Submit-to-accept (STA) times in accounting journals have increased significantly over the last two decades (Hurley, Gal-Or, Knechel, and Pesch 2025). We investigate how these longer STA times affect tenure outcomes for accounting faculty in their first post-doctoral academic appointment. Understanding this relationship can help faculty and administrators more effectively anticipate the extent to which prolonged STA delays may impact the tenure process. We find that longer STA times for articles published late in the probationary period reduce the probability of an academic earning tenure at their first institution, particularly for tenure candidates hired at universities ranked below the top 15. Additionally, female candidates experiencing longer STA times are less likely to earn tenure compared with males with similar STA delays. These findings are important for journal editors, reviewers, provosts, deans, tenure committees, and tenure-track academics seeking to understand and manage the implications of lengthening publication timelines.

: This paper summarizes a three-part study by Jefferson, Andiola, and Hurley (2025) that examines two practical strategies (microbreaks and supervisory support) to reduce auditors' fatigue and improve audit quality during busy season. First, a field study provides evidence that public accountants take fewer microbreaks during busy season, when fatigue is significantly greater and they need them the most. However, the authors find that those who do engage in more frequent microbreaks or receive higher levels of supervisory support can mitigate their daily busy season fatigue, and pairing microbreaks with support reduces fatigue the most. Second, a follow-up experiment provides evidence that even just a one-minute microbreak reduces fatigue enough to noticeably improve auditors' error detection. Third, interviews with firm senior leaders provide perspectives on implementing such strategies. Collectively, the study's results suggest that practical solutions exist to combat the effects of mental fatigue on audit quality during busy season.

ABSTRACT We use hand-collected data to analyze submission-to-acceptance (STA) times in the top-tier accounting journals relative to other top-tier business journals from 1993 through 2021. We find that, vis-à-vis other business disciplines, STA times at top-tier accounting journals were shorter in the first half of our sample period and significantly longer thereafter. We also observe shorter STA times for articles with authors from more highly ranked institutions; this effect exists only in top-tier accounting journals and has increased over time. In additional analyses, we find that our primary inferences are unchanged when considering maturity of initial journal submissions, journal-level democratization, and review process improvements related to paper quality. Our results should be of interest to researchers, journal editors, reviewers, provosts, deans, and tenure and promotion committees. Data Availability: The data used in this study are available from the sources indicated herein.

Audit committees (ACs) are a topic of significant research interest, with numerous studies published each year. We synthesize AC findings from articles published between 2010 and 2020 to develop a conceptual framework encompassing AC inputs, processes, and outputs. We then provide new insights related to AC characteristics, AC relationships, the AC environment, and AC oversight processes. We encourage future research addressing underexamined AC characteristics (e.g., diversity, busyness, and tenure); AC relationships, environment, and processes; and outcomes related to internal audit and internal controls. We also encourage researchers to focus on four contemporary AC issues (remote work; new technologies and cybersecurity; environmental, social, and governance (ESG) and climate; and AC workload) and to embrace diverse research methods and theories. We provide numerous specific research questions to guide future research toward advancing our understanding of ACs and their impact on corporate governance.

Fatigue and burnout are root causes of audit quality issues and turnover. Leveraging the job demands-resources theory, we investigate whether two mechanisms can reduce accountants' fatigue and, in turn, improve audit quality. We conduct a field study of public accountants during both normal and busy season work periods, collecting bi-daily logs to examine whether the use of microbreaks (i.e., brief respite activities) as a job crafting mechanism and/or the receipt of supervisory support as a job resource lessen end-of-day fatigue. We posit and find that engaging in microbreaks is associated with reduced end-of-day fatigue within busy season. Similarly, we posit and find that higher levels of daily supervisory support during busy season are associated with lower end-of-day fatigue. However, neither of these mechanisms is associated with lower end-of-day fatigue during normal work periods. Our results also indicate that these two mechanisms function as complements during busy season, with either one significantly reducing end-of-day fatigue, but both together having an interactive effect. Further, end-of-day fatigue during busy season reduces sleep quality, which increases accountants' fatigue the following morning. In a follow-up experiment, we consistently find evidence that a 1-min microbreak reduces fatigue and that this reduction directly translates into improved error detection.

Ego depletion, an influential social psychology theory that has been applied in auditing research, is currently in crisis following unsuccessful attempts to replicate the phenomenon. I summarize the questions surrounding ego depletion as a phenomenon and the strength model of self-control as its theoretical explanation. Existing evidence suggests depletion is a real phenomenon, but that its effect is likely overstated in prior literature. However, it seems that the strength model is not the best theoretical explanation for depletion. To provide a path forward to continue investigating this phenomenon, I describe four alternative theories from prior literature. Highlighting motivation as a common thread in these theories, I then propose a new theory that views ego depletion as transient cognitive fatigue. Finally, I discuss opportunities for future research in auditing, best practices for the design of these studies, and meta-lessons that accounting researchers can take from crises in psychology research.

ChatGPT, a language-learning model chatbot, has garnered considerable attention for its ability to respond to users' questions. Using data from 14 countries and 186 institutions, we compare ChatGPT and student performance for 28,085 questions from accounting assessments and textbook test banks. As of January 2023, ChatGPT provides correct answers for 56.5 percent of questions and partially correct answers for an additional 9.4 percent of questions. When considering point values for questions, students significantly outperform ChatGPT with a 76.7 percent average on assessments compared to 47.5 percent for ChatGPT if no partial credit is awarded and 56.5 percent if partial credit is awarded. Still, ChatGPT performs better than the student average for 15.8 percent of assessments when we include partial credit. We provide evidence of how ChatGPT performs on different question types, accounting topics, class levels, open/closed assessments, and test bank questions. We also discuss implications for accounting education and research.

We use hand-collected data to analyze submission-to-acceptance (STA) times in the top-tier accounting journals relative to other top-tier business journals from 1993 through 2021. We find that, vis-à-vis other business disciplines, STA times at top-tier accounting journals were shorter in the first half of our sample period, and significantly longer thereafter. We also observe shorter STA times for articles with authors from more highly-ranked institutions; this effect exists only in top-tier accounting journals and has increased over time. Finally, we examine the impact of longer STA times on the tenure likelihood of accounting academics at their first institutional placement. We find relatively longer STA times for articles published towards the end of the probationary period significantly decreases an academic’s likelihood of being tenured at their first institution. Our results should be of interest to journal editors, reviewers, provosts, deans, tenure and promotion committees, and tenure-track academics.

ABSTRACTThis study uses experimental economic markets to investigate the impact of risk and the potential for loss on managers' demand for audit quality. We posit that these two important contextual factors influence managers' audit quality preferences. We study these factors because they are ubiquitous to companies, and we focus on their influence on managers because managers continue to play a significant role in the auditor hiring process and we know relatively little about their auditor preferences. We predict that risk, the potential for loss, and their interaction will each decrease manager demand for high audit quality due to a desire to achieve greater reporting flexibility. Experimental results are consistent with our predictions; specifically, increased risk, the potential for loss, and to a lesser extent their interaction, significantly reduce managers' likelihood of hiring the best available auditor in the market. Path analysis indicates that this reduction in audit quality demand leads to increases in misreporting. Finally, we observe investors overpaying for assets to a greater extent when managers hire lower‐quality auditors. Our results show that the contextual factors of risk and the potential for loss, which are ubiquitous to companies, can reduce demand for audit quality, which can increase misreporting behavior and ultimately harm investors.

Ego depletion is embroiled in a crisis that has cast doubts over the legitimacy of the phenomenon itself and its theoretical explanation. I first summarize and analyze the strength model of self- control as cohesive theoretical explanations of the phenomenon and highlight the difficulties it creates for depletion researchers. I conclude that the strength model is not the best theoretical explanation for the depletion phenomenon. Rather, I propose reconceptualizing the ego depletion effect as transient cognitive fatigue (TCF). To support this theoretical shift, I highlight how both the classic and disparate findings in the depletion literature cleanly map into the literature on cognitive fatigue, and how considering depletion to be TCF accommodates existing theoretical alternatives to the strength model.

We insert an automated high-quality (HQ) auditor into established experimental audit markets to test the impact on the supply and demand for audit quality. Our approach allows us to investigate manager demand for audit quality and how other auditors respond to the increased competition from the HQ auditor. Theory predicts that managers will demand high levels of audit quality to avoid investors’ price-protecting behavior, resulting in the HQ auditor dominating the audit market. This demand for high-quality auditing should increase other auditors’ provision of high-quality audits to compete with the high-quality competitor. However, we find strong evidence that the HQ auditor does not dominate the audit market – despite holding audit costs constant and investors placing a premium on HQ auditor reports. We also find that adding an HQ auditor results in other auditors lowering audit quality. Our additional analyses indicate that some managers demand lower audit quality in an attempt to avoid negative audit reports. This evidence is consistent with loss aversion as a potential explanation for this behavior. Our findings indicate a need for additional theoretical and empirical investigation to develop a more comprehensive theory of the demand for auditing.

Trait self-control – the ability to regulate behavior, thoughts, and emotions, especially in pursuit of goals – is important in achieving success in a variety of situations. However, little is known about whether or how individual audit partners’ traits and characteristics can influence audit quality or other outcomes. We combine survey and archival data to examine whether and how Big 4 audit partners’ trait self-control relates to audit quality, client portfolio size, and compensation. We find that trait self-control is predictive of higher audit quality (decreased discretionary accruals and increased probability of issuing a modified audit opinion) and of partners having larger client portfolios and higher compensation. In additional analyses we rule out that this is a selection effect whereby partners with higher self-control audit better clients. Instead, our findings suggest that audit partners’ level of trait self-control is an important determinant of audit quality and audit partners’ career success.

ABSTRACT We use experimental economic markets to examine the impact of changing institutional design features on audit quality. Specifically, we manipulate auditors' economic accountability to managers by altering who hires the auditor—a manager or an independent third party—and auditors' psychological accountability to investors by explicitly stating that the auditor is hired on the investors' behalf. Our design shifts auditors' accountability from managers, who have directional goal preferences, to investors, who prefer judgment accuracy. We find that removing auditors' economic accountability to managers and replacing it with psychological accountability to investors significantly increases audit quality. This increase in audit quality occurs despite the independent third party randomly hiring auditors. In an additional treatment, we incorporate auditor accuracy into the third-party hiring algorithm and find even higher audit quality. Our results suggest that altering auditors' accountability relationships can significantly enhance audit quality. Data Availability: The laboratory market data used in this study are available from the authors upon request.

I report two experiments with senior-associate auditors that investigate whether selfcontrol requirements in auditing tasks cause ego depletion, and whether depleting tasks impact auditors' judgment and decision-making (JDM). In Experiment 1, I find that using self-control to maintain vigilance/focus leads to greater levels of depletion than does using self-control to engage in cognitive processing in an audit planning task or inhibit impulses in a task from the psychology literature. However, I do not find that task-specific experience significantly reduces self-control resources required for task performance. In Experiment 2, I find evidence that depleting tasks – compared to a non-depleted control group –significantly reduce auditors’ cognitive processing in the form of auditors’ ability to generate plausible alternative hypotheses for client-provided explanations for trends. Finally, I find that depleting tasks reduce auditors’ confidence in task performance, when compared to a non-depleted control group.

This study examines the impact of busy season on auditors through ego depletion theory. Ego depletion theory posits that using self-control depletes a cognitive resource and decreases the ability to exercise self-control on subsequent tasks, which can decrease judgment and decision-making (JDM) quality. Using a within-subjects quasi-experiment, I compare selfcontrol resources at the onset of days within and outside of busy season to determine whether auditors experience a between-day accumulation of depletion. I predict and find that auditors experience an accumulation of ego depletion, and therefore begin workdays within busy season in a depleted state. Starting a workday in a depleted state can exacerbate within-day depletion, as studied in prior research. This research contributes a theoretical mechanism linking busy season to auditors’ JDM quality and expands ego depletion theory by predicting and finding initial evidence of an accumulation effect, a more severe form of depletion than studied in prior literature.

I report two experiments with senior-associate auditors that investigate whether self-control requirements in auditing tasks cause ego depletion, and whether depleting tasks impact auditors' judgment and decision-making (JDM). In Experiment 1, I find that using self-control to maintain vigilance/focus leads to greater levels of depletion than does using self-control to engage in cognitive processing in an audit planning task or inhibit impulses in a task from the psychology literature. However, I do not find that task-specific experience significantly reduces self-control resources required for task performance. In Experiment 2, I find evidence that depleting tasks – compared to a non-depleted control group –significantly reduce auditors’ cognitive processing in the form of auditors’ ability to generate plausible alternative hypotheses for client-provided explanations for trends. Finally, I find that depleting tasks reduce auditors’ confidence in task performance, when compared to a non-depleted control group.

In this paper, I synthesize the prior psychology literature on ego depletion and apply this literature to an auditing setting. Ego depletion refers to a reduced desire or ability to use self-control in task performance due to using self-control on prior tasks. I focus on the likely causes and consequences of depletion in an auditing setting, as well as means of mitigating depletion and recovering self-control resources. While ego depletion theory is prevalent in the psychology literature, little is known about whether or how ego depletion affects professionals on meaningful task performance. As a result, this synthesis is aimed at stimulating future ego depletion research in accounting, and specifically auditing, by surveying existing literature and applying this literature to an auditing setting. Further, I develop 13 questions for future research to investigate. My synthesis reveals that ego depletion likely has a pervasive effect in an auditing setting, and can hinder auditors’ judgment and decision-making (JDM) quality. Therefore, this synthesis helps to provide a greater understanding of the impact of auditing tasks on individuals, and refines both auditor JDM and ego depletion theories.

We use experimental economic markets to examine the impact of changing institutional design features on audit quality. Specifically, we manipulate auditors’ economic accountability to managers by altering who hires the auditor – a manager or an independent third party – and auditors’ psychological accountability to investors by explicitly stating that the auditor is hired on the investors’ behalf. Our design shifts auditors’ accountability from managers, who have directional goal preferences, to investors, who prefer judgment accuracy. We find removing auditors’ economic accountability to managers and replacing it with psychological accountability to investors significantly increases audit quality. This increase in audit quality occurs despite the independent third party randomly hiring auditors. In an additional treatment, we incorporate auditor accuracy into the third party hiring algorithm and find even higher audit quality. Our results suggest that altering auditors’ accountability relationships can significantly enhance audit quality.