Are All Audit Team Sizes Created Equal? Audit Team and Abnormal Audit Team Size as a Determinant of Audit Quality

• In Event: Auditing

Abstract

Auditing regulators from around the globe have expressed interest in improving audit quality
indicators. One such indicator can be audit team size, however data limitations have largely
limited researchers examination of this factor as an audit quality indicator. We show that audit
teams with few senior auditors drive the results of the number of senior auditors impacting audit
quality. Further, we show that for audit teams with the largest number of seniors, that an
abnormal increase in team size is associated with improved audit quality, and that staffing costs
are passed on to the client through greater audit fees.

Authors

• Tomomi Takada, Kobe University

• Jared Koreff, Trinity University

• Sean Robb, University of Central Florida

• Greg Trompeter, University of Central Florida