The impact of digital audit on audit expectation gap

Purpose The present study is a significant contribution to the field as it investigates the effect of digital audits on the audit expectation gap. In other words, this study aims to find an answer to whether digital audits can affect the expectation gap. Design/methodology/approach The statistical population of the research includes all the auditors who are members of the Certified Public Accountants Society of Iran, 436 of whom were selected as the sample size using the Cochran sampling. This research used partial least square tests to investigate the effect of independent variables on the dependent variable. Findings The results indicate digital audits’ negative impact on the audit expectation gap; also, the results of the research in the section on other findings show that digital accounting has a negative and significant impact on the dimensions of the responsibilities of independent auditors, financial reporting obligations, the presence of defects in financial reporting obligations that have not been identified due to weak auditing and the effectiveness of the auditor. The use of digital audits leads to the reduction of the expectation gap in the mentioned dimensions. No significance was observed in other dimensions. Originality/value The results can provide helpful information to everyone and help the development of science and knowledge in this field. Also, by examining different sizes of the audit expectation gap, the present research determines which dimension is more affected by digital audit, thereby valuing the contributions of all professionals in the auditing and accounting field.