Investigating the influencing factors on trust and professional skepticism in the relationship between the auditor and the client firms’ managers

The current study investigates how interpersonal trust between the auditor and the client firms’ managers affects the auditor's professional skepticism in Iraq. In the qualitative part of the research, 20 auditors and client firms’ managers were interviewed. In the qualitative section, the interviews conducted were analyzed using MAXQDA software. The statistical population includes two groups: all auditors, 1735 participants until the end of 2022, and all senior managers and managers of public companies, private companies, and other organizations. The statistical sample size is 314. The data collection instrument was Aschauer et al.'s (2017) questionnaire, which was analyzed using PLS3 software. The findings support the idea that there is a positive correlation between the degree of skepticism towards the auditing profession and the degree to which corporate managers and auditors are trusted. Perceived trust between auditors and managers and skepticism of auditors' professions are not significantly correlated with the length of the auditor's contact with the client. The relationship between auditors' and managers' trust in them and their skepticism of the auditing profession is not also significantly impacted by the supply of non-audit services.