This book, first published in 1988, analyses the history of auditing with as much objectivity as possible. These chapters reveal the importance of auditing in society generally and business activity particularly. The character of the auditor is examined, and their part in history as their role developed from an amateur status to a professional one. The development of the accounting profession is a significant part of the history of auditing. The emerging professional bodies assumed a societal role and by doing so, the audit function changed in terms of its aims and practices, and became a matter of public as well as private concern.
The rise of the British accountancy profession from the late nineteenth century to the present day, and the world-wide success of its accountancy firms, were to a large extent based on the growth of the audit function. This book explores the history of the audit process in Britain, demonstrating that the characteristic features of the auditing industry are a diversity in practice based largely on the different types of clients the auditors serve. The book examines the innovation that was brought about by the staggering developments in information technology which have been seen over the last few centuries. This comprehensive history will be a useful reference tool for accounting, business and economic historians and will also be an enlightening read for all those with an interest in auditing procedures.
This book, first published in 1993, focuses on the evolution of accounting institutions, practices and standard-setting in Canada. Canada’s federal system complicates the jurisdictional authority for accounting matters. The Canadian constitution empowers the ten provinces to regulate the training and certification of accountants, and each can incorporate organizations. A great deal of effort has been made by accounting bodies on jurisdictional coordination and disputes, and this book analyses how these systems have come to function in their present form.
Continuous Auditing provides academics and practitioners with a compilation of select continuous auditing design science research, and it provides readers with an understanding of the underlying theoretical concepts of a continuous audit, ideas on how continuous audit can be applied in practice, and what has and has not worked in research.
The Routledge Companion to Accounting History shows how the seemingly innocuous practice of accounting has pervaded human existence in fascinating ways at numerous times and places; from ancient civilisations to the modern day, and from the personal to the political. Placing the history of accounting in context with other fields of study, the collection gives invaluable insights to subjects such as the rise of capitalism, the control of labour, gender and family relationships, racial exploitation, the functioning of the state, and the pursuit of military conflict. An engaging and comprehensive overview also examining geographical differences, this Companion is split into key sections, which explore: changing technologies used to represent financial and other data historical development of accounting theory and practice accounting institutions and those who perform accounting accountancy and the economy accounting, society, and culture the role of accounting in the government, protection and financing of states including chapters on the important role played by accountancy in religious organizations, a review of how the discipline is portrayed in fine art and popular culture, and analysis of sharp practice and corporate scandals. The Routledge Companion to Accounting History has a breadth of coverage that is unmatched in this growing area of study. Bringing together leading writers in the field, this is an essential reference work for any student of accounting, business and management, and history.
The Dictionary of Auditing is a one-stop resource for key auditing terminology, concepts, and processes essential to auditors and of increasing interest to those that work with them. Covers key regulatory developments such as Sarbanes Oxley and provides links for further reading.
The field of business history has changed and grown dramatically over the last few years. There is less interest in the traditional `company-centred' approach and more concern about the wider business context. With the growth of multi-national corporations in the 1980s, international and inter-firm comparisons have gained in importance. In addition, there has been a move towards improving links with mainstream economic, financial and social history through techniques and outlook. The International Bibliography of Business History brings all of the strands together and provides the user with a comprehensive guide to the literature in the field. The Bibliography is a unique volume which covers the depth and breadth of research in business history. This exhaustive volume has been compiled by a team of subject specialists from around the world under the editorship of three prestigious business historians.
The behavior of managers-such as the rewards they obtain for poor performance, the role of boards of directors in monitoring managers, and the regulatory framework covering the corporate governance mechanisms that are put in place to ensure managers' accountability to shareholder and other stakeholders-has been the subject of extensive media and policy scrutiny in light of the financial crisis of the early 2000s. However, corporate governance covers a much broader set of issues, which requires detailed assessment as a central issue of concern to business and society. Critiques of traditional governance research based on agency theory have noted its "under-contextualized" nature and its inability to compare accurately and explain the diversity of corporate governance arrangements across different institutional contexts. The Oxford Handbook of Corporate Governance aims at closing these theoretical and empirical gaps. It considers corporate governance issues at multiple levels of analysis-the individual manager, firms, institutions, industries, and nations-and presents international evidence to reflect the wide variety of perspectives. In analyzing the effects of corporate governance on performance, a variety of indicators are considered, such as accounting profit, economic profit, productivity growth, market share, proxies for environmental and social performance, such as diversity and other aspects of corporate social responsibility, and of course, share price effects. In addition to providing a high level review and analysis of the existing literature, each chapter develops an agenda for further research on a specific aspect of corporate governance. This Handbook constitutes the definitive source of academic research on corporate governance, synthesizing studies from economics, strategy, international business, organizational behavior, entrepreneurship, business ethics, accounting, finance, and law.
The concept of internal control has developed along with audit practice. As demands have been made for greater accountability in corporate governance, the significance of internal control systems in companies has increased. Traditionally internal control has had a fairly direct relationship to financial reporting quality but wider approaches to internal control have expanded those boundaries much further. Stakeholders are increasingly concerned with the effectiveness of internal controls, and disclosure requirements are making firms to go public with regard to their internal control systems. From a design perspective, current research suggests that internal control designs are contingent upon variables such as company strategies, risk appetite, regulatory characteristics, and organizational size. Also there is much to learn about internal control quality, and the way internal control quality is associated with overall corporate governance quality. This book fills that gap.
