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    Auditing in the time of social distancing: The effect of COVID-19 on auditing quality

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    Albitar, Gerged, Kikhia and Hussainey (2020) (208.3Kb)
    Date
    2020-08-26
    Author
    Albitar, Khaldoon;
    Gerged, Ali;
    Kikhia, Hassan;
    Hussainey, Khaled
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    Abstract
    Purpose: Our paper aims to discuss the theoretical impact of Covid-19 social distancing outbreak on audit quality. Design/methodology/approach: Our paper uses a desk study method to explore the possible impact of COVID-19 crisis on five key considerations for audit quality during the pandemic. These include audit fees, going concern assessment, auditor human capital, audit procedures and audit personnel salaries. Findings: As many believe that the COVID-19 outbreak is as yet not a financial crisis, we, on the contrary, believe that the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic would be the toughest challenge for auditors and their clients since the 2007-2008 global financial crisis. Specifically, we believe that the COVID-19 social distancing can largely affect audit fees, going concern assessment, audit human capital, audit procedures, audit personnel salaries, and audit effort, which ultimately can pose a severe impact on audit quality. Practical implications: Due to the implementations of work-from-home strategy, audit firms are highly recommended to invest more in digital programs, including artificial intelligence, blockchain, network security, and data function development. This can help them to be more adaptable to working from home experience, which is ultimately expected to enhance the effectiveness and the flexibility of communication between auditors and their clients. Also, we recommend stock markets and other governmental bodies to provide temporary relaxations in compliance requirements to corporations. This procedure is expected to help firms that apply work-from-home strategy to report better earnings figures, which is appeared to be positively associated with audit quality. Originality/value: To date, to the best of our knowledge, there is no academic study that explores the potential impact of the COVID-19 outbreak on audit quality. This paper, therefore, fills an important research gap in the auditing literature. In addition, our paper can be used as a base to construct a research instrument (e.g., questionnaire or interviews) to provide empirical evidence on the potential impact of COVID-19 on audit quality.
    Description
    The file attached to this record is the author's final peer reviewed version.
    Citation : Albitar, K., Gerged, A.M., Kikhia, H. and Hussainey, K. (2020) Auditing in times of social distancing: The effect of COVID-19 on auditing quality. International Journal of Accounting and Information Management, (In Press)
    URI
    https://dora.dmu.ac.uk/handle/2086/20127
    DOI
    https://doi.org/10.1108/IJAIM-08-2020-0128
    ISSN : 1834-7649
    Research Institute : Centre for Research in Accountability, Governance and Sustainability (CRAGS)
    Peer Reviewed : Yes
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    • Department of Accounting and Finance [414]

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