Förväntningsgap vid bokföringsbrott Revisorns faktiska roll gentemot revisonsrelaterade yrkesgruppers förväntningar

Sammanfattning

Problems: Financial crime is a significant problem in today’s society. Previous studies indicate that auditors have a limited role in reporting crimes. This raises questions regarding the auditor’s responsibility in detecting financial crime.Purpose: The purpose of this study is to examine the auditor’s role in the detection of accounting fraud in relation to the expectations of audit-related professional groups regarding the auditor. The study is based on the literature on the audit expectation gap.Methodology: Through a qualitative approach, using semi-structured interviews with auditors and surveys distributed to audit-related professional groups, the expectation gap can be examined.Conclusion: The findings of this study shows that the expectation gap is not tangible in the relationship between auditors and audit related professional groups. The audit-related professional groups have a good understanding of the auditor’s actual responsibilities but tend to overestimate the auditor’s duty to detect accounting fraud, creating an unreasonableness gap. Knowledge and expectations are central factors influencing the occurrence and extent of the expectation gap, and the gap is also caused by geographical differences and the application of standards. The performance gap is primarily due to unrealistic expectations rather than insufficient performance, while the reasonableness gap is limited when professional groups possess relevant prior knowledge. An additional factor that affects the gap has been identified, this is resources and it’s interesting to investigate this further. Finally, Porter’s gap has been developed with additional factors that are supported in the study’s conclusion.