point beyond which a further increase in industry-based experience does not continue to improve
performance.
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The quadratic model indicates that 19 percent is the point at which the
performance benefit of continued industry-based experience levels out ( p,0.05, one-tailed).
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This finding is interesting. It suggests that the benefits of working within one industry setting
are made early and increase quickly, but then level out. The implication is that while non-specialists
do not have the sub-specialty knowledge gained by industry specialists with years of experience
working in a single industry setting, they may benefit from working on clients across limited
industry settings.
SUPPLEMENTARY ANALYSIS
Both hypotheses are retested, separating the data for the manufacturing and superannuation
industry cases. Descriptive results from an ANOVA indicate that while the coefficients for both
industry- and task-based experience suggest improved performance in the manufacturing and
superannuation cases, the results are not statistically significant. Similarly, industry-based
experience is not a significantly better predictor of improved auditor performance than task-based
experience when the data are separated for each case. This result is likely explained by the smaller
sample sizes when data are partitioned in this way. For the second hypothesis, when charts are
prepared for each industry group, the results are in the same direction, with performance gains
predominantly being made early. The results for the regression between performance and extent of
industry-based experience (when greater than zero) are not significant in the manufacturing and
superannuation industry groups. Again, this result may be driven by the reduced numbers of
participants with industry-based experience when the analysis is undertaking by industry group.
CONCLUSION
The purpose of this paper was to investigate the comparative influence of industry- and
task-based experience on auditor performance, using non-specialist auditor participants, and to
investigate whether increased exposure to clients from a single industry setting continues to
improve auditor performance. Non-specialist auditors have varying amounts of experience in
auditing clients across a range of industry settings. They also gain a variety of task-based
experiences when auditing those clients.
Results from a behavioral experiment suggest that industry-based experience has a greater
impact on auditor performance than task-based experience. Industry-based experience impacts
performance irrespective of whether an auditor has task-based experience. Non-specialist auditors
gain valuable knowledge from their industry-based experiences, which can be used to aid their
performance on tasks unfamiliar to them.
We also find that auditor performance improves with greater exposure to clients in one industry
setting. However, the relation between industry-based experience and performance appears to be
curvilinear with gains made quickly and then leveling out. This finding implies that non-Big 4 firms
would benefit from allocating staff to clients across a few industry settings as there appears to be
some benefits to continued exposure to clients in one industry. Future research might explore
quality differentials based on industry-based experience between non-Big 4 audit firms, drawing on
the methodology used to test city-level specialization (e.g., Francis et al. 1999).
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