The Determinants of Audit Expectation Gap in Malaysia

Abstract

This study intended to identify the determinants of the audit expectation gap in Malaysia. The expectation gap is defined as the different perspectives of what society thinks and what society wants the auditors to do. Previous Malaysian researchers prove the existence of audit expectations. However, only some studies identify determinants of the audit expectation gap in Malaysia. Recent studies show that the Malaysian public misunderstood auditors' duties and audit scope. This quantitative research addresses the relationship between auditors’ skills, auditors’ efforts, knowledge of society, and users' needs toward the audit expectation gap. Online questionnaires are used in this study as measuring tools to measure the variables expected to have a significant relationship with the audit expectation gap. The software used to conduct the analysis is SPSS 20 under the linear regression method. There was a total of 108 Malaysian auditors involved in this research. This study shows that auditors’ efforts and knowledge of society are significantly related to the audit expectation gap. The rest of the factors were tested, and it was found that they did not significantly affect the audit expectation gap. Therefore, auditors should utilize exemplary efforts and increase public awareness of the audit scope.