Big 4 Firms as Legal Service Providers: Implications for Audit Practice and Future Research Directions

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
David N. Herda ◽  
Jonathan H. Grenier ◽  
Billy E. Brewster ◽  
Mary E Marshall
Keyword(s):  
Service Providers ◽  
Current Status ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Legal Services ◽  
Legal Service ◽  
Accounting Firms ◽  
Big 4 ◽  
Rule Changes ◽  
Future Research Directions ◽  
The U.S

The Big 4 accounting firms have expanded their legal service arms to historic proportions over the last decade, employing thousands of lawyers around the world. Although most of the Big 4's revenue from legal services is presently generated outside the U.S., they are now making inroads into the U.S. legal market, and rule changes are being considered that would further allow the Big 4 to offer legal services in the U.S. This essay summarizes the current status of Big 4 firms as legal service providers, discusses potential implications of legal offerings for their U.S. audit practices, and suggests directions for future research. Our proposed research questions are informed by several literatures, interviews with former Big 4 partners and practicing attorneys, and a survey of the general public. They center on the fundamental difference between audit and law practices, brand equity considerations, and culture changes within the Big 4.

scholarly journals The Future of Law Firms (and Lawyers) in the Age of Artificial Intelligence

2020 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Anthony E. Davis
Keyword(s):  
Artificial Intelligence ◽  
Service Providers ◽  
Predictive Analytics ◽  
Law Firms ◽  
Legal Services ◽  
Legal Service ◽  
Accounting Firms ◽  
Ordinary Life ◽  
The Future ◽  
Research Contract

Abstract This article explores the future for lawyers and law firms in the light of the changes that Artificial Intelligence (“AI”) is already bringing to the universe of legal services. Part I briefly describes some of the ways AI is already in use in ordinary life - from facial recognition, through medical diagnosis to translation services. Part II describes how AI is transforming what it means to provide legal services in six primary areas: litigation review; expertise automation; legal research; contract analytics; contract and litigation document generation; and predictive analytics. Part III explores who are the providers of these AI driven legal services - often non-lawyer legal service providers - and how these providers are replacing at least some of what clients have traditionally sought from lawyers. Part III also discusses the implications of all these changes both for the future role of lawyers individually, and in particular what services will clients still need lawyers to perform: judgment, empathy, creativity and adaptability. In turn, this Part examines what will these changes mean for the size, shape, composition and economic model of law firms, as well as the implications of these changes for legal education and lawyer training. Part IV identifies the principal legal, ethical, regulatory and risk management issues raised by the use of AI in the provision of legal services. Finally, in Part V the article considers who will be the likely providers of AI based services other than law firms: legal publishers, major accounting firms and venture capital funded businesses.

Tourism research for the GCC region: Current status and future research directions

2021 ◽  
pp. 135481662199996
Author(s):  
Ali Salman Saleh ◽  
Charbel Bassil ◽  
Arsalan Safari
Keyword(s):  
United Arab Emirates ◽  
Current Status ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Research Directions ◽  
Regional Tourism ◽  
Research Theme ◽  
Tourism Sector ◽  
Future Research Directions ◽  
Meta Analyses ◽  
The Impact

Tourism in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries has recently been considered by policymakers as a new avenue for economic diversification. Despite the considerable literature concerning the impact of tourism worldwide, only a limited number of studies have looked at the tourism sector in the GCC region or analyzed its economic, sociocultural, and environmental impacts. This article therefore conducts a systematic review of the state of the literature related to tourism in the GCC region. It provides effective insights about the current status, gaps, and challenges and proposes future research directions in this area for academics, practitioners, and policymakers with an interest in regional tourism development. The preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and meta-analyses approach was used to identify and select the papers. Some 23 papers were identified and analyzed. The majority of these studies focused on the United Arab Emirates, specifically the Dubai emirate. We found the most dominant research theme to be tourism planning.

A model for managing service encounters for neo-luxury consumers

2016 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 41-52 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bonnie Canziani ◽  
Kittichai Watchravesringkan ◽  
Jennifer Yurchisin
Keyword(s):  
Social Class ◽  
Brand Management ◽  
Service Providers ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Service Encounters ◽  
Theoretic Model ◽  
Luxury Brands ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Consumer Markets ◽  
Future Research Directions

Purpose – This paper aims to explore a theoretical relationship among perceptions of consumer social class, the perceived legitimacy of customer requests for service and the delivery of intangible services. It focuses the discussion on service firm encounters with non-traditional consumers seeking to purchase from luxury brands. Design/methodology/approach – The paper reviews the literature for current trends in strategies of luxury brands and characteristics of evolving global and Asian consumer markets for luxury and neo-luxury goods and draws a theoretic model with propositions. Findings – Evidence suggests that service providers can improve efforts to expand services to the newly rich and trading-up neo-luxury consumer markets by focusing on the intangible elements of the service delivery system. Particular emphasis is placed on enhancing employee treatment of neo-luxury customers during service encounters by understanding the influence of employee perceptions of consumer social class and evaluations of the perceived legitimacy of customer requests for service. Originality/value – The paper contributes to the theoretical discussion in luxury brand management by suggesting that employees are influenced by impressions of customer worth and other attributes when determining responses to customers during service encounters. Implications for practitioners and future research directions for academics based on the framework are presented.

Sustainability and Design Education: The Current Status of Product Design Higher Education in the UK

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emelia Delaney ◽  
Wei Liu
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Product Design ◽  
New Product Development ◽  
Design Education ◽  
Current Status ◽  
Design Stage ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Future Research Directions ◽  
Area Of Concern ◽  
The Uk

Abstract The aim of sustainability is to fulfil the needs of current generations without compromising the needs of future generations. It is also a rising area of concern within industry, it is therefore important that graduate designers are equipped with the skills to accommodate sustainability issues as well as demands from industry. Additionally, the product design stage during New Product Development has been identified to have the greatest impact on the sustainability of the entire product, however how educated designers are on the topic of sustainability is unclear. An initial literature review has been conducted to investigate design education on sustainability as well as teaching styles. Following this the study identifies and reviews UK Product Design courses to establish the current status of sustainability integration in higher education. The exploration into university prospectuses has found that around half of UK universities implement sustainability in some way, however there are limited courses which dedicate specific modules to sustainability. Additionally, links with industry and accreditation organizations between UK product design courses have been confirmed, but there is no definite information to suggest that the universities use this to aid in the implementation sustainability education. From this review future research directions have been outlined.

scholarly journals 3D Printing in Construction: Current Status, Implementation Hindrances, and Development Agenda

2021 ◽  
Vol 2021 ◽  
pp. 1-12
Author(s):  
Xin Ning ◽  
Tong Liu ◽  
Chunlin Wu ◽  
Chao Wang
Keyword(s):  
Systematic Review ◽  
3D Printing ◽  
Current Status ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Research Directions ◽  
Technical Research ◽  
Research Status ◽  
Development Agenda ◽  
Future Research Directions ◽  
Future Topics

3D printing (3DP) is regarded as an innovation that contributes to automation in civil engineering and offers benefits in design, greenness, and efficiency. It is necessary to objectively analyze the current status and challenges associated with 3DP and identify future research directions to properly understand its construction applications. Previous research has focused more on the technical dimension of 3DP; however, the nontechnical dimension of the technology may hinder its implementation and thus must be paid particular attention to. This study presents a systematic review of the existing literature from both technical and nontechnical dimensions by combining quantitative and qualitative studies. The quantitative study was conducted using scientometric methods. The qualitative study analyzed information, including the technical research status and nontechnical challenges and trends. Two aspects of technical research status are presented, including materials and processes. In addition, nontechnical challenges and trends from the economic, environmental, social, and legislative aspects are proposed. This study provides a comprehensive agenda to advance 3DP in construction and proposes research interests, challenges, and future topics. It is intended to help construction practitioners systematically master existing processes and materials and assess the application degree and necessity of 3DP.

An Exploration of Bank Confirmation Process Automation: A Longitudinal Study

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul Caster ◽  
Randal J. Elder ◽  
Diane J. Janvrin
Keyword(s):  
Technology Use ◽  
Exploratory Study ◽  
Error Rates ◽  
Third Party ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Process Automation ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Big 4 ◽  
Bank Employees ◽  
The U.S

This exploratory study examines automation of the bank confirmation process using longitudinal data set from the largest third-party U.S. confirmation service provider supplemented with informal interviews with practitioners. We find a significant increase in electronic confirmation use in the U.S. and internationally. Errors requiring reconfirmation were less than two percent of all electronic confirmations. Errors made by auditors were almost five times more likely than errors by bank employees. Most auditor errors involved use of an invalid account number, although invalid client contact, invalid request, and invalid company name errors increased recently. Big 4 auditors made significantly more confirmation errors than did auditors at non-Big 4 national firms. Error rates and error types do not vary between confirmations initiated in the U.S. and those initiated internationally. Three themes emerged for future research: authentication of evidence, global differences in technology use, and technology adoption across firms of different sizes.

Value Co-Creation in Cloud Services

2013 ◽  
pp. 74-91 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ammar Rashid ◽  
William Yu Chung Wang ◽  
Felix B. Tan
Keyword(s):  
Service Providers ◽  
Practical Experience ◽  
Cloud Services ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Research Directions ◽  
Technical Aspects ◽  
Creation Process ◽  
Managerial Implications ◽  
Future Research Directions

In recent years, there has been considerable interest in cloud services in academic literature. Most research in this area has focused on the technical aspects of designing and implementing cloud services, with few studies focusing on understanding the value of cloud services and the processes by which consumer and service providers engage each other to co-create these services. This chapter explains the co-creation processes, and, the role of consumer in the value co-creation process of cloud services. It incorporates extant marketing and information systems literature, industry reports, and practical experience reflections to highlight the significance of cloud services. The drivers of co-creation are explored with the description of co-creation processes and the underlying factors involved in value co-creation of cloud services. The chapter concludes by outlining the opportunities associated with the development of cloud services, noting future research directions and discussing academic and managerial implications.

Security of the Cloud

2015 ◽  
pp. 363-404 ◽  
Author(s):  
Khalid Al-Begain ◽  
Michal Zak ◽  
Wael Alosaimi ◽  
Charles Turyagyenda
Keyword(s):  
Service Providers ◽  
Denial Of Service ◽  
Cloud Service ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Cloud Environment ◽  
Ddos Attacks ◽  
Security Attacks ◽  
Edos Attacks ◽  
Future Research Directions ◽  
Cloud Users

The chapter presents current security concerns in the Cloud Computing Environment. The cloud concept and operation raise many concerns for cloud users since they have no control of the arrangements made to protect the services and resources offered. Additionally, it is obvious that many of the cloud service providers will be subject to significant security attacks. Some traditional security attacks such as the Denial of Service attacks (DoS) and distributed DDoS attacks are well known, and there are several proposed solutions to mitigate their impact. However, in the cloud environment, DDoS becomes more severe and can be coupled with Economical Denial of Sustainability (EDoS) attacks. The chapter presents a general overview of cloud security, the types of vulnerabilities, and potential attacks. The chapter further presents a more detailed analysis of DDoS attacks' launch mechanisms and well-known DDoS defence mechanisms. Finally, the chapter presents a DDoS-Mitigation system and potential future research directions.

Security of the Cloud

2018 ◽  
pp. 1511-1554
Author(s):  
Khalid Al-Begain ◽  
Michal Zak ◽  
Wael Alosaimi ◽  
Charles Turyagyenda
Keyword(s):  
Service Providers ◽  
Denial Of Service ◽  
Cloud Service ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Cloud Environment ◽  
Ddos Attacks ◽  
Security Attacks ◽  
Edos Attacks ◽  
Future Research Directions ◽  
Cloud Users

The chapter presents current security concerns in the Cloud Computing Environment. The cloud concept and operation raise many concerns for cloud users since they have no control of the arrangements made to protect the services and resources offered. Additionally, it is obvious that many of the cloud service providers will be subject to significant security attacks. Some traditional security attacks such as the Denial of Service attacks (DoS) and distributed DDoS attacks are well known, and there are several proposed solutions to mitigate their impact. However, in the cloud environment, DDoS becomes more severe and can be coupled with Economical Denial of Sustainability (EDoS) attacks. The chapter presents a general overview of cloud security, the types of vulnerabilities, and potential attacks. The chapter further presents a more detailed analysis of DDoS attacks' launch mechanisms and well-known DDoS defence mechanisms. Finally, the chapter presents a DDoS-Mitigation system and potential future research directions.

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