Do Audit Partners with Greater Self-Control Perform Higher-Quality Audits and Achieve Greater Career Success?

Abstract

Trait self-control – the ability to regulate behavior, thoughts, and emotions, especially in pursuit of goals – is important in achieving success in a variety of situations. However, little is known about whether or how individual audit partners’ traits and characteristics can influence audit quality or other outcomes. We combine survey and archival data to examine whether and how Big 4 audit partners’ trait self-control relates to audit quality, client portfolio size, and compensation. We find that trait self-control is predictive of higher audit quality (decreased discretionary accruals and increased probability of issuing a modified audit opinion) and of partners having larger client portfolios and higher compensation. In additional analyses we rule out that this is a selection effect whereby partners with higher self-control audit better clients. Instead, our findings suggest that audit partners’ level of trait self-control is an important determinant of audit quality and audit partners’ career success.