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 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.

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.