For non-specialist auditors, industry-based experience has a greater impact on auditor
performance than task-based experience.
An unresolved research question is whether exposure to clients within a single industry setting continues to enhance auditor performance beyond some minimum. Early research found that auditors with industry experience demonstrated superior judgment and performance when compared to auditors with little or no industry experience (see, for example, Bedard and Biggs 1991a; Wright and Wright 1997). Bedard and Biggs (1991a) found that auditors with extensive industry-based experience performed best on a hypothesis-generation task. Wright and Wright (1997) found mixed results for experience in auditing retail clients and performance on various hypothesis-generation tasks.
More recently, research investigating the judgment and performance of industry-specialist auditors has consistently found that industry specialists demonstrate superior performance when compared to non-specialists (e.g., Solomon et al. 1999; Owhoso et al. 2002; Thibodeau 2003; Low 2004; Hammersley 2006; Moroney 2007). Both early and recent research found strongest results when comparing the performance of those with extensive industry-based experience to those with little or no industry-based experience. This research ignores the potential for performance gains for non-specialists with some industry-based experience.
Prior research has noted that expertise (including industry specialization) can be conceptualized as a relative rather than an absolute notion (Be ́dard and Chi 1993). One antecedent of expertise is relevant experience (Libby and Luft 1993; Libby 1995). As auditors shift along the continuum that ranges from novice to expert, the attainment of more relevant experience aids in the attainment of knowledge, which in turn improves auditor performance. Industry-based experience provides an opportunity to gain industry knowledge, which in turn provides a context for enhanced auditor performance. We therefore expect that, for non-specialist auditors, there is a positive relation between the extent of industry-based experience and auditor performance.