Cindy Fornelli Executive Director Center for Audit Quality

The Center for Audit Quality (CAQ) has demonstrated its continued support for independent auditing-related research with the selection of three new academic research proposals for funding.

The CAQ received nearly 50 research proposals in response to a December 2012 request for proposals on topics such as professional skepticism and judgment, audit quality indicators, and going concern. After careful consideration of the proposals, the CAQ’s Research Advisory Board (RAB), comprised of members from academia and the auditing profession, selected the following projects to receive funding

• “Audit Quality, Audit Committee Networks, and Audit Evaluation” by Brant Christensen, Thomas C. Omer, Marjorie Shelley and Paul Wong, Texas A&M University;

• “How Do Auditors Cope with Clients’ Persuasion Attempts?” by Sanaz Aghazadeh, Lehigh University and Kris Hoang, Tulane University; and

• “An Experimental Study of How Cultural Mindsets Impact Auditor Skepticism in Fair Value Auditing: Implications for Practice and Research” by Elaine Wang and Aaron Saiewitz, University of Massachusetts Amherst.
  
  

“The CAQ is committed to providing support for independent research that will inform the profession’s efforts to continuously improve audit quality,” said CAQ Executive Director Cindy Fornelli. “I applaud our Research Advisory Board members for their commitment to identify projects that will augment the available academic literature as well as have practical applications to the work of public company auditors.”

This is the fifth year that the CAQ has funded scholarly academic research. The CAQ funded five projects in 2009, three projects in 2010, five in 2011, and five in 2012 .

The Center for Audit Quality (CAQ) is an autonomous public policy organization dedicated to enhancing investor confidence and public trust in the global capital markets. The CAQ fosters high quality performance by public company auditors, convenes and collaborates with other stakeholders to advance the discussion of critical issues requiring action and intervention, and advocates policies and standards that promote public company auditors’ objectivity, effectiveness and responsiveness to dynamic market conditions.  Based in Washington, D.C., the CAQ is affiliated with the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants.