Dr Ilias G. Basioudis
Visiting Senior Research Fellow Aston University
- Birmingham
Distinguished Academic and Researcher with 25+ years of experience specialising in auditing policy and governance research.
Media
Social
Biography
Areas of Expertise
Education
University of Stirling
MSc
1995
University of Warwick
PhD
2000
Affiliations
- Former Chairman, Auditing Special Interest Group of British Accounting & Finance Association (BAFA)
- Former Member, Executive Committee of the BAFA
- American Accounting Association - Auditing Section & Teaching Section
- British Accounting Association - Auditing Special Interest Group European Accounting Association
- European Auditing Research Network
- Member of the Learning and Teaching Support Network Centre for Business Management and Accountancy
Parliamentary Contributions
Subsequently, in 2020, ilias responded to BEIS Committee’s inquiry into the future UK-EU relationship on professional and business services.
https://committees.parliament.uk/writtenevidence/7979/default/
In 2019 provided oral evidence to the UK Parliament, as an expert witness, to the BEIS Select Committee in their UK Parliamentary inquiry on the Future of Audit.
https://committees.parliament.uk/oralevidence/8855/pdf/
Research Focus
Editorial: Special issue on the future of audit—A collection of personal reflections
International Journal of Auditing
2022-03-02
Does the audit have a future? Well, it depends. In recent months, the UK Government has been attempting to dig deeply and make significant changes to the audit service provided by accounting firms.
On the other hand, the future of audit has been discussed many times in the last 50+ years, and there have not been many noteworthy adjustments in the audit as we all know it; the main objective(s) of the audit has not been modified much since the mid of the 19th century.
Articles
Implementación de la rotación obligatoria de firma de auditoria: Efectos en los honorarios de auditoria y honorarios por otros servicios distintos de auditoria
Revista de Contabilidad - Spanish Accounting Review2024
La reforma de la normativa de la Unión Europea sobre auditoria de 2014 incluye la rotación obligatoria de la firma de auditoría y una importante limitación de trabajos distintos de auditoria por parte del auditor. Este trabajo analiza los cambios en los honorarios de auditoría, honorarios por otros servicios, así como la proporción entre ambos, cuando se produce un cambio de firma de auditoría, antes y tras la nueva normativa europea. El análisis se realiza para las entidades cotizadas en España durante los años 2011 a 2018 mediante de dos tipos de análisis, descriptivo/estadísticos y de regresiones de datos panel. La nueva regulación ha supuesto un aumento en los cambios de firmas de auditoría. Los resultados muestran que, cuando hay un cambio de firma de auditoría, la firma entrante ofrece un descuento significativo al nuevo cliente en comparación con la firma saliente. Esto es así antes y después de la reforma y, en este último caso, tanto para cambios voluntarios como obligatorios tras la misma. La reforma ha supuesto una reducción de los honorarios por servicios distintos de auditoría, que se manifiesta especialmente después de un cambio voluntario de firma de auditoría tras la reforma. Las firmas de auditoría parecen dispuestas a asumir el coste adicional de auditar a una nueva empresa con el objetivo de ganar clientes.
Chapter 6: Extended Auditor Reports and Key Audit Matters Disclosure as Complements to Corporate Narrative Reporting
Corporate Narrative Reporting2023
The effect of non-audit fees and industry specialization on the prevalence and accuracy of auditor’s going-concern reporting decisions
Journal of International Accounting, Auditing and Taxation2022
The issue of auditors impairing their independence when providing non-audit services (NAS) to audit clients continues to be subject of global regulatory concern.
However, the profession has long argued that knowledge gained from providing NAS can spill over to other areas and can serve to improve audit quality.
Accordingly, we revisit the effect that NAS have on the likelihood of an auditor issuing a going concern modified opinion (GCMO) to distressed clients, as well as the accuracy of those opinions.
We also examine whether industry specialization is associated with GCMO decisions and their accuracy.
Chapter 15: The Impact of the Audit Committee and Internal Audit Function on Board Decision Making During an Extreme Financial Crisis
Research Handbook on Corporate Board Decision-Making2022
Editorial: Special issue on the future of audit—A collection of personal reflections
International Journal of Auditing2022
Does the audit have a future? Well, it depends. In recent months, the UK Government has been attempting to dig deeply and make significant changes to the audit service provided by accounting firms.
On the other hand, the future of audit has been discussed many times in the last 50+ years, and there have not been many noteworthy adjustments in the audit as we all know it; the main objective(s) of the audit has not been modified much since the mid of the 19th century.
A Review of Theories on Auditor Industry Specialisation
International Journal of Academic Research in Business and Social Sciences2022
Auditor industry specialisation is a strategy adopted by audit firms to differentiate themselves from competitors in fulfilling clients’ demands for better financial reporting quality. The concentration of resource and technology investments in a particular focus industry or a number of industries allows them to build their reputation as an industry expert. Hence, providing them with a competitive advantage and greater market power over their rivals. The aim of this paper is to discuss the various theories which explain the role of the industry specialist auditor in promoting financial reporting quality. A company’s financial reporting quality is normally associated with the company’s quality of reported earnings and the quality of its audit. The product differentiation theory, production efficiency theory, reputation theory, and spatial competition theory each have their own merit and relevance in providing distinct explanations on the demand and supply side of industry specialist auditors, and how industry specialisation strategies could have differential effects on the auditor’s fees and quality of services offered by the industry specialist auditors. In terms of implication and contribution, our paper would be of interest to academicians, practitioners, regulators, and policymakers in trying to understand the auditor industry specialisation phenomenon. Our paper also contributes to the literature as this is the first paper that comprehensively provides a synthesis and a holistic view of how these four theories complement each other in explaining the role of the industry specialist auditor in promoting financial reporting quality.
Effects of the Big 4 national and city-level industry expertise on audit quality in the United Kingdom
Journal of International Accounting, Auditing and Taxation2021
In this study, we examine for the first time in the UK, the effects of the Big 4 audit firms’ national (firm-level) and city-office (office-level) industry specialisation on audit quality.
Based on public firms listed on the London Stock Exchange (LSE), we find that clients of the Big 4 joint national and city-level auditor industry specialists have smaller magnitude of discretionary accruals, lower income-increasing discretionary accruals, and lesser accrual estimation error, indicating higher audit quality.
In addition, we also find that when the Big 4 auditors are both national and city-specific industry leaders, their clients are more likely to be issued a modified audit opinion as well as a going concern audit report. The findings imply that industry expertise of the national and city-based professionals of the Big 4 firms have now been captured and distributed more broadly throughout the firm and within their offices.
Moreover, the outcome of this study provides additional evidence that the more recent UK evidence of a fee premium exclusively attached to the Big 4 joint specialists reflects their differentiated service and higher quality audit relative to their non-specialist counterparts.
Partner industry specialization and audit pricing in the United Kingdom
Journal of International Accounting, Auditing and Taxation2019
This study investigates the effects of audit partner industry specialization on audit pricing in the UK market. The mandatory disclosure of the name of the engagement partner in the auditor reports of UK public listed companies took effect from April 2008. Given that the identity of the audit partner is now observable to users of financial statements, it can be argued that there may be an incentive for partner-level differentiation in auditing products, and hence, audit quality. This research examines whether auditor industry expertise in the UK is driven by firm, office, or partner level expertise. The fee premium observed in the study is a joint product of firm and partner level of industry expertise with the highest premium occurring when the client is also audited by an industry leading partner. This finding lends support to the argument that industry expertise is uniquely attributable to the individual audit partner’s human capital in terms of their knowledge and experience from leading audit engagements in a particular industry. It also provides evidence that some fee premiums earned by audit firms and documented in prior literature are most probably the product of the individual audit partner’s expertise.
