Determinants of audit service quality perceptions of supervisory directors in Dutch corporations

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of key quality attributes in the audit context on supervisory directors' assessment of audit quality. To this end, we identified, through survey questionnaires, audit quality attributes and dimensions (in terms of both their technical and service dimensions) based on the perception of supervisory board members in a sample of large and medium Dutch corporations. Factor analysis of the audit quality attributes produced four quality dimensions related to the core outcome of the audit service (auditor competence and independence) and five quality dimensions related to the relational (service) aspect. The paper, further, discusses the influence of these quality dimensions on the assessment of overall audit quality. The findings indicate that the technical and functional quality dimensions identified in this study do influence supervisory directors' perception of overall audit quality. The findings have both theoretical and policy implications. Our emphasis on supervisory board members, as current de jure and de facto clients of auditors, is a unique contribution of this study.