STRATEGIC COLLABORATIONS ACROSS DEPARTMENTS

DR. XIAOLI GUO AND DR. CULLEN GOENNER

Strategic collaborations across departments, alongside partnerships between junior and senior faculty members, are key components poised to enhance the overall research arm within the Nistler College.

These factors led to a recent level 4 journal article published by Dr. Cullen Goenner, Dr. Xiaoli Guo, and Dr. Matthew Notbohm in The Journal of Business Finance & Accounting, “Audit engagement partner ideology, ideological homophily, and audit quality.”

Dr. Cullen Goenner, Professor in the UND Department of Economics and Finance, was giving a presentation at a Nistler College research seminar, when Dr. Kate Campbell, Chair and Professor of the Herr School of Accountancy, mentioned the idea of a cross-departmental research project.

Following his presentation, Dr. Matt Notbohm, Associate Professor in the UND Herr School of Accountancy, connected with Goenner on his research, and saw a unique opportunity to partner with Dr. Xiaoli Guo, Assistant Professor in the UND Herr School of Accountancy due to her interest in audit research.

“I really enjoyed working with Drs. Goenner and Guo on this project. This study benefited greatly from the combination of diverse skill sets from faculty with different backgrounds.That combination of diverse skill sets created a competitive advantage for us related to this project,”says Notbohm.

Goenner was also highly complementary of the collaboration amongst departments and colleagues. “With Xiaoli being a new Ph.D. she had additional skills to work with and brought additional variables,” says Goenner.

Goenner and Notbohm had worked on other projects in the past and share some of the same theoretical backgrounds. “It can be difficult to find people that share the same theoretical background in research,” says Goenner.

Research Question

Goenner indicated this paper was primarily related to accountancy problems, but they also looked at it with different analytical skills. In their paper, they noted that previous studies indicated that audit quality is influenced by the audit engagement partner’s characteristics.

What Goenner, Guo, and Notbohm sought to examine was the association between audit engagement partner ideology and audit quality. Their findings indicated that clients whose audit engagement partners are ideologically more conservative received higher quality audits. Additionally, they noted evidence that the relation between the auditor’s ideology and that of the client’s executives influences audit quality, along with the ideological homophily between the auditor and the client’s audit committee.

With their diversity of backgrounds and research interests, they focused on the political ideology in audit context with some of the newly available data, allowing them to look at the auditor’s ideology and find out if those traits influenced results.

Mentorship Amongst Colleagues

As a junior faculty, Guo was new to publishing and greatly appreciated the opportunity to be mentored by senior faculty members as she worked on her first publication. “I learned a lot from this collaboration, and greatly appreciated this opportunity,” says Guo.

After this publication Guo said she feels more confident to work on another project on her own.“I feel very lucky to have this opportunity,” says Guo. Guo had the opportunity to collaborate with senior level faculty from two departments, and learn how to publish in a level 4 journal for her first submission.

“It can be an audacious and a frustrating process,” says Goenner on the journal submission process. “As a profession it takes longer and longer to get feedback so the more you can work with other people it will help you to learn how journals will respond.”

Both Goenner and Notbohm agree that collaboration can be difficult if you do not share the same research interest. “Adding additional perspectives are a nice thing to bring together a work like this,” says Goenner, “And Xiaoli is a joy to work with.”

“It’s been a pleasure to work with Dr. Guo on her first publication. It was so neat to help her learn more about the writing, analysis, submission, review, and publication steps of the research process. Additionally, she brings a unique set of knowledge and skills to the project, further helping the team to get the project published,” says Notbohm.

When looking to the future, all three faculty members agree that collaboration amongst faculty and departments are important in elevating the level of research, and supporting fellow faculty within the Nistler College.

Goenner, C., Guo, X., & Notbohm,M. (2024). Audit engagement partner ideology, ideological homophily, and audit quality. Journal of Business Finance & Accounting, 51, 1161–1192. https://doi. org/10.1111/jbfa.12744