The Effects of Electronic Round-robin Brainstorming and an Explicit Idea Evaluation Process on Auditors’ Fraud Planning

Abstract

Auditing standards require engagement team members to brainstorm the susceptibility of their clients’ financial statements to material misstatement due to fraud. The format of the brainstorming is not specified in the auditing standards but is continually evolving in practice with the increased use of audit technology. This thesis considers an electronic round-robin brainstorming and an explicit idea evaluation process in fraud brainstorming and investigates the effects of these two interventions on auditors’ brainstorming performance in fraud planning. I use a 2 × 2 between-subject experimental design with 78 experienced auditors in Australia as participants. The electronic round-robin brainstorming is manipulated at two levels: absent and present. The explicit idea evaluation process is also varied at two levels: absent and present. Therefore, the four experimental treatments are control condition, round-robin condition, explicit idea evaluation condition, and combined condition. Auditors in the round-robin condition and combined condition are asked to take turns with another team member to share their fraud hypotheses generations. The inputs of the other team member are pre-programmed in the computer system. Auditors in the explicit idea evaluation condition and the combined condition are asked to provide an explicit idea evaluation immediately after they receive each of the inputs of the other team member. The auditors’ brainstorming performance is measured as the overall quantity of unique valid fraud hypotheses generated in all three brainstorming stages. Moreover, I examine auditors’ information search and processing during fraud brainstorming. Results show that auditors in the round-robin condition have better brainstorming performance than those in the control condition and it is because they pay a higher level of attention to their team member’s inputs. However, the brainstorming performance of auditors in the explicit idea evaluation condition is not different from those in the control condition and below those in both the round-robin condition and the combined condition. There is no performance difference between auditors in the round-robin condition and those in the combined condition. Furthermore, I find that the inputs of the other team member influence auditors’ information search.