Is value creation creaking old audit creatures joints? - A qualitative multiple case study of large audit firms

Sammanfattning: Seminar date: 2018-05-31 Course: BUSN79 Business Administration: Degree Project in Accounting and Finance, 15 credits Authors: Linnea Lövgren and Magdalena Stevens Advisor: Amanda Sonnerfeldt Five key words: Professional service firms (PSFs), value creation, technological development, competence, audit. Purpose: The overall purpose of this thesis is to provide deeper knowledge and provide a contextual understanding of the Swedish audit domain and how PSFs manage competence and value creation due to the technological change. By investigating how the firms manage competence and value creation, the authors will examine what strategy they have used to respond to the technological change and how they ensure that their employees possess the required competence. Methodology: To address the research purpose, the study has a qualitative approach consisting of a multiple case study on PSFs. Theoretical perspectives: The value creation process framework has been complemented with theories regarding capabilities, strategic responses and the competence set of a real time economy auditor. Empirical foundation: The first part of the empirics is based on secondary sources mainly obtained from the case companies’ websites. The second part of the empirics is based on interviews conducted with the case companies as well as an interview conducted with FAR. Conclusions: The individual competence set has changed as the firms have highly integrated technology and have moved away from the traditional audit competence set. The technological development has facilitated the ability to share knowledge within the firms. External value creation has been increased as the technological development has influenced the audit function. The service delivery has also been expanded as the auditors provide more advisory services in the audit function. The value creation in the audit function has increased as the firms have had a proactive strategy which is inconsistent with previous studies.