The effect of the characteristics of audit offices on audit quality: an exploratory study on a sample of auditing offices and companies in Iraq

This research aims to measure the impact of the characteristics of the audit offices represented by (the size of the audit office, the length of the engagement period, the professional experience, the reputation of the office) on the quality of the audit process. This aim is achieved by addressing the issue of the characteristics of audit offices in all their details and identifying the impact that these characteristics achieve on the quality of the audit process. The researchers have adopted a questionnaire form to obtain the necessary data, whereby (155) questionnaires are distributed to auditing offices and companies licensed to practice the profession according to the bulletin issued by the Board of Audit and Monitoring Profession in Iraq for the year (2021), and (120) valid questionnaires are retrieved for analysis. The researchers have concluded that there is a significant correlation between the characteristics of audit offices and the quality of auditing, as well as the existence of a significant effect of the characteristics of audit offices on audit quality. The most important thing recommended by the research is the need for audit offices to pay attention to all the characteristics that enable it to improve its professional performance at a time when competition between these offices is increasing.