Dissatisfaction among auditors and specialists. Behavioral Research in Accounting (BRIA), published by the American Accounting Association, provides data on accounting and its relation to individuals and organizations based on empirical research. BRIA (Vol. 32(2), 2020) published a study on auditors’ and specialists’ views about the use of specialists during an audit. This study was conducted through interviews on 12 auditors (partners and managers) and 22 specialists (tax, IT, valuation, forensic) from six accounting firms. The details of interviewees’ demographic characteristics, such as the identifier (ordered alphabetically), years at firm, years in position, audit experience (in years), specialist experience (in years), education, designations, gender, and age, are listed in a table.

a. Identify the data-collection method used.

b. What is the experimental unit for this study?

c. Identify the type (quantitative or qualitative) of the variables listed in the interviewees’ demographics table.

d. Suppose 55% of the auditors and 63% of the specialists are dissatisfied with the current standard of specialists used in audits. Make an inference about the population of interest.