CHRONOS Working life lunch research seminar

Guest speaker: Dr Mary Canning, Smurfit and Quinn Schools of Business, University College Dublin

Dr Mary Canning is also available for face-to-face meetings with both Faculty and PhD students on 5^th March 2019, 14:00 to 18:00 and on 6^th March 2019, 15:00 to 16:00. Please, email Elena Giovannoni to book a time slot.

Abstract:

The practice of offshoring audit work to lower wage locations has become increasingly prevalent among Big 4 firms and represents a significant shift in audit practice. Despite this, we have limited knowledge of the intended and unintended consequences ensuing from the development and implementation of an offshoring policy on audit work practices. This study undertakes an in-depth case study of audit practitioners in a Big 4 firm to investigate how offshoring became embedded within the firm and the impact it had on how they perform their work. We use concepts of boundary creation and boundary spanning to frame our analysis as they allow us to focus on the efforts that auditors undertook to shape audit work practices as the offshoring process unfolded. We show how integration between onshore and offshore audit teams evolved as they sought but largely failed to safeguard audit quality. We uncover a willingness to tolerate certain levels of inadequacy in the expectation that audit quality improvements will eventually transpire. The paper unveils discrepancies in the claimed changes in audit assistants’ roles due to offshoring with important consequences for practice and concludes with a call for more research focusing on these role changes as offshoring becomes further embedded in audit practice. Keywords: Audit practice, offshoring, boundary creation, boundary spanning, audit quality

Short bio:

Dr Mary Canning (BComm, MBS, PhD, DPA, FCA) is an Associate Professor in Accounting. Mary’s main research interests are in the areas of the regulation of professions, audit and assurance work practices and more recently accounting education. She is currently working on three research projects which seek to understand: the consequences of offshoring audit work practice; how targets of regulation react to attempts to restrict their autonomy; and the shape of and influencers on the contemporary academic accounting discipline. Her research has been published in leading international accounting journals including: Accounting and Business Research; Accounting, Auditing and Accountability Journal; Accounting, Organizations and Society; Auditing: A Journal of Practice & Theory; and European Accounting Review. The qualitative nature of her research has led to her serving on two guest editorials to support and sustain qualitative research in auditing: a special issue of Auditing: A Journal of Practice & Theory (2016-2018); and she is currently guest editing a special issue of European Accounting Review. Her research has also received recognition by scholars outside of the accounting domain in winning the ‘Best Overall Paper’ award at the 2016 Irish Academy of Management conference.

Mary has extensive and diverse teaching experience at undergraduate and postgraduate levels in areas including financial accounting, financial reporting, critical perspectives in accounting, and auditing. Her teaching has been nominated for awards, including a President’s teaching award nomination.

Mary has also directed B.A in Accounting and Finance and Master of Accounting programmes at Dublin City University and more recently, the Master of Accounting programme at Smurfit School of Business. These directorships entailed leading major curriculum reviews which were assisted by the strong relationships she had fostered with internal and external stakeholders.

Mary engages extensively with external stakeholders. She is a fellow of Chartered Accountants Ireland (CAI) and regularly participates at CAI forums addressing issues on education and the future of the accounting profession. She is also a member of the Research Advisory Board of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales, the organising committee of Congress on Social and Environmental Accounting Research (CSEAR) Ireland, facilitator at the Irish Accounting and Finance Association annual doctoral colloquium and has served on the Scientific Committee of the European Accounting Association (2012-2014). She led a symposium at the 2018 European Accounting Association Conference looking at new directions in auditing research. She has also served as external examiner for accounting programmes at University College Cork and as external examiner on PhD and Masters’ theses.