Effects of Differences in National Culture on Auditors' Judgments and Decisions: A Literature Review of Cross-Cultural Auditing Studies from a Judgment and Decision Making Perspective
Christine Nolder and Tracey J. Riley
Christine Nolder and Tracey J. Riley are both Assistant Professors at Suffolk University.
We gratefully acknowledge the dedication and thoroughness of Kathryn Kadous (editor) and two anonymous reviewers whose comments helped us improve the paper significantly. Earlier versions of the paper benefited from the helpful comments of Olof Bik, Helen Brown-Liburd, Lori Caras, Christine Earley, Ross Fuerman, Denise Hanes, Chunyi Hu, Joleen Kremin, Lynne Markus, Morris McInnes, Laurie Pant, Mawdudur Rahman, Kelli Saunders, Greg Trompeter, Zhihong (Rita) Wang, Miriam Weismann, Kim Westermann, Jianhong Yang, and Alex Yen. We also appreciate comments from seminar participants at Suffolk University.
Editor's note: Accepted by Kathryn Kadous.
SUMMARY:
Motivated by the growing cultural diversity of new hires in audit firms, this paper reviews the literature on cross-cultural differences in auditors' judgment and decision making (JDM). The overarching aim of the review is to summarize the current state of knowledge and compare our understanding of cross-cultural auditors' JDM with the broader cross-cultural JDM research in psychology to stimulate applied research. We develop a framework that categorizes those auditor judgments and decisions most likely affected by cross-cultural differences. The categories include auditors' confidence, risk and probability judgments, risk decisions, conflict decisions, and ethical judgments. We contribute to the cross-cultural audit research in four ways. First, we provide a framework by which future research can be synthesized within auditing and compared with psychology. Second, we recommend specific research questions to respond to both the gaps in extant literature and the changing multicultural environment of audit firms. Third, we advocate for an alternative theoretical approach beyond the examination of cultural traits. Finally, we argue that bicultural auditors represent an unexplored boundary condition on prior findings that warrants more immediate attention from audit researchers.
Keywords: culture, ethics, risk, conflict, probability, bicultural, overconfidence