Expectation of Service Quality in Professional Accounting Firms

ABSTRACT In Singapore, the Company Act requires every company to have an audit every year regardless of the cost and whether the directors and shareholders want one. As there are many professional accounting firms competing for the audit business of these companies, it has become essential that these accounting firms must strive to ensure that their clients are satisfied with the services provided. This paper reports a survey of 1.96 companies with headquarters in Singapore, Japan, Europe and the United States. The survey revealed the reasons for choosing a particular audit firms and the reasons for staying with them. A modified version of the SERVQUAL scale developed by Parasuraman was used to measure both the expectation and performance of service quality. A gap analysis was also carried out to determine the differences.