The Effect of Audit Tenure and Internal Audit Effectiveness on External Audit Quality: Evidence from Jordanian External Auditors

Abstract

The poor audit quality has become one of the phenomenal challenges facing the financial sector in Jordan, as has determining how to implement directives and policies that result in high-quality auditing. The study is motivated by available academic literature indicating the importance of examining audit attributes affecting audit quality in Jordanian auditors, which becomes the study's primary objective. This study is based on two variables used to understand and analyze the level of audit quality within Jordanian auditors. The two variables measured in this current study are audit tenure and internal audit effectiveness. The data were collected through the distribution of questionnaires to 200 respondents in Jordanian auditors and processed using Partial Least Squares-Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) software for this study. The study's findings indicate positive and significant relationships between audit tenure and audit quality based on the descriptive analysis and a structural equation model. On the other hand, internal audit effectiveness indicates a negative and insignificant effect on audit quality. In addition, this study conducted further analysis by grouping the respondents based on Big 4 audit firms and non-big 4 audit firms. Based on the results, IAF indicates positive and significant results for auditors from the big 4 audit firms, but negative and significant results for auditors from non-big 4 audit firms. Furthermore, the demographic profile indicates that the majority of respondents are from non-Big 4 audit firms, which could result in a unique result. The findings suggest that the non-big 4 audit firms must improve the communication between the internal and external auditors to enhance audit quality in Jordan.