Toward an Understanding of Audit Team Distribution and Performance Quality

What is it about?

Auditors are increasingly working from different geographic locations due to technological advancements that facilitate team interactions and enable access to and the application of knowledge, expertise, and innovation. When auditors work in distributed teams, accountability is critical because of less-timely, virtual interactions with regard to review/monitoring. Prior literature primarily examines contexts where the effects of distribution cannot be isolated from other factors associated with national boundaries. Further, audits today are most commonly conducted within one country, by the same firm, and within local teams that report varying levels of distribution. We study local office-level geographic distribution, which is increasing in frequency and intentionality in auditing. In addition to offering a cleaner test of theory, we examine remedying the deleterious effects associated with distribution from the "bottom-up" in teams.

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