Fraud risk factors are commonly categorized along three dimensions of the fraud triangle:
incentives, opportunities, and rationalizations AICPA 2002. Auditors synthesize their understanding
of these risk factors with other information e.g., preliminary analytical procedures to
develop a fraud risk assessment AICPA 2002. Prior archival research on fraud risk factors
documents relations between fraudulent financial reporting and financial statement elements, corporate
governance quality, nonfinancial measures, and other observable data e.g., Beasley 1996;
Beneish 1997; McVay 2006; Brazel et al. 2009.