and future research opportunities.

Abstract

SUMMARY We present a comprehensive review of the 130 international archival auditing and assurance research articles that were published in eight leading accounting and auditing journals for 1995–2014. In order to support evidence-based international standard setting and regulation, and to identify what has been learned to date, we map this research to the International Auditing and Assurance Standards Board's (IAASB) Framework for Audit Quality. For the areas that have been well researched, we provide a summary of the findings and outline how they can inform standard setters and regulators. We also observe a significant evolution in international archival research over the 20 years of our study, as evidenced by the measures of audit quality, data sources used, and approaches used to address endogeneity concerns. Finally, we identify some challenges in undertaking international archival auditing and assurance research and identify opportunities for future research. Our review is of interest to researchers, practitioners, and standard setters/regulators involved in international auditing and assurance activities.