The Effects of Structure of Public Accounting Firms and Fairness of Their Decision-Making Processes on Auditors\' Information Search Behavior

The purpose of this study is to investigate the relationship between audit structure of accounting firms and fairness felt by auditors, and to study how these two variables (structure and fairness) influence auditors\' information search activities when performing audit assignments. According to multiple regression analyses, the study found that structure of public accounting firms has a negative effect on auditors\' information search activities in terms of breadth and depth of information search .

The more the structuredness , the less the breadth and depth. The study also found that structure of public accounting firms and fairness of decision making is highly correlated . As far as auditors\' information search behavior is concerned , fairness of decision making has a better predictive value than structure of accounting firms ; procedural fairness has a better predictive power than distributive fairness.