Audit Quality Determinants and The Moderating Role of Going Concerns and Opinions in Indonesia’s Manufacturing Sector

This study aims to analyze the determinants of audit quality and their impact on client satisfaction, with the going con-‎cern opinion serving as a moderating variable. The research focuses on Indonesia’s manufacturing industry, where audit ‎quality plays a crucial role in ensuring the integrity of financial reporting and strengthening stakeholder trust. The pro-‎posed model examines seven independent variables: audit experience, client industry understanding, mastery of ‎accounting standards, audit team independence, prudence, field audit implementation, and compliance with ethical standards. The study involves 120 respondents representing manufacturing firms listed on the Indonesia Stock Exchange ‎‎(IDX) during 2014–2024. Using a purposive sampling method, 21 sample firms were selected from data obtained via the ‎IDX website (www.idx.co.id). Data were analyzed quantitatively using the Structural Equation Modeling–Partial Least ‎Squares (SEM-PLS) method with SmartPLS software. The analysis tested instrument validity and reliability, direct relationships among variables, and the moderating effect of the going concern opinion. Findings indicate that six of the seven independent variables significantly and positively influence audit quality, with audit team independence emerging as ‎the most dominant factor, followed by audit experience and client industry understanding. Prudence shows no significant effect, although the relationship remains positive. Audit quality strongly enhances client satisfaction (β = 0.42; p < ‎‎0.001), and the going concern opinion positively moderates this relationship, suggesting that a high-quality audit process ‎strengthens clients’ perceptions of auditor professionalism. The results reinforce agency theory and quality theory, em-‎emphasizing competence, independence, and professional ethics as the core pillars of audit quality. Practical implications ‎include the development of audit quality enhancement guidelines, independence policy reinforcement, industry-specific ‎training programs, and constructive communication strategies for going concern opinions‎.