Management's Motive and Its Effect on Selected Audit Decisions
Phillip M. J. Reckers and Bernard
Wong-On-Wing
This study uses an attributional framework, the theory of corespondent
inferences [Jones and Davis, 1965], to examine how auditors infer specific
motives of management, and whether these inferences might affect subsequent
audit judgments. The results indicate that consistent with attribution
research in other contexts, auditors attend to the extent of the deviation
from expectancies in making inferences about management's motives. Moreover,
the inferred motive of management was found to significantly affect auditors'
materiality judgment, and their likelihood of agreeing with management
regarding an adjustment. Implications are discussed.
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