Evidence-Informed Audit Standard Setting: Exploring Evidence Use and Knowledge Transfer in Development of the Group Audit Standard

Abstract

Academics and practitioners agree there are substantial barriers to systematically transferring audit research knowledge to policymakers. We adopt a design science approach to investigate the efficacy of employing a research synthesis to transfer academic research knowledge to audit standard setters. We create a real-time simulation with former standard setters, based on a group audit issue that arose in actual deliberations, to represent a “typical” instantiation of the knowledge transfer problem. Following design science prescriptions, we evaluate the pragmatic validity of the prototype synthesis, its creation process, and related interactive communication with our standard setters. We provide initial evidence (“proof of concept”) that a research synthesis can effectively and efficiently transfer audit research knowledge to audit standard setters. A key implication is that an individual research article’s main role in knowledge transfer to audit practice is as an input into a research synthesis that informs specific practice concerns.

Keywords: Standard Setting, Audit, Evidence Based Policy Making, Simulation, Design Science