“Jere, how did you get interested in auditing research?”

I worked as a CPA for 2 years, for Haskins & Sells, a legacy firm of Deloitte. Having worked in professional accounting helps me to understand the issues face in practice. Auditing is a difficult job, and I have a lot of sympathy for the work of audit practitioners. When I began my academic career in the late 1970s, the auditing profession was under investigation by the US Congress following some high-profile client failures. May unsubstantiated allegations were made by politicians and regulators, and these allegations motivated a lot of my early audit research. The other satisfying part of audit scholarship is that auditing is what most of our students chose to do when they finish their university studies. This helps me to put a “human face” on audit research. In contrast, research in other accounting areas such as financial reporting or management control seem more abstract and anonymous, without a human face.

“What are the research questions that keep you up at night?”

For the past 20 years, I have been exploring the drivers of audit quality. My research has been moving form more of a macro-level analysis, looking at the broad effects of a country’s legal and regulatory systems on audit quality, to a more granular analysis. Macro-level factors are very important, but equally important are differences between firms and even differences across offices within the same firm. More recently, my research has begun looking at audit partner effects, and one study of mine indicates that inter-partner differences may have a very large effect on audit quality. This begs the question of why, and this is what my current work is focused on.

“I suspect you probably would be welcome to join all universities in the world with interest in audit research, why did you choose for Maastricht?”

I first visited Maastricht in 1993 or 94, at the invitation of Steven Maijoor and Roger Meuwissen. I’ve visited the university regularly since then, and my wife and I have always enjoyed our time in Maastricht. So, when Ann Vanstraelen approached me about the FAR chair opportunity few years ago, it was an exciting opportunity that came at the right time, when I was looking for a new challenges and opportunities. I’ve also been able to spend quite a bit of time in Europe over the past 10-20 years, and the idea of living here full-time is also very appealing to me and my wife.

“What are the similarities and differences between the research departments in Missouri and Maastricht?”

There are broad similarities in what they do. In their missions of teaching and research. However, there is a much broader range of accounting scholarship in Europe, and I find this appealing. Accounting has come to be very narrow and technical, with too much of an econometric emphasis to the exclusion of more interesting and potentially relevant research.

“You have accepted the Dutch Foundation for Auditing (FAR) Chair in Auditing Research in Maastricht. What would you like to achieve with this Chair?”

The FAR Chair appointment is central to my decision to move here. The chair gives me research access to the accounting firms that is unattainable in the United States. My first project is already underway and is examining personal characteristics of partners and managers, and how these leadership characteristics affect the quality of their engagement teams. Over the past month, I’ve had high-level meetings in Amsterdam with the leading firms to discuss their recent corporate culture initiatives, and this will form the basis of a follow-up research project I will be starting next year. This is an incredibly exciting research opportunity for me, a chance to get inside the black box of accounting firms, and even to examine the work of specific audit engagement teams. The potential research project with the cooperation of FAR and the profession will keep me fully occupied for many years to come.

“You have supervised many PhD students throughout the years. What is your best advice to starting PhD students and what is your best advice to PhD students entering the job market?”

As a PhD student, you are making a life-long investment. Work hard while you are a PhD student and it will pay off. More generally, scholarship is difficult work, and it is not a 9 to 5 job. You have to love it, or you will not be successful.

“You are now a few months in the Netherlands, so maybe the most important questions: Are you biking to work? And have you found a favorite coffee bar in Maastricht?”

Yes, I just got my bike. I love getting around town on the bike. Maastricht is small enough to walk, but the bike is so convenient. I must confess, though, that some cyclists are a bit aggressive, and I’ve decided that I will wear a helmet just to be safe. There are many temptations to life in Maastricht. We love vlai, especially the keersen vlai from Bisschopsmolen. I’m not a big coffee drinker, although the coffee is very good at the Coffeelovers locations. The one in Book Store Dominican is personal favorite.

“Thank you very much Jere, we wish you a lot of success at our department!”

Go to the Department of Accounting and Information Management.