Challenging Accounting Fraud and The Corporate Psychopath Accountant through Blockchain Technology

Sheikh, Faisal

Abstract

This research focuses on understanding why Accounting Fraud (AF) persists despite advancements in internal controls, corporate governance, and audit standards. Existing literature mainly focuses on how AF is undertaken, the motivations for why it occurs, and how this phenomenon may be prevented, deterred, and detected. However, the literature does not adequately address the influence of personality types within corporate environments. Recent research has highlighted three nonstandard personality types—narcissism, Machiavellianism, and psychopathy, collectively known as the Dark Triad—whose behaviours may help to explain AF. Therefore, this study focuses on modelling psychopathy, posits the existence of the Corporate Psychopath Accountant (CPA), and explores the extent to which nascent Blockchain Technology (BCT) could mitigate AF and limit the influence of the CPA.
This research is located in the positivist epistemology, utilising a deductive approach. A mixed-methods research design is employed, initially using the quantitative technique of a survey to model psychopathic tendencies in a sample of British final-year undergraduate students and UAE practitioners working for a top 10 global practice—an achievement not yet documented in the literature.
The qualitative method of semi-structured interviews is conducted with audit practitioners and subject matter experts to gauge their perceptions of corporate psychopathy and BCT. The participants confirm the existence of the CPA and agree that BCT’s features—distributed ledger, immutability, and permissioned access—could potentially mitigate the influence of the CPA and reduce AF. However, this mitigation is only effective at the transactional level and not where judgment is required on financial statements, such as the revaluation of non-current assets.
The research produces three key contributions: Firstly, a theoretical contribution by redefining a major fraud model and extending another model. Secondly, a practical contribution by developing predictive models to measure psychopathy in accounting professionals and accounting & finance students (future accountants). Finally, an operational contribution by exploring broader technological solutions—not just BCT—to reduce AF and the influence of the CPA, and by promoting cultural change through a novel model developed by the researcher.

• Thesis Type: Thesis
• Deposit Date: Aug 4, 2024
• Publicly Available Date: Oct 27, 2024
• Award Date: Sep 26, 2024