Survey Request from Ph.D. Student – The Auditor Selection Process

The research looks to examine the auditor selection process for governmental entities and some of the factors that influence how Finance Directors (or equivalent) make audit firm and audit partner decisions for financial and/or compliance audits of their entities. The study is expected to also provide a better understanding about how Finance Directors process information for these decisions.

Your participation will involve approximately 10-15 minutes of your time to complete the survey. Your participation will be completely anonymous, and no personal or identifiable information will be collected. A donation will be made to the Government Finance Officers Association Scholarship Fund for each completed survey. Participation is strictly voluntary, and you can opt out at any time. 

This research study was approved by the Kennesaw State University – Institutional Review Board (IRB# FY23-120).  

Marena Messina is a Ph.D. candidate in Business Administration with a concentration in accounting from Kennesaw State University.  She is also a full-time Adjunct Instructor of Accounting at The University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB). Before switching to academia, Marena worked for a large, regional accounting firm as a CPA working primarily in assurance. Many of Marena's assurance clients were local municipalities and school boards and that experience sparked her dissertation topic idea.