The auditor as consigliere in family firm
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to develop and test a concept of auditor as consigliere in family firms, that captures additional functions to monitoring, those of advice, mediating, and conveying.
Design/methodology/approach
The concept is tested through a survey conducted on 309 Swedish auditors.
Findings
The data indicate that the consigliere role is generally not emphasized, indicating that auditors primarily perform the monitoring role of the audit. However, the authors do find indications of the auditor performing the consigliere role, through performing the advisory and mediating functions and, to a smaller degree, the conveying function.
Research limitations/implications
The survey is limited in response rate and in separating governance situations from consigliere functions.
Practical implications
With reservation for professional independence, the auditor as consigliere could be part of the governance of the family firm, but should be trained for this activity.
Social implications
Regulators should pay attention to the consigliere role when, for example, stipulating compulsory rotation of auditors.
Originality/value
The paper shows that the auditor is more than a monitor in family firms. The consigliere role, even if not at all dominating, has to be considered, at least in family firms.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
The project is financed by The Jan Wallander and Tom Hedelius Foundation. The authors thank the journal editor and two anonymous reviewers for their valuable comments. The authors greatly appreciate helpful comments they received at the EAA Conference, Tallin, 2014. David Harrison at Proper English AB contributed with language editing.
Citation
Collin, S.-O.Y., Ahlberg, J., Berg, K., Broberg, P. and Karlsson, A. (2017), "The auditor as consigliere in family firm", Journal of Family Business Management, Vol. 7 No. 1, pp. 2-20. https://doi.org/10.1108/JFBM-08-2016-0019
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2017, Emerald Publishing Limited