Practitioners' Perceptions of Audit Step Difficulty and Criticalness: Implications for Audit Research.
基于378名审计师的全国样本，发现评估和汇总审计信息比生成信息更难且更关键，整体审计意见形成被认为是最难和最关键的阶段，但各步骤间差异较大，建议研究应区分审计阶段的子部分。
Abstract In a recent review of research on the auditor's opinion formulation process, Felix and Kinney [1982] identified gaps in available research findings and suggested these as promising avenues for future research. This study extends their effort by exploring auditors' perceptions of the difficult and critical steps in an audit. A national sample of 378 auditors indicated that, in general, evaluating and aggregating audit information is more difficult and critical than generating such information. On the whole, formulating the overall audit opinion is perceived as the most difficult and critical audit phase. However, a considerable range of perceived difficulty and criticalness exists among the steps within each audit phase. Thus, for purposes of identifying the benefits of audit research for practice, it would be desirable to distinguish among subparts of each audit phase, rather than focusing on a particular phase. Some differences in difficulty and criticalness perceptions were revealed for CPA firm size, client type, and audit experience. However, the pattern of significant relationships was not highly systematic. Hence, it does not seem that our aggregate results are due to a subset of situations or respondents.