Expertise center

Auditing & Assurance

Our mission

The Center for Auditing & Assurance focuses on assurance services by accountants (auditors). The aim of these services is to provide guarantees by independent professionals. The most well-known example is the annual financial statements audit and the accompanying auditor's report.

Nyenrode's research and education looks at the broad spectrum of assurance services. Important issues in this context are:

Quality of services (audit quality)
Professional judgement
Professional attitude

Our core values – Leadership, Entrepreneurship and Stewardship – are a constant driving force for our teaching staff; they strive to excel at these qualities to inspire a new generation of accountants.

Our activities

Our education centers on building our students to be 'robust auditors', and features as its most prominent subjects: professional judgement, ethics and the broad spectrum of risk analysis and materiality.

Role play

Building our students to be robust auditors is in line with Nyenrode's mission to offer practical education. Our programs aim to actively train students in their role of auditors. We often use role play in this process.

Our type of education integrates personal and academic skills and we strive to educate our students to act in the common interest and to prepare them for the stakeholders' (changing) expectations.

Programs

Nyenrode's Center for Auditing & Assurance is represented within the following programs:

Bachelor of Science in Accountancy
Master of Science in Accountancy
Post-Master RA (including Custom Made track)
Executive Education
Doctoral program

Additionally, our faculty is responsible for training auditors in Corporate Governance, part of the MSc in Accountancy.

Our research

Important subjects in the center's research are:

Audit quality, professional judgement and risk assessment
A company risk assessment improves the quality of an audit. This approach demands the auditor's insight in a company's management, their environment and the business processes that create value for the organization. This enables the auditor to better recognize management fraud and risks to the business.
Personality traits, quality incentives and remuneration model
We undertake research into the influence an auditor's personality and remuneration have on their decision making, focusing on audit-partners' profit sharing systems and the availability of an audit quality bonus. We also look at auditor's personalities and characteristics.
Behavioral research in auditing
This study centers on an auditor's professional behavior and the factors determining this, looking at the personal, institutional and cultural qualities necessary to guarantee an audit's quality. In the end, the auditor's behavior determines the audit's quality.

Further to these subjects, we do research into 'fraud detection by the auditor and forensic accountancy' and 'the internal supervision and audit's impact on audit quality and company performance'.

Activities

In the undertaking of research, the faculty works with international researchers in this field. These researchers regularly present their findings at international research conferences and seminars. Their research is also published in scientific auditing journals.

Since 2010, the faculty has worked with the Nyenrode Corporate Governance Institute to do significant research into corporate governance on behalf of the Dutch Monitoring Committee Corporate Governance Code.

Opinion pieces (in Dutch)

Brenk, H. van, (2018). Reactie Green Paper Structuurmodellen Accountancy, Nyenrode Business Universiteit.
Bik, O.P.G., and Bouwens J.F.M.G. (2017). Accountancy Cultuurmeter: Nulmetingjuni 2017, Voedingsbodem voor kwaliteit. Nederlandse Beroepsorganisatie van Accountants, 23 June 2017.
Bik, O.P.G. (2017). Toen was cultuur heel gewoon – Op zoek naar balans in het sturen op cultuur en gedrag. Goed Bestuur & Toezicht, 2017 (1), pp. 16-21.
Kleine beursvennootschappen missen Internal Auditfunctie

Publications in international journals

Buuren, J.P. van, Koch, C.K., Nieuw Amerongen, C.M. van, & A. Wright. (2017, forthcoming). Evaluating the Change Process for Business Risk Auditing: Legitimacy Experiences of Non-Big 4 Auditors. Auditing: A Journal of Practice & Theory.
Bik, O.P.G., and Hooghiemstra, R.B.H. (2017). The effect of national culture on auditor-in-charge involvement. Auditing: A Journal of Practice & Theory, 36 (1), pp. 1-19.
Asare, S., Majoor, G.C.M. (Barbara), Wright, A.M. (2017). The Occurrence and awareness of a misstatement effect in auditors’ internal control severity judgements. International Journal of Auditing, volume 21, issue 2.
Litjens R., Buuren J. van, & Vergoossen R. (2015). Addressing information needs to reduce the audit expectation gap: Evidence from Dutch bankers, audited companies and auditors. International Journal of Auditing, I 9(3), 267 -281.
Peytcheva, M., Wright, A.M., & Majoor, G.C.M. (Barbara). (2014). The impact of principles-based versus rules-based accounting standards on auditors' motivations and evidence demands. Behavioral Research in Accounting, 26(2), 51-72.
Buuren, J.P. van, Koch, C.K., Nieuw Amerongen, C.M. (Niels) van, & Wright, A.M. (2014). The Use of Business Risk Audit Perspectives by Non-Big 4 Audit Firms. Auditing: A Journal of Practice & Theory, 33(3).

Partners

Foundation for Auditing Research
Nyenrode actively contributes to the Foundation for Auditing Research (FAR), an autonomous research institute conducting academic research into the drivers of audit quality. Nyenrode has hosted their annual conference and other FAR research symposia and masterclasses multiple times. Learn more about the FAR.
Accountancy/Auditing Firms
The Center for Auditing & Assurance works intensively with the firms that employ our students to collect data for research classes and thesis programs. This cooperation has resulted in an extensive education and research database.