Researcher Details |

Karen Ann Dwyer

Ms.

Dr Karen-Ann Dwyer is a chartered accountant and an assistant professor in accounting in DCU Business School. Karen-Ann primarily teaches financial reporting and auditing to undergraduate and postgraduate students. Karen-Ann was awarded an Advance HE (Higher Education) Senior fellowship in 2025. 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 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 quality and disclosures in annual reports. Karen-Ann regularly presents her research at both national and international conferences. Karen-Ann publishes in leading peer-reviewed journals, including European Accounting Review, Journal of Applied Accounting Research and Australian Accounting Review.

Peer Reviewed Journal

	Year	Publication
	2024	Dwyer, Karen-Ann; Harris, Erica; Murphy, Bríd (2024) 'Voluntary Adoption of Recommended Reporting Practices: Evidence from the Irish Nonprofit Sector'. European Accounting Review, . https://doi.org/10.1080/09638180.2024.2384376
	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
	2025	Karen-Ann Dwyer; Erica Harris; Bríd Murphy (2025) American Accounting Association Annual Meeting, Chicago, Illinois *The Impact of Nonprofit SORP Reporting on Accounting Fees*
	2025	Karen-Ann Dwyer; Erica Harris; Bríd Murphy (2025) ARNOVA (Association for research on non-profit organisations and voluntary action), Indianapolis, In *The Impact of Nonprofit SORP Reporting on Accounting Fees*
	2025	Karen-Ann Dwyer; Erica Harris; Bríd Murphy (2025) Irish Accounting and Finance Association Annual Conference, Dublin, Republic of Ireland *The cost of disclosure: Assessing the impact of charities SORP adoption on accounting fees in Irish nonprofits*
	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, .

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
01/06/2025	Senior Fellow (SFHEA) Advance HE (Higher Education)	Advance HE (Higher Education)
01/11/2024	IAFA and IAASA Joint Research Funding Award	Irish Auditing and Accounting Supervisory Authority (IAASA) and Irish Accounting and Finance Association (IAFA)
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 audit and annual report disclosures.

Teaching Interests

Financial Reporting
Auditing
Corporate Governance