Learning to play the game: audit quality, diversity and social mobility in the big-4

This project addresses the crucial gap in the current academic literature in relation to how the experiences of junior auditors relate to the growing phenomenon of audit failure. We explore how audit regulation impacts on audit practice on a day to day basis, and what can be done to support junior auditors.

Dr James Brackley

Project description

This project follows the experiences of early career auditors of audit failure, diversity and social mobility in the Big-4 firm. It is an ongoing project that seeks to link the extensive literature on identity and socialisation in the Big-4 with the growing cross-paradigm literature on audit quality and audit failure.

Drawing on multi-method design and ongoing follow up data collection the first aim of this project is to explore how audit failure is experienced and reproduced by early career auditors, and how an auditors' understanding of audit quality develops over time.

The second aim of the project focuses on diversity and social mobility. In this stream we note the wide-ranging perspectives among auditors on the profession and draw attention to how audit practice is experienced very differently by different groups within the firm. We follow attempts to widen participation and address EDI issues in the profession, while exploring the persistent barriers to progression that some experience. 

The project is led by Dr James Brackley, University of Sheffield, along with co-authors Dr Charika Channuntapipat, Thailand Development Research Institute, and Dr Florian Gebreiter, University of Birmingham.

Key research outputs

Brackley, J., Channuntapipat, C., and Gebreiter, F. (2022) ‘Audit Quality: Beyond the technical perspective'. Download the paper (PDF)

Funding bodies

Supported by the ICAEW Early Career Research grant 2024. £2,500.

Staff involved