Accounting and auditing transformation

The project looks both backward and forward in light of the Swedish professional organization FAR celebrating its 100th anniversary in 2023.

Background

The project consists of several national and international sub-projects. One is about the emergence of the audit profession from a historical perspective and what characterizes today's audit activities. Another is about what the audit may look like in the future, not least as a result of the prevailing regulatory zeal and the audit industry's digital transformation. Various sub-projects in sustainability reporting and on employees' pensions are included. Of particular interest is what big data, artificial intelligence and machine learning can bring in terms of opportunities and risks.

Dissemination of Results:

The intention is that different sub-projects will be intertwined in connection with the compilation and presentation of studies. A Swedish-language anthology was published by Ekerlids förlag just in time for FAR's 100th anniversary in 2023. In addition, two English-language anthologies were published by the international publishers Springer and Routledge. The first of these two anthologies is entitled "Handbook of big data and analytics in accounting and auditing" and the second is called "Audit transformation: Digitalisation, regulation and sustainability".

In addition to this, three scientific (English-language) articles and two popular science (Swedish-language) articles have been published. The ambition is to publish additional articles, both scientific and popular science, as the project progresses.

Project organisation, project period and project funding

This is one of the larger ongoing projects at CER, in which around 50 researchers from both Sweden and other countries are participating. The project is coordinated by the Centre for Research on Economic Relations (CER) and various editorial groups include researchers from the University of Gothenburg, Karlstad University, Mid Sweden University, Uppsala University and RMIT University in Melbourne, Australia.

The project started in the summer of 2021 and is expected to continue until the summer of 2025. It is primarily funded by CER and Karlstad Business School, but also by the trade association FAR and the Royal Patriotic Society.