Evidentiary triangulation in an electronic audit workpaper environment

This dissertation examines how well auditors triangulate audit evidence in an electronic audit workpaper environment. Evidentiary triangulation is an audit evidence evaluation technique argued to help auditors face the challenges of the contemporary audit environment. It is a technique formally proposed by Bell, Peecher and Solomon (2005) and involves the simultaneous consideration of evidence from three sources (Entity Business States, Management Information Intermediaries, Management Business Representations) that differ in their specificity and source. In particular, it is a technique argued to increase the likelihood that financial statement fraud will be prevented and/or detected. It is, however, a cognitively onerous technique, one that auditors will likely struggle to successfully apply. The proliferation of electronic audit workpaper systems, however, presents an environment with the potential to reduce (or increase) the cognitive demands of evidentiary triangulation. In particular, the way in which electronic workpapers are linked (i.e., the hyperlinking structure) may help or hinder auditors in their efforts to identify important relationships between evidence items. Evidentiary triangulation performance was investigated across three types of hyperlinking structures (indexed, embedded, combined) and two levels of experience (manager, senior) in a controlled experiment. Analysing the judgments made by 32 managers and 69 seniors, the results revealed that different hyperlinking structures were associated with superior and inferior triangulation performance across different experience levels. Inexperienced auditors’ (seniors’) triangulation performance was inhibited by the simultaneous provision of both indexed and embedded hyperlinks, but facilitated by the individual presentation of each structure. The opposite was the case for experienced auditors (managers), whose triangulation performance was facilitated by a combined hyperlinking structure but inhibited by the individual presentation of each structure. Possibly reflecting a lack of training and experience in applying the evidentiary triangulation technique, the facilitating characteristics of different hyperlinking structures were not reflected in improved judgments. The results were also not consistent across differences in the directional implications of the Entity Business State evidence. The findings of this dissertation have implications for accounting firms both in terms of the ability of their auditors to triangulate audit evidence and the way in which they should structure their electronic presentation of workpapers

Cross-Cultural Quality Comparison of Online Health Information for Elderly Care on Yahoo! Answers

Given the increase in global aging population, popularity of social Q&A sites and the level of geriatric health concerns from family caregivers, it raises the uncertainty about the quality of health information on community Q&A sites for family caregivers of elderly. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the quality of geriatric health information on social Questions and Answers (Q&A) sites: Yahoo! Answers from registered nurses\u27 perspective. A total of 60 question-and-answer sets are retrieved from regional Yahoo! Answers sites, including Australia, Canada, UK & Ireland, US, Hong Kong, Mainland China and Taiwan. A total of 126 English answers and 112 Chinese answers were examined by registered nurses and library professionals. Results show that the overall information quality provided in the Chinese group is relatively poorer than those of English especially in information quality dimensions such as Verifiability, Commercialisation and Completeness. Questioners form both the English and Chinese groups might possibly miss the best pieces of information and advices regarding the health concerns of their elderly family members since about 40% of the best answers they selected did not match health professionals\u27 picks