Participants We approached contacts in the Big 4 firms and one other international firm to request participation in the study. Each firm agreed to participate. A secure Internet survey link was sent to each contact who distributed the survey to partners, directors, senior managers, and managers in their offices. A total of 367 auditors received the survey link, of which 179 completed the survey, resulting in a response rate of 48.8 percent. This rate exceeds the response rates in other auditing surveys e.g., 16 percent response rate by Nelson et al. 2002; 29.7 percent response rate by Dowling 2009; however, it is lower than the exceptionally high 70.5 percent achieved by Gibbins et al. 2001.3 Participants held positions of partner 56, director 2, senior manager 60, and manager 61. All 179 brainstorming sessions in our study reported to have an engagement partner in attendance