فصلنامه دانش حسابداری
پیاپی 54 (پاییز 1402)

Cognitive neuroscience studies show that the judgment process and its characteristics are the most basic cognitive activities of the brain that people are forced to perform throughout their lives. In the field of auditing, judgment and decision-making are very important. The auditing process is based on various judgments and decisions. In other words, all the issues raised in the audit are covered by the judgment and decisions of the relevant persons. The judgment process of a person is by the abilities, characteristics and internal character of the person making the judgment, which is different from other persons. However, components such as the process of recognition, the process of judgment, the environment, motivations and other factors related to the person making the judgment decrease quality will be judged. One of the sub-branches of the component of the judgment process is the order of information presented or obtained, which, according to the results of many researches, can affect the quality of people's judgment. The effect of the order of information on the quality of judgment becomes important when the judgment of people who are given information "A" first and then information "B" for processing is compared to the judgment of people who are given information "B" first and then information "B" and then the information given by "A" makes a significant difference in his/her judgment. Experience in the framework of variables related to the person is one component that affects the quality of judgment. The information in people's memories, formed over time and based on various judgments and decisions, will be able to modify future decisions. A person's specialized experience increases his/her abilities in processing information and finding the most appropriate solution in special conditions. Therefore, it is expected that experience can moderate the effect of the order of information presentation on the quality of the auditor's judgment. 

This is a quantitative and cross-sectional study. The statistical population includes all auditors working in the country in 2022. Two questionnaires are sent one month apart to persons with the required characteristics. The difference between the first and second questionnaires is only in the order of information, so all the information of both questionnaires is completely the same. 

The results show that the significance level of the Vicaxon test based on the difference in the average judgment in two stages is less than 1%, so the effect of the order of information presentation on the quality of judgment is confirmed with 99% confidence.In addition, the results show that experience has a non-linear relationship with the quality of judgment due to the order of information of individuals. In other words, people with an average experience between 10 and 15 years are affected by the information order compared to people with less experience. In addition, in completing the effect of the order of presentation of information, the findings show that when the first information with a negative charge is presented, the person's judgment will be negative. The person's judgment will be positive if the first information presented is positive. Finally, the results indicate a stronger relationship between the information load of the first information and their judgment when the auditors are under time constraints. 

The findings show a significant difference between people's judgments of information whose order is different. The order of presenting information by taking advantage of the cognitive limitations of the human mind is able to affect people's judgment and decisions. In addition, there is a curvilinear relationship between the experience and the difference between the two judgments of the persons in such a way that the least difference of judgment was for the persons who had experienced between 5 and 15 years. This shows that the order of information presentation influences less experienced and more experienced people. The reasoning for this result can be found in the theory of the tendency to evaluate.Furthermore, when the first information provided is positive, the person's final judgment will also be positive. If the first information provided is negative, the person's final judgment will also be accompanied by a negative sign. These findings show that the order of information influences people and considers a certain weight and coefficient for the first information, so the effect of information precedence is confirmed. This effect is also limited by time. When a person is faced with a time limitation or thinks he does not have enough time to process information, he pays more attention to the first and most prominent information, relies on that information and bases his subsequent judgments on that information.

Intense competition among audit firms will likely encourage auditors to find new clients. An audit firm tries to reach a good reputation in the society. Higher reputation audit firms provide better audit quality service to their clients to protect their reputation in society. They do not tend to audit a firm known for management abuses or providing misleading financial reports. Besides, an incorrect acceptance decision by the audit firm can lead to legal claims and impose excessive costs on the auditor, as well as the loss of reputation of the auditor and public trust in the profession and financial reporting of companies. Paying attention to the good reputation of auditors and the client firms and clients’ financial position is likely to be an effective factor in the auditors' acceptance or rejection decision. Therefore, the purpose of this research is to investigate the effect of client firms’ financial position, auditors’ and client firms’ reputation on the rejection decision of client firms by auditors.  The sample of this research contains 109 participants, including Iranian audit partners, managers and senior audit supervisors. In order to test the hypotheses, a quasi-experimental method is used. This study has a 2x2x2 mixed design. Two independent variables, including “reputation” and “financial position” of the client firm, are between-subjects variables, and the third independent variable is “auditors’ reputation”, a within-subjects variable. All the participants in the experiment were divided into four groups. Subjects in these groups receive different levels for the financial position of the client firm and auditors’ and client firms’ reputations (profitable and unprofitable, reputable and disreputable) and provide us with their acceptance or rejection decision. In each scenario, the audit firm is asked to suppose that it would be considered for the role of a large auditor with a high reputation or a small auditor with a low reputation. Each participant assesses his tendency to accept the client's firm. Hypotheses are examined using multivariate analysis of variance (ANOVA).  The results show that auditors’ and client firms’ reputations and the client firms’ financial position significantly affect the auditor's acceptance decision. In addition, changes in the reputation of client firms do not affect the willingness of auditors with higher reputations to accept that client. As the client firms' financial position improves, more reputable auditors' willingness to accept clients’ offers increases.  To manage the reputation risk, large audit firms should prevent accepting client firms with a high risk. Besides, more reputable auditors usually have large client firms, making them considerable income. Therefore, they might more easily reject client firms who are not qualified for them. Also, audit firms with a higher reputation are usually under the supervision of the government, shareholders and the public, making them more cautious in accepting new clients and avoiding clients who damage their reputation. In addition, the client firm's reputation is considered a factor affecting the auditor's acceptance decision. Auditors would not accept notorious clients as they know this would lead to reputational damage and threaten their independence.Due to the effect of the client’s financial position and profitability on the auditor's decision, we conclude that auditors perceive that a firm in financial distress or goes bankrupt may not be able to pay the auditors' fees and provide them with the necessary facilities, and for this reason, they refuse to accept it. Therefore, one of the factors considered in the acceptance decision would be the audit fee, which can be realized from the last annual financial statements. If the client does not have the ability to pay the fee, the audit firm should reject that client.This study makes the following contributions. First, despite doing research at the international level about the factors affecting the rejection decision of client firms, to the best of our knowledge, this is the first study that examines the factors separately and interactively in an experimental design. Second, This research provides interesting evidence about the impacts of the client firms’ and auditor’s reputation, which may not be easily measured in archival research. Therefore, the findings of this study contribute to auditors’ Judgment and decision-making (JDM) quality literature. In order to reduce the risk of legal claims, it is recommended that audit firms pay attention to the point that the financial information and the reputation of the client firm are closely related, and they should consider factors such as the company's disclosure quality, financial position and performance, cash flows, and corporate governance characteristics.

In the last two decades, numerous studies have influenced conservatism and examined various changes. Findings show that financial reporting has been conservative in many markets (Hassan, 2021). These studies have focused less on conservative motives. There is no consensus on whether conservatism improves corporate status and managerial performance (Bertmo et al., 2017). Nevertheless, this issue in the Iranian capital is still challenging and has received less empirical attention. There is no theoretical consensus on answering the question of whether conservatism improves corporate status and managerial performance. (Bertmo et al, 2017). However, this is still a challenge in the Iranian capital market and has received less empirical attention. Conservative motives are naturally caused by factors that the study of these factors and their impact on these motivations can reasonably answer the critical question of what motivates managers to use conservative methods and what factors have led managers to have these motivations. An issue hidden in this vast conservative literature and bad news that deserves serious discussion is the future and behavior of the company following this news, which results from predictions and estimates based on current and past information. Undoubtedly, managers will be among the first to react to this information and the predictions formed based on it and will change their motivations to continue working in the management position accordingly. Accounting conservatism motives or conservative tendencies indicate the level of subjectivity in identifying the interests that managers or accountants pursue that approach. On the other hand, it was stated that managers have different motives and, accordingly, show conservative behaviors. These motives are possible. This study examines the three contractual, tax and political motivations of managers from conservative methods. Contractual motive refers to contracts between the company and its stakeholders; Conservative tax incentive indicates the level of delays in revenue recognition due to tax deferrals and states the legal motive for exercising conservatism because it does not face judicial consequences. One of the important factors that can lead to different motivations of managers to operate in companies is the situation and news of the company, which, based on past and present information, can predict the future to some extent and make decisions based on it. (Hosseinafshari et al, 2021). These adverse indicators can reduce the value of assets. Because managers have different motivations for using conservative methods, the importance of this issue has increased and perhaps the answer to the question of how bad news affects conservative motives. Be able to fill the gap between application and research. In this research, both library and correlation methods are used mixedly. The statistical population of this research is all companies listed on the Tehran Stock Exchange from 2011 to 2021. After applying the restrictions, 163 listed companies were selected as a sample. To test the research hypotheses, multiple regression analyses have been used. Based on the theoretical foundation, these hypotheses were developed and tested:H1: Bad news increases the conservative contractual incentive by reducing debt.H2: Bad news increases conservative tax incentives by lowering tax rates.H3: Bad news increases the political motivation of conservatism by reducing the size of assets. The findings show that bad news does not significantly affect conservative contractual motivation. Findings from this test suggest that companies may pay less attention to good and bad news to finance themselves, build capital structure, and make decisions based on other policies. In this situation, political and cultural relations in the Iranian environment should not be overlooked when preparing financial resources. Based on these findings, it can be said that the first hypothesis of the research cannot be confirmed. Bad news at the 10% error level also has a significant positive effect on conservative tax incentives. The findings show that in the face of bad news, companies have been tax-motivated in conservative ways and, as a result, have identified costs more and more quickly and reduced tax rates compared to the previous year. In other words, the findings show that companies pursue their tax goals and incentives using conservative methods. Based on these findings, it can be said that the second hypothesis of the research cannot be rejected. The results of testing the third hypothesis indicate that bad news has caused companies to appear politically smaller to be safe from policymakers in poor financial conditions and to pay less costs to the government, including taxes. In other words, in the face of bad news about the company's financial and operating environment, companies try to show less of their assets through conservative methods and maintain their financial reserves for a negative outlook in the future. The results showed that bad news companies did not affect the contractual motivation of companies, and companies did not significantly adjust their debt structure because of this and in these circumstances. To interpret these findings, we can point to the power of Iranian companies in debt financing. In times of financial crisis, financial constraints and bad news, they can establish relations with financing institutions through numerous political, cultural and social relations. Borrow this way. However, the findings in the second hypothesis show that bad news affects the company's tax incentive and increases it, and these findings are in line with the literature. In the face of bad news, companies showed less of their assets to be safe from politicians. Because of the ambiguity due to bad news forecasts, the company is likely to be financially constrained in the future, and companies should look for tricks to maintain financial resources for future consumption and thus maintain continuity. Based on these findings, it can be suggested that companies and their stakeholders review the company's news and information before making a decision and, based on this, predict the company's perspective and, by incorporating these forecasts, establish the next steps.

The occurrence of a large number of scandals and financial corruption in some Iranian city councils and municipalities in the last decade shows evidence of unethical and irresponsible practices from the economic, social, and environmental dimensions. Also, the development process of cities and the consequent increase in municipal revenues, on the one hand, and the lack of proper supervision on the performance of municipalities due to the existence of the city council, on the other hand, have increased the power and authority of municipalities. Thus, municipalities face increasing pressure from citizens to have a broad attitude regarding their goals and activities in economic, social, and environmental dimensions. Sustainability reporting is one of the main drivers of change in the company's sustainability activities. Preparing a sustainability report can influence change in public sector organizations. Regarding the advantages of sustainability reporting in the various companies, including public and governmental organizations, to preserve the social rights of citizens, environmental resources, and the economic benefits of shareholders, the primary purpose of this research is to understand the current situation of sustainability reporting in municipalities, explaining its dimensions and indicators, and finally presenting a sustainability reporting model for municipalities.  The current research consists of three steps: 1. Identifying sustainability concepts and keywords in the literature using content analysis techniques; 2. Identifying the primary indicators of the topics discussed in the focus group using the coding method, 3. Using the method Delphi (which is conducted to validate the dimensions and indicators identified in the second stage), and 4. Finally, it will present the final sustainability reporting model for Iranian municipalities. In the first step, keywords that are used for sustainability reporting using the method of content analysis of sustainability reports of different cities (such as Sydney, Toronto, KF, Florida, and Dubai) and guidelines related to the field of sustainability (such as ESG, GRI, IFC, ISO26000, SASB, and CDP) were extracted. The necessary information was collected through the focus group in the second step, and the topics were discussed. The participants were selected from a group of experts from the Iranian municipalities (financial and economic, urban services, and green spaces). These people had the necessary knowledge, experience, expertise, scientific and professional sincerity in different ways and based on specific research. After identifying dimensions and indicators, we prepared and set up a questionnaire in the third step and distributed it to the experts from municipalities and other stakeholders. The Delphi method was used to create consensus and to screen sustainability categories. Finally, a proposed model of sustainability reporting for Iranian municipalities was presented. The findings show that the dimensions of sustainability reporting in municipalities include "economic", "environmental", "work and production", "management and human capital", "determinants of excellence and progress", and "reporting characteristics". Also, four indicators of economic performance, the economic conditions of the stakeholders, the municipalities' economic conditions, and the country's macroeconomic conditions are related to the economic dimension. Four indicators, including compatibility with the environment, environmental sustainability, infrastructure and facilities, and the allocation of facilities and privileges, are related to the environmental dimension. Six indicators, including sustainable supply chain, legal requirements, sustainable intellectual interaction (human capital), adherence to legal payments, use of technology, and corporate governance, belong to the work and production dimension. Six indicators of effective communication, ethical characteristics of accountants, the relationship between employee and manager, management ability, expert managers, and expert forces belong to the management and human capital dimension. Four indicators of participation and development of valuation methods, dealing without discrimination with offenders, criteria for determining rights and benefits, and responsibility and social involvement belong to the dimension of determinants of excellence and progress. Seven indicators, including accounting records, timeliness of report, compliance with accounting principles, neutrality of the report, report transparency, sources of collecting the report, and qualitative characteristics of the information, are the report's characteristics dimension. Sustainability reporting can be considered as a solution for making changes in the organizational management of municipalities, transparency in all municipal matters such as financial (economic), urban services and green space (environmental), social responsibility, and reacting to the requirements of all stakeholders. Exploring the sustainability reports of various cities in the world showed that they have no limitations on how to present and use the dimensions and indicators included in the current guidelines and standards, such as GRI, CDP, and SASB, to prepare the sustainability report. They do not follow a specified routine. In other words, in order to legitimize themselves, in line with accountability, these organizations voluntarily disclose sustainability reports. The results of this research can be utilized as a practical step to create the necessary understanding and motivation for sustainability reporting and to attract the managers' and regulators' attention to incorporate sustainability reporting in their voluntary or mandatory reporting to stakeholders with a sustainable development perspective.

A solution must be devised to control the representation of managers in companies, ensure their responsibility and accountability, and protect the rights of shareholders. One of these strategies is compensation to motivate managers to achieve organizational goals. Corporate governance mechanisms are one of the factors affecting the managers' compensation. Therefore, this study investigates the relationship between three essential factors of corporate governance (ownership structure, characteristics of the board and chief executive officer (CEO)) and managers' compensation in companies listed on the Tehran Stock Exchange from 2007 to 2016. This research is practical in terms of purpose and descriptive in implementation. It is also in the correlation branch in terms of investigating the relationship between variables. Data are collected by literature method (reading books and articles) and referring to databases, that is, through the Rahvard Navin databases, as well as the websites belonging to the Tehran Stock Exchange Organization, the Kodal website, and the notes attached to the financial statements. Multiple linear regression and the least-squares method are used for statistical analysis. The results indicate no significant relationship between corporate governance mechanisms (ownership structure, board of directors' characteristics, CEO's characteristics) and managers' compensation. Therefore, all three research hypotheses that corporate governance mechanisms have a significant relationship with managers' compensation are not confirmed. These results are consistent with the research results of Jaiswal and Bhattacharya (2016) and Abedini et al. (2015), who stated that there is no evidence of a significant relationship between the characteristics of the board of directors and the remuneration of managers. It is also in line with the research results of Hassan et al. (2015), who stated that ownership structure has no significant relationship with managers' compensation. The results of the research are inconsistent with the research of Ahmedpour and Javan (2014), Haiderpour et al. (2016), Abedini et al. (2015), and Jaiswal and Bhattacharya (2016).  Results are not far from expected because, on the one hand, the reluctance of CEOs and members of the board of directors of companies to provide information on managers' bonuses, as well as the lack of a valid law to disclose information related to managers' compensation, has caused a lack of access to accurate and transparent information. On the other hand, the largest percentage of ownership of stock exchange companies belongs to public government institutions or government-affiliated institutions. Unfortunately, in public companies, managers' remuneration is not in reality (the remuneration is not based on managers' performance). In contrast, in private companies, the remuneration is based on performance. In addition, there is no independent committee called the Compensation Committee, which has a specific mechanism for determining compensation in companies listed on the Tehran stock exchange. In general, what is clear in research related to managers' compensation in Iran is the lack of accurate and transparent information about the amount of compensation awarded to managers and board members and the amount of cash and non-cash compensation. These issues indicate a shortcoming in the corporate governance system. This research's most important practical suggestion is to oblige companies to form a compensation committee. Because its lack, which increases transparency and accountability for managers' compensation, is strongly felt. Although managers' compensation is one of the most important corporate governance principles, it has not been taken seriously in Iran for some reasons, and some companies refuse to disclose the total amount of compensation. Therefore, it is necessary to research the non-disclosure of managers' compensation in detail.

A review of the evolution of audit history and its development stages shows that society initially demanded audit and assurance services and was offered according to the increasing expansion of these demands. In other words, audit and assurance services were already widely accepted before the launch. On the other hand, based on Limperg's dynamic theory, auditing is rooted in the environment. Due to environmental changes, the needs of society and audiences also change, and these changes cause changes and transformations in auditing; it has also had to evolve. In such a way, today, we see various services from auditors in different fields of assurance and complementary services at the international level. This is even though this cycle has never evolved in Iran, and the use of auditing services has been demanded in a limited and mandatory manner. So, a major part of the audit and assurance services that are in demand is limited around the statement of opinion regarding the desirability of financial statements, which is mainly due to legal requirements. The importance of this challenge can be reflected in the consequences of this lack of development, which has plagued the auditing profession and assurance services and caused the profession to lag behind. Among these negative consequences, we can mention the prevalence of selective opinion and sale of signatures, increasing the risk of audit institutions, the prevalence of negative competition, reducing costs, Reducing the financial independence of auditors, reducing the quality of audit services, and similar cases. Therefore, according to the understanding of the importance and necessity of the present research and considering the backwardness of this profession in Iran compared to its international counterparts, the present study seeks to identify and rank the factors affecting this backwardness. The current research method is quantitative and qualitative (mixed research approach). The data collection of the current research was done in two stages, and their analysis was done in four stages. In the first stage, data was extracted through interviews with professional experts, and after coding using the grounded theory method, three main dimensions, eight sub-dimensions and 41 factors affecting the lack of development of the audit and assurance services market were identified, which were the basis for preparing the questionnaire. The present study was the experts working in the profession are the partners and technical managers of auditing institutions who have more than 10 years of professional experience in auditing and assurance services and are experts due to their executive records, experiences and significant roles in this field. These people were selected using a non-random and purposeful sampling method. Finally, 12 respondents, including seven people who participated in the interview and five who were outside the interviewed group for the final review and approval of the extracted model, formed the target population of the present study. This process was done through in-depth semi-structured interviews until it reached theoretical saturation. In the second stage, the prepared questionnaire was distributed among 70 partners and technical managers of auditing institutions. The answers collected in the second stage were also analyzed in two stages. In other words, in the second and third stages, the data obtained from the questionnaire were analyzed using SPSS-26 and AMOS-26 software, and in the fourth stage, the obtained results were ranked using the TOPSIS technique. The findings of the present research show that seven factors can play an effective role in developing the market of auditing, reassuring and complementary services. These seven factors, ranked based on the TOPSIS technique, are assessment standards, the need to develop diverse skills of audit and assurance services, development in the field of international trade, and the creation and development of demand for the use of audit services and services. Supplement the role of regulatory laws on the transparency of audit reports, the competitiveness of the economy and the possibility of assessing economic risks by audit institutions. These results are highly valid due to the confirmation of the experts who were interviewed in the first step. Meanwhile, the Cronbach's Alpha of the current research questionnaire is greater than 0.7 and equal to 0.728, and this indicates the power of generalization, high precision and accuracy of the results, which increases the level of reliability of the research. The interview and data collection process are related to 2021. According to the results obtained in this research and identifying the seven factors, we can expect clear horizons for Iran's audit profession and assurance services. Considering the identification of factors limiting the development of auditing and assurance services, it is expected that in the second step, the country’s public accountant’s community will implement it to overcome the current situation by focusing on the identified factors. This can turn challenges into opportunities for the country's official accountant community members. Among these favorable changes can be market development, diversification of services, helping to specialize in the professional services market, increasing the income of audit institutions, reducing negative competition and the phenomenon of price cutting, reducing selective comments, the phenomenon of selling signatures and the level of risk of audit institutions. The results of this research can guide the auditing profession to its true position in line with international peers. On the other hand, considering that the majority of countries in the world have not made efforts to develop the auditing profession and assurance services, and this development depends on the environmental conditions and the creation of demand, this research can be a model for the limited countries that have failed in the field of auditing to grow in line with their peers and somehow fell behind in the field of the professional services market. Because of the profession's development due to environmental changes, not enough research has been done in this field. In addition, this research can provide a basis for examining and assessing the market's needs for new auditing services and other complementary services.

One of the most essential items of financial statements is the reported earnings because the users of financial statements use the reported earnings as an indicator to evaluate performance and determine the company's value. Therefore, investors and users of financial statements pay special attention to reported earnings to make decisions. Company managers have incentives to manipulate the reported earnings due to agency issues. One of the mechanisms to control the opportunistic behavior of managers is the presence of institutional investors. In corporate governance, institutional investors play a vital role, so it can be said that their existence is critical due to their supervisory role in controlling the opportunistic behavior of the management. Institutional investors own a significant percentage of companies' shares, so they have high incentives to allocate time and resources to monitor the decisions of companies' management. Institutional investors are facing limited attention due to having a large number of shares of different companies, and considering that attention is considered a resource in limited supply, companies, even in the presence of institutional investors, get involved in earnings management. Therefore, the purpose of this research is to examine the relationship between the deviation of institutional investors' attention and the earnings management of companies listed on the Tehran Stock Exchange, and if there is a meaningful relationship, specify the direction of the relationship. The current research is practical in terms of purpose and correlation and post-event method to collect data from Rahavard Novin 3 software and the Tehran Stock Exchange Organization website to classify data from Excel software and for testing purposes. The hypotheses have been used in Eviews software. Considering that this research uses the real data of companies listed on the Tehran Stock Exchange (TSE), its results can be generalized to the research community. This study used the systematic elimination method to select the research sample. Four hypotheses of this research were tested by collecting data from 132 companies listed on the TSE from 2011 to 2020. The assumptions of the research are:H1: There is a positive and significant relationship between the deviation of the attention of institutional investors and earnings management based on accruals.H2: There is a positive and significant relationship between the deviation of institutional investors' attention and real earnings management based on abnormal production costs.H3: There is a positive and significant relationship between the deviation of institutional investors' attention and real earnings management based on unusual discretionary costs.H4: A positive and significant relationship exists between the deviation of institutional investors' attention and real earnings management based on abnormal operating cash. Dechow et al. (1995) model has been used to measure discretionary accruals, and Richaudrey's (2006) model has been used to measure real earnings management. The results of the research hypothesis test respectively showed a positive and significant relationship between the deviation of institutional investors' attention and accrual-based earnings management, real earnings management based on surplus production, abnormal discretionary expenses, and abnormal operating cash. In other words, when an unusual event temporarily diverts the attention of the companies' institutional investors, the companies' managers take advantage of this opportunity and become more involved in managing accrual and actual earnings. The findings of the present research with Garel et al. (2021) are consistent. The research results showed that the intensity of monitoring applied by institutional investors on earnings management methods does not uniquely depend on the level of institutional ownership but also depends on the deviation of investors' attention. Investors sometimes neglect aspects related to the economic environments they face, such as the strategic motivations of companies to manipulate earnings. At the same time, the research findings showed that the intensity of capital monitoring institutional investors on earnings management may temporarily reduce and weaken the relationship between institutional investor ownership and earnings management. The diversity and breadth of institutional investors' stock portfolios have to be exposed to attention limitations, and this factor prevents the simultaneous and uniform monitoring of the earnings management of all companies in the stock portfolio of institutional investors. Considering the results obtained from the research, it is suggested to institutional investors that in the case of abnormal returns, they should not focus all their attention on the industries that have experienced positive or negative abnormal returns. They should not neglect to control the opportunistic behavior of managers of investment companies so that the opportunity to manipulate earnings figures is denied to all managers.

Motivation in the public sector is a concept that has become increasingly popular in the public management literature. So far, much research has been conducted in this field. Although most studies deal with the issues related to the relative prevalence of public sector accounting among public sector employees compared to the private sector, they are unaware that creating motivation in the public sector is very ineffective. Therefore, motivation in the public accounting sector has attracted the attention of many researchers because it is expected to improve individual performance in public sector organizations. In today's competitive world, the ability to create new ideas by knowledgeable and value-creating employees is a significant competitive advantage for organizations. In order to achieve this critical thing, human capital should have enough motivation to present creative ideas, and organizations should provide the necessary motivational space for them. Therefore, this research aims to provide a model for developing motivation in public-sector accounting. Work motivation is one of the topics studied intensively by researchers in social sciences. Following Selden and Brewer (2000), researchers have tried to develop a basic theory of motivation among individuals and include different characteristics in this concept. Motivation is often described as intrinsic or extrinsic in human resource management and organizational behaviour. Extrinsic motivation occurs when employees can meet their needs indirectly. On the other hand, intrinsic motivation occurs when people's behavior aims to satisfy intrinsic psychological needs instead of obtaining material rewards. In other words, motivation is considered intrinsic when people do activities for themselves. As can be seen from the definition of intrinsic motivation, it should be self-sustainable and committed, which strengthens employee satisfaction. In any organization (public or private), employees can be motivated by external and internal factors that satisfy their perceptions of success, reward, and satisfaction. 

This research is a type of qualitative research that was conducted using the approach based on the Grounded Theory. The statistical population includes experts in the field of accounting in Iran's public sector, and using a targeted sampling approach, 15 participants were selected as participants in the research. The data was collected through semi-structured interviews with a general guidance method in 2020 and 2021. In order to obtain the reliability and validity of the data, two methods of reviewing the participants and the review of non-participating experts were used in the research. 

The findings of the research show that in the proposed model, the background conditions include inherent characteristics, operational characteristics of the public sector, and cultural factors; the causal conditions of the model also include intrinsic/internal factors such as a sense of success and competence, along with external factors such as organizational rewards. As the largest public institution, the government must have accurate and high-quality accounting information to make decisions and fulfill the accountability responsibility. Therefore, realizing this goal requires competent and highly motivated accountants who can help government institutions achieve the desired goals; therefore, the proposed model presented can provide the context to effectively deal with skilled and motivated human capital to provide effective performance in government institutions. Also, the comprehensive identification of factors affecting the motivation of accountants in the public sector, considering the weakness in the domestic and foreign research literature, can lead to the scientific strengthening of this field from a scientific point of view and certainly in the future scientific researches, a wider scientific effort in this important field with Consideration of other new factors will occur. In any case, what is obvious is to pay attention to the fact that today, motivating human capital is a necessary and basic priority for governments, which provides them with a sustainable competitive advantage. 

The consequences of the proposed model are things like improving creativity, improving the level of knowledge and skills of employees, training accountants and creative financial managers, and creating a sense of independence and self-efficacy among people. The research findings show that this study can be a good start for considering the development of accountants' motivation in the public sector. The findings of this research show that the causal conditions of the model also include intrinsic/internal factors such as a sense of success and competence, need for respect, sense of responsibility, self-confidence, independence and autonomy, commitment, satisfaction along with external factors such as organizational rewards, power and reputation, conditions and Better work facilities, public praise, job security and appreciation are among the conditions that will be created in the case of motivation in employees and will lead to amazing achievements of organizational development and prosperity strategy.The findings of the research also indicate that the consequences of the proposed model regarding the development of the motivation of accountants in the public sector are things such as improving creativity, improving the level of knowledge and skills of employees, cultivating creative accountants and financial managers, as well as creating a sense of independence and self-efficacy among people. Another consequence of this model is creating work commitment among employees, increasing learning and in-depth training in the organization's environment, creating communication and interactions with each other, and creating hope in the spirit of accountants, providing instructions and directives to motivate and improve employees.