Abstract
ABSTRACT The passage of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX) was a turning point in auditing and in auditors practice for the academic world. Research concerning the characterization of academic production related to auditing is in its third decade. Its analysis is accomplished by means of definition of keywords, abstracts or title, and information on thematic association within the academic production itself in auditing is undisclosed. In order to revise this gap in auditing literature, this study identified the main themes in auditing and their association in post-SOX era by analyzing the content of objectives and hypothesis of 1,650 publications in Web of Science (2002-2014). The findings in this study extended those from the study by Lesage and Wechtler (2012) from 16 auditing thematic typologies to 22. The results demonstrate that the themes audit report & financial statement users, corporate governance, audit market, external audit, socio-economic data of the company, international regulation, and fraud risk & audit risk were the most addressed in the publications about auditing. Corporate governance has a broader association with the other themes in the area. Future researches may use these themes and relate them to the methodologies applied to audit studies.
Highlights
Since the precursor work of Smith and Krogstad (1984), expanded by the same authors in later years (1988, 1991), in which they developed a seven category typology, “SK typology”, in order to study the academic production about auditing in Auditing: A Journal of Practice & eory, researchers have been using its typology to carry out bibliometric and scientometric comparisons in scienti c papers
As research on characterization of the academic production in auditing is in its third decade, the following arguments are pertinent: which journals in auditing production are the most relevant? Which themes emerging and which are declining a er the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 (SOX)? How are auditing themes evolving? How are themes associated in auditing publications?
Lesage and Wechtler (2012) expanded the investigations by Maijoor, Meuwissen, and Quadackers (2000), in which they have identi ed nine themes, two in addition to the precursor study accomplished by Smith and Krogstad (1984, 1988, 1991) – responsible for the creation of “SK typology”, presenting the seven rst themes tracked in audit scienti c investigation. erefore, the purpose is to accomplish something not yet seen to the post-SOX era, i.e., a study of themes published in audit based on research objectives and hypothesis through a content analysis
Summary
Since the precursor work of Smith and Krogstad (1984), expanded by the same authors in later years (1988, 1991), in which they developed a seven category typology, “SK typology”, in order to study the academic production about auditing in Auditing: A Journal of Practice & eory, researchers have been using its typology to carry out bibliometric and scientometric comparisons in scienti c papers. Lesage and Wechtler (2012) expanded the investigations by Maijoor, Meuwissen, and Quadackers (2000), in which they have identi ed nine themes (from 1990 to 1997), two in addition to the precursor study accomplished by Smith and Krogstad (1984, 1988, 1991) – responsible for the creation of “SK typology” –, presenting the seven rst themes tracked in audit scienti c investigation. Erefore, the purpose is to accomplish something not yet seen to the post-SOX era, i.e., a study of themes published in audit based on research objectives and hypothesis through a content analysis. Is study aims to identify the main themes and their associations in auditing in post-SOX era. We conclude the study with the discussion of its results, limitations, and some implications for future research
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