Karen Ann Dwyer

Ms.

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Dr Karen-Ann is a chartered accountant and an assistant professor in accounting in the DCU Business School and teaches in financial accounting, auditing and corporate governance. She is chairperson of the DCU BSSAX and BSSAO (incoming exchange students). Karen-Ann is a fellow member of Chartered Accountants Ireland and completed her accountancy training with KPMG. She has 11 years experience with KPMG (working in KPMG Dublin, KPMG Sydney and KPMG Luxembourg) and was an Associate Director in KPMG up to September 2013. Karen-Ann has also worked with Chartered Accountants Ireland in an exam capacity. Karen-Ann graduated from University College Dublin with a Bachelor of Commerce (International): French and from University College Dublin with a Master of Accounting.

She completed her PhD "Auditor planning judgements: Audit materiality thresholds and auditor risk assessments in expanded audit reports" at the University College Dublin in 2020, under the joint supervision of Prof Niamh Brennan and Dr Collette Kirwan. Her current research interests are in auditor planning judgements (audit materiality thresholds and auditor risks assessments) in expanded audit reports. Karen-Ann was awarded the Irish Accounting and Finance Association (IAFA)/American Accounting Association (AAA) travel bursary award for 2019 for her paper entitled “Influence of auditor risk assessments on audit materiality thresholds”. Karen-Ann was awarded the IAFA Scholar Award in 2017 for her paper "An examination of audit materiality and risk in expanded audit reports". She received funding from the IAFA in 2016. Karen-Ann was awarded a UCD College of Business PhD fees scholarship in 2014.

Peer Reviewed Journal

Year Publication
2024 Dwyer, K.A.; Harris, E.E.; Murphy, B. (2024) 'Voluntary Adoption of Recommended Reporting Practices: Evidence from the Irish Nonprofit Sector'. European Accounting Review, . [Link] [DOI]
2024 Dwyer, Karen-Ann M.; Brennan, Niamh M.; Kirwan, Collette E. (2024) 'Disclosure of auditor risk assessments in expanded audit reports'. Journal of Applied Accounting Research, 25 (1). [DOI]
2023 Dwyer, K.A.M.; Brennan, N.M.; Kirwan, C.E. (2023) 'Auditor Materiality in Expanded Audit Reports: More (Disclosure) is Less'. Australian Accounting Review, 33 . [Link] [DOI]
2022 Karen-Ann M. Dwyer; Niamh M. Brennan; Collette E. Kirwan (2022) 'Audit Materiality and Audit Effort: Evidence from Materiality Benchmarks'. Accounting, Finance and Governance Review, (September 2022). https://doi.org/10.52399/001c.36802

Conference Publication

Year Publication
2024 Karen-Ann Dwyer, Bríd Murphy, Damien Dupré (2024) European Accounting Association Conference, Bucharest, Romania Key audit matters and audit committee risks
2024 Karen-Ann Dwyer, Erica Harris, Bríd Murphy (2024) European Accounting Review Conference, Castellón, Spain Voluntary Adoption of Recommended Reporting Practices: Evidence from the Irish Nonprofit Sector
2024 Karen-Ann Dwyer; Bríd Muprhy; Damien Dupré (2024) Irish Accounting and Finance Association, Belfast, Northern Ireland A comparison of key audit matters and audit committee risks
2023 Karen-Ann Dwyer, Erica Harris, Bríd Murphy (2023) Irish Accounting and Finance Association Conference, University of Galway, 2023 Voluntary Adoption of Recommended Reporting Practices: Evidence from the Irish Nonprofit Sector
2022 Karen-Ann Dwyer, Niamh Brennan, Collette Kirwan (2022) European Accounting Association Congress, Bergen, Norway Disclosure of auditor risk assessments in expanded audit reports
2022 Karen-Ann Dwyer, Niamh Brennan, Collette Kirwan (2022) Irish Accounting and Finance Association Disclosure of Key Audit Matters in expanded audit reports Maynooth, Co. Kildare,
2021 Karen-Ann Dwyer, Niamh Brennan, Collette Kirwan (2021) European Accounting Association, Virtual Congress Auditor benchmark choice and audit materiality thresholds in expanded audit reports
2019 Karen-Ann Dwyer (2019) Irish Accounting & Finance Association Doctoral Colloquium Influence of auditor risk assessment on audit quantitative materiality thresholds Dublin City University, Ireland,
2018 Karen-Ann Dwyer (2018) Irish Accounting & Finance Association Conference Audit effort and audit risk: GAAP/Non-GAAP measures of materiality University of Limerick, Ireland,
2018 Karen-Ann Dwyer (2018) Financial Reporting and Business Communications Conference Audit effort and audit risk: GAAP/Non-GAAP measures of materiality Bristol, United Kingdom,
2017 Karen-Ann Dwyer (2017) British Accounting & Finance Association Doctoral Colloquium An examination of audit materiality and risk in new-form audit reports Heriot Watt University, Edinburgh,
2017 Karen-Ann Dwyer (2017) Irish Accounting & Finance Association Doctoral Colloquium An examination of audit materiality and risk in new-form audit reports Athlone Institute of Technology, Ireland,
2016 Karen-Ann Dwyer (2016) Irish Accounting & Finance Association Doctoral Colloquium An examination of materiality and risk disclosures in audit reports Waterford Institute of Technology,
2015 Karen-Ann Dwyer (2015) British Accounting & Finance Association Doctoral Colloquium Applying role theory to external auditors: A preliminary study Manchester, United Kingdom,
2015 Karen-Ann Dwyer (2015) Irish Accounting & Finance Association Doctoral Colloquium External audit quality, auditor role expectations and role conflict Dublin Institute of Technology,
2014 Karen-Ann Dwyer (2014) Irish Accounting & Finance Association Doctoral Colloquium External audit quality, and auditor role expectations and role conflict Queen’s University, Belfast, Northern Ireland,

Conference Contribution

Year Publication
2020 Karen-Ann Dwyer (2020) American Accounting Association: Auditing Section Doctoral Consortium Elevator pitch: Audit materiality thresholds and auditor risk assessments in expanded audit reports Houston, Texas, .
2019 Karen-Ann Dwyer (2019) Accountancy Doctoral Studies Seminar Audit quantitative materiality thresholds and auditor risk assessment University College Dublin, Ireland, .
2018 Karen-Ann Dwyer (2018) Accountancy Doctoral Studies Seminar Audit materiality thresholds: An analysis of auditors’ use of non-GAAP profit benchmarks University College Dublin, Ireland, .
2016 Karen-Ann Dwyer (2016) Accountancy Doctoral Studies Seminar Pilot study: Are materiality thresholds associated with audit characteristics? University College Dublin, Ireland, .
2015 Karen-Ann Dwyer (2015) Accountancy Doctoral Studies Seminar Applying role theory to external auditors University College Dublin, Ireland, .
2015 Karen-Ann Dwyer (2015) Accountancy Doctoral Studies Seminar An examination of materiality and risk disclosures in audit reports University College Dublin, Ireland, .
2014 Karen-Ann Dwyer (2014) Accountancy Doctoral Studies Seminar External audit quality, and auditor role expectations and role conflict University College Dublin, Ireland, .
Certain data included herein are derived from the © Web of Science (2024) of Clarivate. All rights reserved.

Professional Associations

Association Function From / To
Chartered Accountants in Ireland (CAI) Fellow member -
American Accounting Association (AAA) Member 29/11/2019 - 31/12/2020
European Accounting Association (EAA) Member 03/01/2021 -
Irish Accounting and Finance Association (IAFA) Council member 30/09/2020 -

Honors and Awards

Date Title Awarding Body
01/05/2019 Nominated for DCU President's Award for Excellence in Teaching Dublin City University
01/05/2019 Irish Accounting & Finance Association (IAFA) American Accounting Association Travel Bursary Award Irish Accounting & Finance Association (IAFA)
01/05/2017 Irish Accounting & Finance Association (IAFA) Scholar Award Irish Accounting & Finance Association (IAFA)
01/05/2016 Irish Accounting & Finance Association (IAFA) Doctoral Funding Award Irish Accounting & Finance Association (IAFA)
01/01/2014 UCD College of Business PhD Fees Scholarship University College Dublin

Education

Start date Institution Qualification Subject
Grande École ESSEC Business School (École Superiéure des Science Économiques et Commerciales), Paris Erasmus
University College Dublin B.Comm (International)
University College Dublin Master of Accounting

Research Interests

Karen-Ann's research interests include auditing and financial reporting. Karen-Ann examines audit materiality thresholds and auditor risk assessments in expanded audit reports.

Teaching Interests

Financial Reporting
Auditing
Corporate Governance 

Modules Coordinated

Term Title Subject
2022 Audit Principles and Procedures AC222
2022 Assurance Services:Theory and Practice AC515
2022 Advanced International Financial Accounting AC303
2022 International Financial Accounting & Analysis AC571
2022 Fund Accounting AC318