Premier journal honors Fisher Eminent Scholar with Best Paper Award
GAINESVILLE, Fla. – The work of Dr. W R Knechel, the Frederick Fisher Eminent Scholar Chair at the Fisher School of Accounting, was honored by the American Accounting Association (AAA)—Auditing Section with the Auditing: A Journal of Practice and Theory (AJPT) Best Paper Award during its Midyear Meeting on Jan. 14-16 in Scottsdale, Ariz.
Dr. Knechel was recognized for his work “Audit Quality: Insights from the Academic Literature,” which appeared in AJPT in 2013. Dr. Knechel coauthored the paper with Gopal V. Krishnan (American University), Mikhail Pevzner (George Mason University), Lori B. Shefchik (Georgia Tech), and Uma K. Velury (University of Delaware).
The AJPT Best Paper Award, selected by a committee of AJPT Editors, recognizes the best paper published in AJPT in the most recent three calendar years that “has had a significant influence on, or the potential to significantly influence, auditing research or practice.” The award’s criteria are “(1) a demonstrable or anticipated impact on audit research or practice, (2) the importance of the problem(s) addressed, (3) the creativity of the research, and (4) the appropriateness of the theoretical development, research method, and analysis.”
“Audit Quality: Insights from the Academic Literature” presents a thorough and informative analysis of academic research on audit quality. Additionally, Dr. Knechel and his coauthors develop a theoretical framework for synthesizing and understanding research related to audit quality, and offer key suggestions to advance future research.
Dr. Knechel, who serves as Director of the International Center for Research in Accounting and Auditing at the Fisher School, is one of the world’s leading scholars in the audit research community, and his international experience in this field is extensive. He holds formal teaching positions at Catholic University of Leuven (KU Leuven) in Belgium and the University of Auckland in New Zealand, and has served as a visiting professor at many of Europe’s most prestigious universities in Belgium, Denmark, Germany, Netherlands, Norway and Slovakia. He was also named to the newly-created Dutch Foundation for Auditing Research in October 2015.
Dr. Knechel has published more than 50 research articles in numerous academic journals including the Journal of Accounting Research, The Accounting Review, Accounting Organizations and Society, Contemporary Accounting Research, Decisions Sciences Journal, Accounting Horizons and Issues in Accounting Education.
He has been previously honored by the AAA as its 2015 Outstanding Auditing Educator, one of the AAA’s most prestigious awards that celebrated his years of scholarly endeavors in research and teaching. He has also received the Vernon Zimmerman Best Paper Award at the Asia-Pacific Conference on International Accounting Issues (2012), and the Best Manuscript Award at the European Audit Research Network Bi-Annual Conference (2007). Dr. Knechel has also been named the Warrington College of Business’s “Distinguished International Educator Award” multiple times.
Dr. Knechel received his Bachelor of Business Administration from the University of Delaware in 1977 and his Ph.D. from the University of North Carolina in 1981.
