Business strategy, business risk, and financial reporting irregularities
Consistent with prior research (e.g., Johnstone 2000; Johnstone and Bedard 2003; Stanley 2011), we define client business risk as “the risk that the audit client’s economic condition will deteriorate in the future” (Stanley 2011: 157). The auditor’s assessment of client business risk critically impacts audit planning and effort due to its link to both audit risk (i.e., the risk that an unqualified audit opinion is issued for a set of materially misstated financial statements) and auditor business risk (i.e., the auditor’s risk of loss in connection with the audited financial statements—e.g., due to litigation, loss of reputation, etc.). SAS No. 99 considers fraud in the context of a financial statement audit, and its framework is applicable to the broader set of financial reporting irregularities we examine in this study. Specifically, the framework suggests that three factors are usually present when financial reporting irregularities occur: incentive, opportunity, and rationalization (AICPA 2002). Prior literature (see Hogan, Rezaee, Riley, and Velury 2008) has provided substantial empirical evidence on the first two risk factors (incentive and opportunity); hence, we organize our discussion around these two factors.