Factors affecting the audit process and social theories

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to apply the concept of social theories to explain auditors’ attitude toward balance time between marketing activities and auditing responsibilities.

Design/methodology/approach

Data were collected through a survey, from which a measure of auditor’s view on the importance of marketing was identified and regressed against balance between audit time and marketing activities. In addition, a measure of balanced attitude of auditors toward the time of the audit and marketing activities was identified and regressed against attitude toward the importance of corporate governance mechanisms.

Findings

The results obtained from the hypothesis test indicated that the audit fee can be a decisive factor in the status of auditors to carry out their function in the social structure which is limited to the stakeholders. The balance time between auditing and marketing is of the same importance to all auditors. Furthermore, entrepreneur auditors find the present corporate governance good for the prosperity and creativity of the forces within the auditing firms. As a result, entrepreneur auditors are very effective in corporate governance mechanisms.

Originality/value

The most significant contribution of the present study is the development of auditing literature to better understand and analyze the behavior of auditors.

Citation

Mahdavi, G. and Daryaei, A.A. (2017), "Factors affecting the audit process and social theories", Corporate Governance, Vol. 17 No. 4, pp. 770-786. https://doi.org/10.1108/CG-04-2016-0079