An Investigation of the Effect of Client Characteristics on Auditor Advocacy Attitude in Judgment and Decision-Making Processes

Over recent years, researchers have focused on factors shaping auditor advocacy attitude. The literature review shows that auditors’ attitudes towards clients are among factors affecting judgment and decision-making processes. The main objective of the present study was to investigate the effect of client importance and image on auditor advocacy attitude in judgment and decision-making processes. The statistical population consisted of professional auditors, working in trusted audit institutions in the stock exchange in 2019. To this end, a total of 124 auditors were selected using the Cochran formula. To collect the data and to test the research hypotheses, a questionnaire and structural equation modeling with the use of AMOS software were employed, respectively. The results indicated that client importance and image have a significant positive effect on auditor advocacy attitude. Moreover, auditor advocacy attitude has a negative impact on auditor objectivity. On the other hand, the findings showed that auditors’ professional and organizational identity have positive effects on auditor objectivity. The results showed that some of clientchr('39')s attributes such as the importance and image can destroy the objectivity in auditorchr('39')s judgment and decision making process through the auditor advocacy attitude.