Professional Skepticism, Experience, and Industry Specialization of Auditors: A Predictive Study

In this quantitative, predictive study, the author aimed to evaluate whether a predictive relationship exists between auditors' experience and specialization and auditors' levels of professional skepticism, as measured by the professional skepticism scale developed by R. Kathy Hurtt. While there has been growing focus on professional skepticism in the field of accounting, a gap existed in research analyzing the influences of years of experience and industry specialization on professional skepticism. Because of this identified gap, one research question was derived from the literature: To what extent do years of experience and industry specialization status of auditors explain the variation in level of professional skepticism? Quantitative, nonexperimental, exploratory research methodology was employed to study the predictive relationship between professional skepticism, years of experience and industry specialization. The sample of the study included 68 adults employed as accountants or auditors belonging to the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants and the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners source through Qualtrics. The results of the multiple regression model showed that overall auditors' years of experience did not statistically significantly explain the variation in the level of professional skepticism. However, having years of experience of 11 to 15 years as an auditor had a significant negative predictive relationship on their professional skepticism. The multiple regression model also indicated that overall auditors' industry specialization status did not statistically significantly explain the variation in the level of professional skepticism. The results of this study, while only yielding one outstanding statistically significant relationship, created numerous opportunities for further research.