Staff auditors frequently email clients to conduct evidence inquiry. However, little research has examined how characteristics of email communication impact auditors’ assessments of evidence. We experimentally investigate whether two characteristics of email communication, client response time and message processing fluency, influence staff auditors’ judgments. We find that auditor skepticism is reduced when the client provides a more fluent email response compared to a less fluent response in a moderate response time. In addition, auditor skepticism is reduced when the client provides a more fluent email response in a moderate response time than an immediate response time. Our results suggest that if client management takes their time to respond to an auditor’s email then this may reduce auditor skepticism, especially if the client composes a fluent response. These findings have audit quality implications since the same client information provided via email can be perceived differently depending on other client communication characteristics.
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Research Article|
October 14 2022
The Impact of Client Response Time and Message Processing Fluency on Staff Auditor Judgment
Sudip Bhattacharjee;
Sudip Bhattacharjee
Department of Accounting and Information Systems, Pamplin College of Business, Virginia Tech
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Kimberly K. Moreno;
Kimberly K. Moreno
D’Amore-McKim School of Business, Northeastern University, 360 Huntington Avenue, Boston, MA 02115, k.moreno@neu.edu
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Nicole S. Wright
Nicole S. Wright
James Madison University
School of Accounting
421 Bluestone Dr.
UNITED STATES
Harrisonburg
VA
22807
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Received:
September 28 2020
Revision Received:
June 07 2021
Revision Received:
November 09 2021
Revision Received:
July 15 2022
Revision Received:
September 27 2022
Accepted:
October 11 2022
Online Issn: 1558-7991
Print Issn: 0278-0380
2022
AUDITING: A Journal of Practice & Theory (2022)
Citation
Sudip Bhattacharjee, Kimberly K. Moreno, Nicole S. Wright; The Impact of Client Response Time and Message Processing Fluency on Staff Auditor Judgment. AUDITING: A Journal of Practice & Theory 2022; https://doi.org/10.2308/AJPT-2020-111
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