Professor Joe Brazel's Web Page

My address:

Joseph Brazel, Ph.D.
Department of Accounting
College of Management
Campus Box 8113, Nelson Hall
North Carolina State University
Raleigh, NC 27695-8113

My office number, phone number, and email:

Nelson Hall, Office 3160
919-513-1772
joe_brazel@ncsu.edu

Things That May Interest You:

My Story:

I am currently a professor in the accounting department at North Carolina State University where I teach classes in auditing and financial accounting. I completed my Ph.D. degree at Drexel University, where I defended my dissertation on May 25, 2004. My dissertation investigated auditor decision-making in an enterprise resource planning (ERP) system environment. Prior to starting my doctoral studies, I worked as an audit manager for the firm of Deloitte and Touche in the Tri-State (NY/NJ/CT) and Mid-Atlantic (Philadelphia office) regions and I am a certified public accountant (inactive) in the state of Pennsylvania. My prior educational experiences include a Bachelor of Arts with a double major of accounting and economics from Muhlenberg College in 1994 and an MBA from Drexel University that I completed in 2003. My research interests include judgment and decision-making in auditing, audit review methods, fraud detection, relationships between financial and nonfinancial measures, enterprise resource planning systems, audit delay, internal controls over financial reporting, and executive compensation structure.

I grew up in Carlisle, PA, the son of Dr. Joseph and Barbara Brazel. I also have two younger sisters Kate and Elizabeth. While growing up in southcentral PA, I acquired my hobbies that include flyfishing, playing tennis, jogging, canoeing, and mountain biking. I also enjoy watching my Philadelphia Eagles when I can get them on my TV down here in North Carolina and going to Wolfpack football games at Carter-Finley Stadium. My wife Kyla (also a former Pennsylvanian), daughters Abigail Grace (born May 18, 2004) and Caroline Olivia (born June 21, 2007), and I reside in Raleigh, NC. Our family recently sat for a portrait.

My Vita:

If you click on the link below you will get my vita which contains information about my education, work experience, research, teaching, and academic service.

My Vita

My Teaching:

Advanced Auditing (ACC 551)

Double click on the items below to download them:

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Class Syllabus

Class Notes (links currently inactive):

This class is part of the NCSU Master of Accounting Program. Here is a picture of the 2008 MAC class.

Want to check out the Sarbanes Oxley Act of 2002? Go to the following webpage: http://news.findlaw.com/hdocs/docs/gwbush/sarbanesoxley072302.pdf

Want to review the PCAOB's standards? Go to the following webpage: http://pcaob.org

Want to printout the published research papers? Go to the following webpage: http://www.lib.ncsu.edu/journals

Unpublished papers:

Brazel, J., T. Carpenter, and G. Jenkins. 2008. A field investigation of auditors’ use of brainstorming in the consideration of fraud. Working Paper, North Carolina State University.

Brazel, J., K. Jones, and M. Zimbelman. 2008. Using nonfinancial measures to assess fraud risk. Working Paper, North Carolina State University.

Risk and Assurance / Auditing (ACC 450)

Double click on the items below to download them:

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Class Syllabus

Class Notes (links inactive):

Examples of Probabilistic Sampling Procedures (please print out and bring to Ch. 15 lecture)

Solutions to CPA Exam Multiple Choice Questions from the Text

Want to check out the Sarbanes Oxley Act of 2002? Go to the following webpage: http://news.findlaw.com/hdocs/docs/gwbush/sarbanesoxley072302.pdf

If you are interested in recent information related to job opportunities in public accounting (e.g., supply of graduates and demand from firms), please go to this website: http://www.aicpa.org/download/career/edu/7491-046SuppDemandReport.pdfhttp://www.aicpa.org/download/career/edu/7491-046SuppDemandReport.pdf

My Research:

Here I have a listing of my doctoral dissertation, publications, and current working papers. For some of them, you can double-click them to download the paper.

You may need to download Adobe Acrobat Reader.

Doctoral Dissertation:

“The Effects of Computer Assurance Specialist Competence and Auditor Accounting Information System Expertise on Auditor Planning Judgments,” Drexel University. Defended on May 25, 2004. U.S. Copyright registration number TX 5-934-346.

Publications:

“Review Methods Matter,” with Richard C. Hatfield and Christopher P. Agoglia. The CPA Journal, September 2005, Volume 75, Issue 9, pp. 36-38.

“A Measure of Perceived Auditor ERP Systems Expertise: Development, Assessment, and Uses.” Managerial Auditing Journal, 2005, Volume 20, Issue 6, pp. 619-631.

“Electronic vs. Face-to-Face Review: The Effects of Alternative Forms of Review on Auditors’ Performance,” with Christopher P. Agoglia and Richard C. Hatfield. The Accounting Review, October 2004, Volume 79, Number 4, pp. 949-966.

Working Papers:

“Using Nonfinancial Measures to Assess Fraud Risk,” with Keith Jones and Mark Zimbelman.

“The Effect of Risk of Misstatement and Workload Pressures on the Choice of Workpaper Review Format,” with Christopher P. Agoglia, Richard C. Hatfield, and Scott B. Jackson.

“Auditors’ Use of Brainstorming in the Consideration of Fraud: Evidence from the Field,” with Tina Carpenter and Greg Jenkins.

“Investor Perceptions about Financial Statement Fraud,” with Brooke Elliott and Keith Jones.

“Do Auditors Notice Inconsistencies between Financial and Nonfinancial Measures?” with Keith Jones and Doug Prawitt.

“Nonfinancial Information, Fraud Assessment, and Investor Decisions,” with Brooke Elliott and Keith Jones.
 
“Audit Planning in a Risky IT Environment.”

“Fraud Detection and the Moderating Effect of Personality Type,” with Greg Jenkins.

“Bringing Accounting Research into non-Ph.D. Accounting Classes,” with Randy Elder.

“The Effects of Alternative Brainstorming Techniques on Fraud Risk Assessment,” with Tina Carpenter and Greg Jenkins.

Some of my working papers are available at ssrn.com for downloading.

In 2008 I received a research grant from the FINRA - here is a link to the story.

I am also on the NCSU Accounting Research Workshop Committee. Here is a link to our department's workshop webpage: http://www.mgt.ncsu.edu/news/events/workshops_accounting.php

My Other Stuff:

I am proud to be a volunteer with Junior Achievement. If you think you would enjoy talking to students in either the primary or secondary grade levels about business, you should volunteer too! The other organization I volunteer for is Special Olympics of Wake County. If you are interested in volunteering for either of these great organizations, I would be happy to discuss my experiences with you and provide you with the contact people so that you too can get involved!

My favorite movie of all-time is The Blues Brothers and on weekends I fly down to New Orleans to play washboard with my band on Bourbon Street. When I'm not doing that, on Saturday mornings I like to run from NC State to Krispy Kream, eat a dozen donuts, and then run back to State. Here are some other pics related to the Krispy Kream Challenge: The Start, Eating at Krispy Kream, and One Dozen Down. When we get down with the race, we usually like to chase the dozen donuts with a bushel of oysters in the backyard.

I spent four years of my life living here.

Flyfishing is my favorite hobby (with watching my Philadelphia Eagles never winning Super Bowl a close second). A couple of friends of mine guide people flyfishing in Pennsylvania for trout. Check out FlyfishPA's website for information about their latest adventures. Outside of my local southcentral Pennsylvania spring creeks, my favorite place to fish is the San Juan River in New Mexico, where they measure the rainbow trout by the pound!!!

Speaking of flyfishing, here are some links to pictures (ALL fish were released back into the water and delightfully swam away!):

Me hooked up with a brown trout while fishing the big (windy) waters of the Lehigh River in Pennsylvania.

Sometimes you need to take a picture in order to have some evidence of a successful day.

This is a steelhead I caught and released one morning in Altmar, NY during the dead of winter (I think it was about 20 degrees outside). I was fishing the Salmon River with a buddy. This steely was caught on an egg-sucking leech fly (no-kidding about the name). I guess here is proof that fly actually works.

Click here for a big brown trout my Dad caught with a size 22 caddis dry on the West Branch of the Delaware River

In July 2004 a buddy and I fished Yellowstone National Park and the waters of SW Montana. It was a great trip! Here are some links to pics!

A nice rainbow trout caught on the Madison River - the 50 mile riffle!

A nice brown trout caught below the 3 dollar bridge of the Madison River.

My fishing buddy Jake with a beefy brown caught with a rusty spinner near nightfall.

Fishing the meadow section of the upper Gallatin River. Can't beat the scenery.

Those fish deserve a little cowbell!

and a thumbs up from The King of Bling!

Never question Bruce Dickenson!

If you want to see the funny SNL skit where all this cowbell stuff comes from, go to this site: http://www.ojai.net/swanson/snlshows.htm

To borrow a line from The Police (for my students, The Police were a rock band way back in the 1980s): "it seems I'm not alone at being alone" in my praise of the cowbell skit. See this site for additional info:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A46074-2005Jan28.html

See this one too:

http://videos.newsobserver.com/index.php?a=player&id=1569758

NC State is a member of the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC). The conference has recenly expanded to include 12 universities and Matt Groening has offered his perspective on member schools:

• The Five People You Meet in Heaven (Quick read, but a very good book that shows all life has meaning), Mitch Albom
• The Life of Pi (Warning: 2/3 of this book involve the main character and a Bengal tiger in a lifeboat in the Pacific Ocean), Yann Martel
• Benjamin Franklin (Outstanding summary of Philadelphia's favorite son - a guy who did mathematical puzzles to relax!), Walter Isaacson
• America (the book), The Daily Show with Jon Stewart
• The Da Vinci Code (For those of you who haven't read it yet - relax - its fiction!), Dan Brown
• Tuesdays with Morrie (Awesome book about life and death), Mitch Albom
• John Adams (To the US Airways employee who threw my first copy out - thanks!), David McCullough
• Slaughterhouse-Five (Wierder than I anticipated), Kurt Vonnegut
• The Rule of Four (Especially it you liked The Da Vinci Code), Ian Caldwell and Dustin Thomason
• Angels and Demons (Warning: the plot is alarmingly similar to The Da Vinci Code, but still a page turner and lots of interesting art history), Dan Brown
• A Short History of Nearly Everything (Ever sit back and wonder how the world works? This is the book for you!), Bill Bryson
• Tomcat in Love (Read anything by Tim O'Brien), Tim O'Brien
• The Tipping Point (How does an epidemic start? When does a trend reach its tipping point? What is the Power of Context? Who are Connectors?), Malcolm Gladwell
• Kennedy & Nixon (Great profiles of these intertwined politicians), Chris Matthews
• The Sun Also Rises (My favorite Hemingway book - some flyfishing in Spain included), Ernest Hemingway
• Blink (Very enjoyable book on why some quick decisions are right on and why others are way off), Malcolm Gladwell
• Freakonomics (If you ask interesting questions and have the tools to analyze data - you get some very interesting answers), Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner
• The Historian (A very enjoyable read transversing several periods of time in a search for Vlad the Impaler, but a caveat: this book is pretty long and is difficult to plow thru due to the detail provided by the author on geography, historical events, etc. - so you will be working on this book for quite a long time), Elizabeth Kostova
• A Salty Piece of Land (Ever wonder what happened to Tully Mars from Tales from Margaritaville? Go island hopping, flyfishing, seaplaning, and lighthouse fixing), Jimmy Buffett
• The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay, (Pulitzer Prize winning novel about two NYC comic book writers (and their adventures outside of their craft) before, during, and after WWII), Michael Chabon
• 1776 (This excellent book takes you thru the first year of Washington's campaign: from just after Bunker Hill to the crossing of the Delaware into Trenton. The book describes what a close call it really was that first year - and how disadvantaged the Continental Army was), David McCullough
• Deadeye Dick (Hard to pinpoint why I like this book: it makes you think (deeply) and about things you tend not to think about on a daily basis, it makes you laugh often, and you can comprehend the symbolism (although Vonnegut supplying information on the symbols in the Preface helps a little bit!)), Kurt Vonnegut
• The Devil in the White City (After several people told me to read this book, I picked it up. Fantastic work of non-fiction on the Chicago World's Fair of 1893 and a house of terror down the street), Erik Larson
• The Number: How the Drive for Quarterly Earnings Corrupted Wall Street and Corporate America (Excellent reading for anyone interested in financial reporting, analyst/fund manager activities, accounting, and auditing. Warning: This book beats up accountants / auditors pretty bad!), Alex Berenson.
• The Pirate Hunter: The True Story of Captain Kidd (And now ... for the rest of the story), Richard Zacks.
• Extraordinary Circumstances (Great page turner/inside information on the WorldCom financial reporting fraud - particularly good reading for accounting majors), Cynthia Cooper.
• Einstein: His Life and Universe (Enjoyed reading about his science and life (and the life was sometimes more interesting and definitely easier to understand!), and if you read this book you can impress your friends by explaining the theory of relativity (no equations necessary - just thought experiments)!, Walter Isaacson.
• The Lords of Discipline (Great characters, great story, and very southern), Pat Conroy

So go flyfishing, read a book, catch a football game or two, or three and be glad you don't have this job!

Also - study hard and maybe someday, after getting a Ph.D., you too can sit on the graduation stage in a dress with stripes and a goofy hat.

If you are interested in getting a Ph.D., see this webpage for details.