Skip to main content

LUP Student Papers

LUND UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES

Sustainability Assurance - The Swedish audit profession’s interpretation and manifestation of competence

Ikuta Mellqvist, Akiko LU and Stierna, Marie (2013) BUSN69 20131
Department of Business Administration
Abstract
Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to investigate the audit profession's interpretation of the characteristic competence in sustainability assurance, and how this is practically demonstrated.
Method: In this paper, a qualitative research with an inductive method approach has been used.
Theoretical perspectives: Theories in this paper consist of Flint’s (1988) philosophy of auditing, Abbott’s (1988) theory on professions, Power’s (1997; 1999; 2003) theories of the audit profession, as well as the Swedish legal framework and sustainability assurance standard RevR 6.
Empirical data: The empirical data presented in this paper consists of four interviews with sustainability assurers from the Big Four audit firms. The interviews have been... (More)
Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to investigate the audit profession's interpretation of the characteristic competence in sustainability assurance, and how this is practically demonstrated.
Method: In this paper, a qualitative research with an inductive method approach has been used.
Theoretical perspectives: Theories in this paper consist of Flint’s (1988) philosophy of auditing, Abbott’s (1988) theory on professions, Power’s (1997; 1999; 2003) theories of the audit profession, as well as the Swedish legal framework and sustainability assurance standard RevR 6.
Empirical data: The empirical data presented in this paper consists of four interviews with sustainability assurers from the Big Four audit firms. The interviews have been used to analyse the profession’s interpretation and manifestation of necessary competence to perform sustainability assurance.
Conclusions: The key findings are that the sustainability assurers from the audit firms claim competence due to a perceived overlap between financial audit and sustainability assurance, as well as their use of multidisciplinary teams. External attributes such as educational background, internal training and certification are not seen as factors determining competence. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
Ikuta Mellqvist, Akiko LU and Stierna, Marie
supervisor
organization
course
BUSN69 20131
year
type
H1 - Master's Degree (One Year)
subject
keywords
Sustainability assurance, assurance providers, competence, audit profession, legitimacy
language
English
id
3878645
date added to LUP
2013-06-25 09:18:17
date last changed
2013-06-25 09:18:17
@misc{3878645,
  abstract     = {{Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to investigate the audit profession's interpretation of the characteristic competence in sustainability assurance, and how this is practically demonstrated.
Method: In this paper, a qualitative research with an inductive method approach has been used.
Theoretical perspectives: Theories in this paper consist of Flint’s (1988) philosophy of auditing, Abbott’s (1988) theory on professions, Power’s (1997; 1999; 2003) theories of the audit profession, as well as the Swedish legal framework and sustainability assurance standard RevR 6.
Empirical data: The empirical data presented in this paper consists of four interviews with sustainability assurers from the Big Four audit firms. The interviews have been used to analyse the profession’s interpretation and manifestation of necessary competence to perform sustainability assurance.
Conclusions: The key findings are that the sustainability assurers from the audit firms claim competence due to a perceived overlap between financial audit and sustainability assurance, as well as their use of multidisciplinary teams. External attributes such as educational background, internal training and certification are not seen as factors determining competence.}},
  author       = {{Ikuta Mellqvist, Akiko and Stierna, Marie}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  note         = {{Student Paper}},
  title        = {{Sustainability Assurance - The Swedish audit profession’s interpretation and manifestation of competence}},
  year         = {{2013}},
}