Standard setters and regulators have gradually changed the form and content of audit reports to enhance their clarity and comprehensibility, aiming to reduce the expectation gap. This research investigates the perceived usefulness of the latest expanded audit report (EAR), focusing on the evaluation of its key sections, within the context of bank financing. Additionally, the study explores the potential impact on credit granting decisions, particularly in relation to the accessibility, processing times and financing conditions for SMEs. structural equation modelling (SEM) methodology was employed to analyse the responses of 225 bank loan officers to a self-administered online questionnaire. The results show that the perception that the audit service is useful has a positive impact on credit granting (access, time and conditions), but it is only influenced by the Opinion section. Basis of Opinion, Other Information and Key Audit Matters (KAM) sections do not appear to be significant. Consequently, additional audit report extensions should be carefully considered before making new decisions, as they are not necessarily perceived as informative. (c) 2025 ASEPUC. Published by EDITUM-Universidad de Murcia. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
In this paper, we conducted an extensive bibliometric analysis of the current state-of-the-art in sustainability reporting assurance (SRA). Our goal was to identify research patterns, critical areas, and emerging trends that can guide future research and development in this field. We used two advanced bibliometric software, VosViewer and Biblioshiny on R Studio, to conduct a complex bibliometric analysis. We visually analysed 633 studies from the Web of Science database from 1992 to 2023. Our study examined the trend of publications, the most influential journals, publications, authors, institutions, and interconnections among countries, keywords, and journals. Next, we conducted a bibliometric analysis of keywords and a thematic map analysis to identify emerging research themes. We then identified and ranked the 50 most influential studies in the field of SRA based on their average citations per year. Through content analysis, we highlighted the foundational theories, research methods used, and main thematic issues addressed in these studies. Finally, we suggested relevant avenues for future research in the SRA domain for each primary thematic analysis. Overall, this analysis provides valuable insights into current research trends and can help guide future research efforts in sustainability reporting assurance. (c) 2025 ASEPUC. Published by EDITUM-Universidad de Murcia. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
El principal objetivo de este trabajo es analizar el papel supervisor de las consejeras del Consejo de Administración (de aquí en adelante, CA) en la relación existente entre las competencias específicas, la independencia y la diversidad cultural del CA en la remuneración del consejo. Además, para avanzar más en la literatura sobre gobierno corporativo se ha dividido la muestra de empresas europeas sostenibles, según se orienten financieramente al mercado y a la banca. El marco teórico utilizado en esta investigación se basa en la teoría de la agencia y la teoría de la administración. Utilizando una muestra de empresas cotizadas en el índice Euronext Vigeo Europe 120 desde 2012 hasta 2021, los resultados han evidenciado que la tarea de supervisión que realizan las consejeras cuando gestionan actividades junto con los consejeros independientes, tiende a reducir la remuneración del CA de las empresas sostenibles europeas. Por otra parte, los resultados han revelado que la orientación financiera es una característica importante a la hora de establecer estrategias de buen gobierno, para establecer protocolos de vigilancia en el establecimiento de las remuneraciones de los miembros del CA. Destaca la relevancia de la tarea supervisora de las consejeras, pero no para todos los países europeos analizados, sino solo para aquellos que acudan a la banca para financiar su actividad económica. Este estudio presenta importantes implicaciones teóricas y prácticas para el campo del gobierno corporativo y la diversidad de género.
Managers of public universities are increasingly required to manage resources effectively and efficiently when carrying out core university functions, in order to achieve cost cuts without eliminating services or compromising quality. In this context, the two objectives of this work are: first, to evaluate cost (in)efficiency in the Spanish Public University System during the period 2008-2019, comparing the situation during and after the global economic crisis of 2008; and, second, to study the convergence of the cost efficiency of universities-throughout these periods, within the sector and towards best practices-as well as its possible dependence on the crisis situation. To achieve these objectives, on the one hand, the conditional panel data Data Envelopment Analysis model is applied and, on the other, different regression models are used to determine the convergences beta, sigma y lambda. Our findings show an improvement in average cost efficiency between 2008 and 2019, revealing a reduction in university costs to achieve a given level of outputs. In that period, furthermore, the universities that initially managed their funds worse improved their cost efficiency more than those that initially behaved better, also reducing inequality between them at the end of the period. There was also intense convergence towards the best practice frontier. When distinguishing between sub-periods, compared to the crisis stage (2008-2013), Spanish public universities, on average, made better cost reduction decisions when providing their services during the post-crisis period (2014-2019), also producing greater institutional convergence both over time and towards the sector average and best practices. (c) 2025 ASEPUC. Published by EDITUM-Universidad de Murcia. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
This study examines the personal metaphors used by students enrolled in the last year of their Business Administration degree regarding their future role as accountants and auditors. The drawings and explanation of the personal metaphors were obtained from an open questionnaire, and they are categorized using the stereotype classification by Richardson et al. (2015). The metaphors are categorized into traditional and contemporary depending on the students view of the activities done by the professionals and into positive and negative depending on the personal traits they attributed to them. First, we identified the distribution of stereotypes for the role of accountant and second, for auditor. We also analyzed the participants' beliefs about the dominance of their metaphors in the profession and in society. Third, we examined the differences between the two roles. Subsequently, the study focuses on the changes that in-class interventions produce in students perceptions of their role as future accountants and auditors. Finally, this study investigates students profiles and characteristics such as gender, age, job preference and internship. The findings reveal that most participants have traditional perceptions of accounting and auditing professionals. However, evidence also suggests that students use more traditional metaphors for the accountants than for auditors. There are also more metaphors with positive connotations in the auditing profession than in accounting. In some cases, in-class intervention is effective shifting students perceptions about accountants and auditors toward more contemporary and positive ones. By combining the metaphors theory and accounting stereotype framework, this study provides a unique approach to understanding future professionals' perceptions of accountants and auditors. Given the social function of the accounting and auditing professions and the concerns about the shortage of accountants and auditors, it is important to study this question which helps revert certain negative images and increase the number of potential candidates. (c) 2025 ASEPUC. Published by EDITUM-Universidad de Murcia. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
