As a consequence of the global financial and economic crisis, the European Commission recently reformed the audit market. One objective was to restore public trust in the auditing profession and thus to enhance the audit function. This study investigates whether perceptions of auditor independence and audit quality are influenced by audit firm rotation, auditor retention and joint audits, because regulators argue that these instruments can improve auditor independence and audit quality. Therefore, we conduct an experiment with bank directors and institutional investors in Germany. The results indicate a negative main effect for joint audits on perceived auditor independence, and that a rotation cycle of 24 years marginally significantly impairs participant perceptions of audit quality, compared to a rotation cycle of only ten years. Besides the main effects, planned contrast tests suggest a negative interaction between rotation and joint audit on participant perceptions of auditor independence. Moreover, a negative interaction effect is revealed between rotation after 24 years and retention on perceptions of audit quality. It is particularly noteworthy that we failed to identify a positive impact of the regulatory measures taken or supported by the European Commission on perceptions of auditor independence and audit quality.

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In metal forming, lubricants are still used to prevent corrosion, to reduce friction, wear and tool load as well as to protect the workpieces and intermediates. In economic and ecological points of view, the challenge is the avoidance of lubricant usage. Within this article we define the term of dry metal forming, a technology which contributes an approach to establish green technology in mass production. Regarding this, the benefits of this technology are shown. Three different approaches exist to achieve a dry forming process: ceramic tools, self-lubricating coating systems and hard material coatings. Concerning this matter, the state of research in dry metal forming is reviewed within this paper.

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As a result of mistrust in the auditing profession, legislators and regulators continue to impose restrictions to the joint provision of audit and nonaudit services (NAS) to protect investors' interests. However, investors may perceive NAS differently than legislators, and it is an open question whether a ban on NAS always aligns with investors' interests. Little evidence exists on investors' perceptions of auditor‐provided NAS in the continental European regulatory environment, including Germany. The unique features of the German legal and regulatory environment raise questions of its ability to comfort investors that auditors resist client‐induced biases in financial reporting. To empirically investigate and test this, we use earnings response coefficients (ERC) to measure investors' perceptions of earnings quality and examine the associations between ERC and NAS fees. Surprisingly, we do not find significant associations between ERC and NAS fees for our entire sample period 2005–2015. For further examination, we split the sample before and after the financial crisis in 2008–2009. The findings indicate that, in the pre‐financial crisis period 2005–2007, investors perceive large NAS fees negatively, and this concern also extends to the components of the NAS fees. In contrast, in the post‐financial crisis period 2010–2015, investors perceive large NAS fees positively and favorable perceptions of tax services are the driver of this result. We discuss the findings in light of the regulatory initiatives in the aftermath of the financial crisis, and the recent EU supranational prohibitions of NAS and the German application of these.

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The upscaling of pea protein extraction from laboratory scale with a centrifuge to pilot scale with a decanter centrifuge was investigated, and the pea protein extraction efficiency from dry milled and pre-treated peas was compared. Upscaling from laboratory to pilot scale is possible since starch was under the limit of detection (< 0.5%). The protein banding pattern of a sodium-dodecyl-sulfate polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis confirmed that albumins and globulins were extracted by alkali extraction. Protein yield increased from 59.5% to 67.1% for dry milled peas due to constant and quick discharge of dry matter in the decanter centrifuge. For pre-treated peas, the protein yield increased from 60.3% to 94.3%, which is explained by an improved cutting and improved separation in pilot scale compared to laboratory scale. The impact of acceleration, mass flow, differential speed and their respective interactions in the decanting process was determined with a design of experiments. For dry milled peas, only the mass flow exceeded the significance level. However, a mass flow of 5 kg h−1, an acceleration of 1000 g$$\times$$ × and a differential speed of 50 min−1 led to the highest protein yield of 75.6%. The obtained protein yields for the pre-treated peas were in the range of 83 to 96% and therefore did not show significant differences in protein yield.