Internationalisation of Perceptions of Litigation Risk

This paper investigates the perceptions of senior auditors in large firms in Australia, Malaysia and New Zealand concerning sources of auditor legal liability, what should constitute auditors’ duties and what may be done to reduce litigation exposure. Results are consistent with our conjecture that professional and organisational culture dominates perceptions, even in the presence of quite strong jurisdictional, cultural and institutional differences. The analysis indicates that auditors’ perceptions are strongly affected by international trends, while cultural and institutional effects tend to be more subtle but are identified by detailed and focused analysis.