{"id":{"repo_id":"uiuc","oai_identifier":"oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/44322"},"canonical_url":"https://search.dev.ndltd.org/etd/uiuc/oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/44322","repository":{"repo_id":"uiuc","name":"University of Illinois - Urbana-Champaign","base_url":"https://www.ideals.illinois.edu/oai-pmh"},"display":{"title":"Auditor judgment under uncertainty","abstract":"In this dissertation, I investigate how experienced auditors recognize and respond to the degree of management’s evidentiary support and the level of estimate uncertainty when assessing management estimates. Drawing on information processing research, I predict that auditors can be more comfortable with management estimates, and expect a lower adjustment when there is alignment between the degree of estimate uncertainty and management’s evidentiary support (i.e. high uncertainty and more support or lower uncertainty and less support). I test my prediction using an experiment where experienced auditors evaluate an uncertain warranty estimate. I manipulate the level of uncertainty by varying the range of potential costs as either two-times or eight-times materiality, and I manipulate the degree of management’s evidentiary support by management either obtaining industry information, inquiring of technicians, or doing these two plus reviewing records, and performing field inspections. Results support my prediction; in the higher uncertainty condition auditors were more comfortable and expected a lower adjustment when management obtained more evidential support, but in the lower uncertainty condition auditors were more comfortable and expected a lower adjustment when management obtained less evidential support. Notably I find that alignment between estimate uncertainty and management’s evidentiary support can make auditors more comfortable with management estimates supported by relatively less evidence. These findings demonstrate how audit risk factors, such as the level of uncertainty and degree of management’s support can interact and cause auditors to more readily accept less supported financial statement estimates. More broadly, these findings reveal how providing more information can actually make recipients more uncomfortable with a proposition.","abstract_html":"In this dissertation, I investigate how experienced auditors recognize and respond to the degree of management’s evidentiary support and the level of estimate uncertainty when assessing management estimates. Drawing on information processing research, I predict that auditors can be more comfortable with management estimates, and expect a lower adjustment when there is alignment between the degree of estimate uncertainty and management’s evidentiary support (i.e. high uncertainty and more support or lower uncertainty and less support). I test my prediction using an experiment where experienced auditors evaluate an uncertain warranty estimate. I manipulate the level of uncertainty by varying the range of potential costs as either two-times or eight-times materiality, and I manipulate the degree of management’s evidentiary support by management either obtaining industry information, inquiring of technicians, or doing these two plus reviewing records, and performing field inspections. Results support my prediction; in the higher uncertainty condition auditors were more comfortable and expected a lower adjustment when management obtained more evidential support, but in the lower uncertainty condition auditors were more comfortable and expected a lower adjustment when management obtained less evidential support. Notably I find that alignment between estimate uncertainty and management’s evidentiary support can make auditors more comfortable with management estimates supported by relatively less evidence. These findings demonstrate how audit risk factors, such as the level of uncertainty and degree of management’s support can interact and cause auditors to more readily accept less supported financial statement estimates. More broadly, these findings reveal how providing more information can actually make recipients more uncomfortable with a proposition.","abstract_has_math":false,"creators":["Rowe, Stephen"],"institution":"University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign","degree_name":"Ph.D.","degree_level":"Dissertation","degree_discipline":"Accountancy","degree_department":null,"school":null,"contributors":["Peecher, Mark E.","Pomeroy, Bradley","Trotman, Ken","Regenwetter, Michel"],"advisors":[],"committee_chairs":[],"committee_members":[],"year":2013,"date_issued":"2013-05-24T22:07:42Z","date_published":"2013-05-24T22:07:42Z","updated_at":"2026-07-22T22:25:34Z","subjects":["Audit","Auditor Judgment","Financial Statement Estimates","Uncertainty","Auditor Comfort"],"languages":["en"],"rights":["Copyright 2013 Stephen Rowe"],"rights_urls":[],"identifier_entries":[]},"links":{"outbound_url":"http://hdl.handle.net/2142/44322","outbound_label":"Handle","outbound_source":"dc:identifier"},"metadata_groups":[{"id":"people","label":"People","entries":[{"key":"dc:contributor","label":"Contributor","values":["Peecher, Mark E.","Pomeroy, Bradley","Trotman, Ken","Regenwetter, Michel"]},{"key":"dc:creator","label":"Author","values":["Rowe, Stephen"]}]},{"id":"academic_context","label":"Academic Context","entries":[{"key":"dc:date","label":"Dc Date","values":["2013-05-24T22:07:42Z","2013-05"]},{"key":"dc:type","label":"Dc Type","values":["text"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_discipline","label":"Discipline","values":["Accountancy"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_level","label":"Degree Level","values":["Dissertation"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_name","label":"Degree Name","values":["Ph.D."]},{"key":"thesis:institution_name","label":"Thesis Institution Name","values":["University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign"]}]},{"id":"subjects_keywords","label":"Subjects and Keywords","entries":[{"key":"dc:subject","label":"Dc Subject","values":["Audit","Auditor Judgment","Financial Statement Estimates","Uncertainty","Auditor Comfort"]}]},{"id":"language_rights","label":"Language and Rights","entries":[{"key":"dc:language","label":"Dc Language","values":["en"]},{"key":"dc:rights","label":"Dc Rights","values":["Copyright 2013 Stephen Rowe"]}]},{"id":"identifiers","label":"Identifiers","entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier","label":"Identifier","values":["http://hdl.handle.net/2142/44322"]}]},{"id":"additional","label":"Additional Metadata","entries":[{"key":"dc:description","label":"Description","values":["In this dissertation, I investigate how experienced auditors recognize and respond to the degree of management’s evidentiary support and the level of estimate uncertainty when assessing management estimates. Drawing on information processing research, I predict that auditors can be more comfortable with management estimates, and expect a lower adjustment when there is alignment between the degree of estimate uncertainty and management’s evidentiary support (i.e. high uncertainty and more support or lower uncertainty and less support). I test my prediction using an experiment where experienced auditors evaluate an uncertain warranty estimate. I manipulate the level of uncertainty by varying the range of potential costs as either two-times or eight-times materiality, and I manipulate the degree of management’s evidentiary support by management either obtaining industry information, inquiring of technicians, or doing these two plus reviewing records, and performing field inspections. Results support my prediction; in the higher uncertainty condition auditors were more comfortable and expected a lower adjustment when management obtained more evidential support, but in the lower uncertainty condition auditors were more comfortable and expected a lower adjustment when management obtained less evidential support. Notably I find that alignment between estimate uncertainty and management’s evidentiary support can make auditors more comfortable with management estimates supported by relatively less evidence. These findings demonstrate how audit risk factors, such as the level of uncertainty and degree of management’s support can interact and cause auditors to more readily accept less supported financial statement estimates. More broadly, these findings reveal how providing more information can actually make recipients more uncomfortable with a proposition.","Item withdrawn by Colleen Vojak (vojak@illinois.edu) on 2013-04-18T20:29:56Z Item was in collections: University of Illinois Theses & Dissertations (ID: 1) No. of bitstreams: 2 Rowe_Stephen.docx: 451758 bytes, checksum: 94457d0241fe4e4a628f13cabb7db095 (MD5) Rowe_Stephen.pdf: 2079164 bytes, checksum: 6f18873a3e7d742c31e034d640197e87 (MD5)","Made available in DSpace on 2013-05-24T22:07:42Z (GMT). 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Drawing on information processing research, I predict that auditors can be more comfortable with management estimates, and expect a lower adjustment when there is alignment between the degree of estimate uncertainty and management’s evidentiary support (i.e. high uncertainty and more support or lower uncertainty and less support). I test my prediction using an experiment where experienced auditors evaluate an uncertain warranty estimate. I manipulate the level of uncertainty by varying the range of potential costs as either two-times or eight-times materiality, and I manipulate the degree of management’s evidentiary support by management either obtaining industry information, inquiring of technicians, or doing these two plus reviewing records, and performing field inspections. Results support my prediction; in the higher uncertainty condition auditors were more comfortable and expected a lower adjustment when management obtained more evidential support, but in the lower uncertainty condition auditors were more comfortable and expected a lower adjustment when management obtained less evidential support. Notably I find that alignment between estimate uncertainty and management’s evidentiary support can make auditors more comfortable with management estimates supported by relatively less evidence. These findings demonstrate how audit risk factors, such as the level of uncertainty and degree of management’s support can interact and cause auditors to more readily accept less supported financial statement estimates. More broadly, these findings reveal how providing more information can actually make recipients more uncomfortable with a proposition.","Item withdrawn by Colleen Vojak (vojak@illinois.edu) on 2013-04-18T20:29:56Z Item was in collections: University of Illinois Theses & Dissertations (ID: 1) No. of bitstreams: 2 Rowe_Stephen.docx: 451758 bytes, checksum: 94457d0241fe4e4a628f13cabb7db095 (MD5) Rowe_Stephen.pdf: 2079164 bytes, checksum: 6f18873a3e7d742c31e034d640197e87 (MD5)","Made available in DSpace on 2013-05-24T22:07:42Z (GMT). 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