This study examines the relationships between sustainability technologies, auditor transition, and circular economy models. Circular economy (CE) has been visited in recent studies as a matter of necessity to procure answers to pressing issues that befalls our society, aimed at the survival of the human species. While doing so, there has been little emphasis placed on sustainable technologies that will usher auditors into the new era. Data were constructed from a symposium organized by the Institute of Internal Auditors (IIA), where scholars and practitioners addressed the future of auditing technology, regarding, in particular, the International Social and Environmental Accreditation and Labeling (ISEAL) database official website and also interviews with experts dealing day to day with sustainability and circular economy. Discourse analysis assisted in working with these groups of data. Our findings identified 12 different relational types in our analysis, thus signaling upward trends in the preparedness of auditors in boosting sustainable technologies towards a circular economy environment. Additionally, our findings demonstrate the significant uptake of innovative tools implemented for new-generation technologies in order to enhance auditing. The findings of this study have implications for academia and practice which are aimed at technological preparedness for the transition of auditing towards CE. Finally, this paper contributes by summarizing the debate and speculations around the technologies that are driving auditing to CE.

This study is aimed at analyzing the characteristics of forensic accounting services performed by the accounting firms in Brazil, using an exploratory approach. At the end, performs a discourse analysis on a speech proffered by the CEO of one of the key players of forensic accounting service provider (Kroll) in Brazil. In order to orientate this reflection, we pose the following question: what is the characteristic of forensic accounting that substantiates it as professional accountants’ innovation to curb corporate accounting malpractices? In this intent, we accept the premise that the bone of contention in some unhealthy business environment is the inability of auditor to track frauds. We used the icons (categories and/or nodes) that dynamically represent formalism in the theory of self re-production to explain the patterns met in the speech. Our finding makes us to conclude that the idea that frauds have been least detected by auditors begins to gain shape as auditors are more adequately trained to detect fraud instead of emphasizing the traditional segregation of duties and safeguard of assets.

This paper investigates the connection of internal control environment to sustainable development goals to curb fraud in Brazil. We drew on the interpretivist and constructivist perspectives with discourse analysis. Data corpus consists of interviews of 20 respondents who are external auditors, internal auditors, and employees of the controller’s department of an organization of ecommerce and archival documents. Results did not find any significant relationship between the connection of internal control functions (ICF) and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) inasmuch as the connection of ICF to efficiency is tied to policies in compliance with standards, management tone, roles of enforcement, accountability, and adherence and obedience of rules. Triangulating SDG-16 with the dimensions of the control environment, fraud manifests mainly as a result of lack of commitment to integrity and values, as well as ineffectiveness of monitoring functions. This study concludes for the building of effective, accountable and even institutions with the embedding monitoring functions to sustain development goals. Since ex ante literatures examined the conceptual framework in isolation, this study connects it to sustainable development goals. Finally, this study signals an implication in the internal control literature as it clarifies the scientific theories and practical baseline of internal control environment to the policymakers, practitioners, and academia in view of the way forward on the connection of ICF to the SDG in the fight against corporate frauds.

The current study examined the patterns of the similarity of corporate frauds. It used written scenarios of the frauds experienced from workplace. Participants were 10 graduate MBA students in a controllership program of the Presbyterian Mackenzie University, located in São Paulo, Brazil, during the period of December 2013. In our study, they described the recent types of fraud they witnessed. A premise supports the similarity of frauds in regard to misappropriation of asset following the flaws in internal control and the authorising schemes. Our study concludes for the scenarios holding for similarity in misappropriation of assets plus monetary theft and corruption; however, no similarity was narrated in regard to frauds of financial statement.

This study sought to identify incentives that influence the accounting choices for classifying interest and dividends received or paid in Cash Flow Statements (CFSs), in the period from 2008 to 2014, in non-financial companies of the Brazilian capital market. The hypotheses refer to the effect of the choice of classification for interest and dividends over cash flow from operations (CFO), according to indebtedness, profitability, size, negative CFO, sector, and auditor. This article seeks to contribute by providing evidence on the accounting choices for classification in CFSs, considering the lack of consensus in the results of studies in the Brazilian capital market and helping to better understand these accounting choices and the incentives behind them. A correct understanding of the information in CFSs is fundamental for them to be useful to their users. The existence of accounting choices for classification in CFSs may directly affect this understanding and, consequently, their usefulness. The results help in better understanding the discretion contained in CFSs, enabling the correct use of their information. They can also generate evidence for regulatory bodies to rethink their accounting rules and for academia to direct future research. Two panel data models were developed, using a sample of 352 companies, 2,290 analyzed reports, and 3,764 data items. The results indicate that companies with a greater level of debt, profitability, and size make their accounting choices in order to report higher CFO in the CFS. The evidence obtained reinforces the international findings and adds new analyses in the Brazilian context, contributing to the development of accounting choice theory.