Enhancing universal professionalism through stated confirmations

Purpose A significant challenge faced by large audit firms is providing consistent quality across their global networks. Past studies have noted that cultural differences in individual auditors can create variations in judgments and decision-making, resulting in inconsistent audit quality. Social forces with a pervasive impact on behavior are likely to be one of the more expedient means of minimizing the impact of cultural differences. We hypothesize that asking auditors to make a commitment to audit quality by signing a statement of values can mitigate the effect of cultural differences on their judgments. Developing such a basic mechanism for providing uniform audit judgment could significantly enhance global audit quality and improve the global audit reputation of accounting firms. Design/methodology/approach We test our hypothesis on a sample of practicing auditors from the US and India using a qualitative, survey-based methodology. Findings Consistent with prior research, we find Indian auditors (collectivist, high power-distance culture) are more inclined to acquiesce to a client’s preferred accounting treatment than US auditors (individualist, low power-distance culture). We also find that asking auditors to affirm their commitment to audit quality reduces client acquiescence for both groups of auditors, resulting in less cross-cultural inconsistency in auditor judgments. Originality/value Few studies have looked at mechanisms for enhancing and promoting global audit quality. Our paper develops a simple, basic mechanism for providing uniform audit quality across the globe.