Aflevering Farview #24 Xiaoxing Li's Phd-Project Over False Positives Vs. Hit Rates

In episode 24 of FARview, PhD student Xiaoxing Li (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam) talks about her FAR PhD-project, which concentrates around data analytics. Auditors' data analytics potentially has many benefits for auditing, but may also challenge the application of professional skepticsm. The main focus of the podcast is on a recent article by Xiaoxing in Maandblad voor Accountancy en Bedrijfseconomie (MAB): Behavioral challenges to professional skepticism in auditors’ data analytics journey. Next to defining auditors’ data analytics and explaining its importance, Xiaoxing discusses potential behavioral challenges to professional skepticism from five perspectives that she derived from the data analytics literature. The behavioral challenges are: o Auditors’ attitudes toward auditors' data analytics (e.g. algorithm aversion). o Data characteristics (data reliability and data relevance). o Anomalies identified by auditors' data analytics (false positives and false negatives). o Auditors’ mindsets when using auditors' data analytics (e.g. fixed mindsets versus growth mindsets). o Social contexts and interactions involved in auditors' data analytics practice (e.g. tone at the top, audit committee’s attitude and regulation). Being aware of and prepared for these potential behavioral challenges to professional skepticism can be important for increasing the benefits of auditors' data analytics and for improving audit quality. In addition, Xiaoxing also provides a brief overview of the planned contents of her dissertation. The discussed MAB-publication can be found here: https://mab-online.nl/article/78525/