The ties that bind: fraudulent groups, collective action and fraud risk. This project investigates fraud in contemporary Australia. Drawing on multiple data sources including interviews with convicted fraud perpetrators, the study examines the opportunities, motivations and rationalisations of groups engaged in fraud and offers insights to improve the detection and prevention of fraud in practice.
Ensuring audit quality through regulation: modelling how regulation can change audit partner behaviour. This project will develop a model of how characteristics of regulation can change audit partner behaviour. Guidelines to incorporate the model into regulators’ decision-making will be developed. These guidelines will provide regulators with a unique tool to ensure Australian audit regulation achieves its intended aim of improving audit quality.
Improving auditors? Risk assessments and detection of financial statement frauds. Auditor teams are required, as part of the planning process, to discuss potential financial statement frauds. By carrying out a series of experiments on audit discussion group teams, this study will help improve the performance of audit teams to ultimately reduce the occurrence and increase the detection of financial statement fraud.
Evaluating and enhancing the composition and functioning of multidisciplinary greenhouse gas assurance engagement teams. The purpose of this research is to understand and improve the functioning of multidisciplinary greenhouse gas assurance teams. A combination of archival and behavioural experiment research methods will be used to gain insights into current practice and techniques for optimising greenhouse gas assurance team performance.
Carbon accounting for managed urban environments: creating a conceptual process-based model. This project will develop a process-based model of the carbon cycle of a complex urban system - Royal Botanic Gardens (RBG), Melbourne, and validate the model in the RBG, Sydney. It will test alternative means by which carbon emissions information may be reported to provide information that is useful for the decisions made by diverse stakeholders.
Securing the future of financial services: Building a behavioural model of effective operational risk management. Securing the financial services industry is fundamental to the Australian economy. Effective operational risk management is vital to this goal. It requires appropriate attitudes to operational risk and widespread buy-in to risk management practices. This project will identify managerial controllable factors that ensure more consistent and widespread deployment of effective operationa ....Securing the future of financial services: Building a behavioural model of effective operational risk management. Securing the financial services industry is fundamental to the Australian economy. Effective operational risk management is vital to this goal. It requires appropriate attitudes to operational risk and widespread buy-in to risk management practices. This project will identify managerial controllable factors that ensure more consistent and widespread deployment of effective operational risk management practices and attitudes. It will inform the monitoring activities of regulators. In turn, it will enable the financial services industry to better avoid undesirable risks and to better manage the negative effects of unexpected events. This directly contributes to the future stability of the Australian economy.Read moreRead less
Extended reporting and assurance for not-for-profit organisations. This project aims to improve the relevance and reliability of extended reporting now being required of not-for-profit organisations (NFPOs). Society is increasingly demanding that NFPOs disclose additional information beyond financial information, as evidenced by the service performance reporting and integrated reporting initiatives. These reporting initiatives better align the reporting with the mission of NFPOs: to achieve outc ....Extended reporting and assurance for not-for-profit organisations. This project aims to improve the relevance and reliability of extended reporting now being required of not-for-profit organisations (NFPOs). Society is increasingly demanding that NFPOs disclose additional information beyond financial information, as evidenced by the service performance reporting and integrated reporting initiatives. These reporting initiatives better align the reporting with the mission of NFPOs: to achieve outcomes that are beyond financial returns. This project aims to evaluate and to aid the development and implementation of these extended reporting responsibilities and mechanisms that increase the quality and credibility of the information. This would improve the relevance of the information produced by NFPOs and increase confidence in extended reporting.Read moreRead less
Improving fraud detection, financial reporting quality, investor confidence and market returns by using specialist auditors. As investors, managers and auditors grapple with the global financial crisis effects, this project's findings will help them by showing how and when auditor specialisation contributes to greater financial statement quality and returns. Investors will benefit from lower audit costs, increased audit quality and more credible financial statements.
Evaluating regulatory initiatives directed at audit firms to improve audit quality. This project will provide evidence as to whether recent regulatory initiatives are improving the quality of audits and provide a comparison of benefits associated with audit firm inspections under differing regulatory schemes. It will inform discussion as to whether these initiatives overcome identified problems in audit quality of listed companies.
Self-defined measures of financial performance and CEO pay. This project aims to investigate measures of financial performance used to reward executives that do not comply with accounting standards. Such measures are sometimes presented as performance measures to external stakeholders and this can have important implications for organisational governance. This project expects to generate new knowledge by identifying the way decision about performance and its measurement are linked, and the inf ....Self-defined measures of financial performance and CEO pay. This project aims to investigate measures of financial performance used to reward executives that do not comply with accounting standards. Such measures are sometimes presented as performance measures to external stakeholders and this can have important implications for organisational governance. This project expects to generate new knowledge by identifying the way decision about performance and its measurement are linked, and the influence of external auditors in this process. The expected outcomes from this project will will include empirical evidence that significantly improves our understanding of the choices firms make in reporting to stakeholders, as well as determining executive compensation.Read moreRead less