Beyond the Message: How Client Response Time and Message Fluency Impact Staff Auditor Judgment

SUMMARY Staff auditors frequently email clients to conduct evidence inquiry. A recent article by Bhattacharjee, Moreno, and Wright (2023) investigates whether two characteristics of email communication, client response time and message processing fluency, influence staff auditors’ judgments. The current article summarizes the study for practitioners, which finds that auditor skepticism is reduced when the client provides a more fluent email response compared with a less fluent response in a moderate response time. In addition, results show auditor skepticism is reduced when the client provides a more fluent email response in a moderate response time than an immediate response time. Implications for practice as well as practitioner and audit firm takeaways are discussed. Data Availability: Data are available upon request. JEL Classifications: M42.