Impact of the Media on Accountants' Trust in the Work Developed by Auditors in the Face of Accounting Scandals
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.5380/rcc.17.97856Keywords:
Accounting scandals, Audit, Public opinionAbstract
In the context of strengthening the Brazilian capital market and its growing internationalization, the assurance role promoted by auditors stands out. Accounting scandals can impact trust in auditors. This research aimed to investigate the impact of accounting scandals on the perception of trust of the work carried out by accounting auditors. Furthermore, this study related topics such as auditing, business communication, ethics, psychology, and journalism. The methodology is quantitative using a mixed questionnaire with 28 questions divided into two blocks. The sample consisted of 82 individuals who responded to the questionnaire. The questions aimed to characterize the sample and understand the respondent’s opinions about the auditor and their perception of their trust after exposing them to news of accounting scandals that directly or indirectly involved audit professionals. The questionnaire was administered via Google Forms, featuring multiple-choice responses based on a Likert scale and open-ended questions for characterization. The data was collected remotely from September 15 to December 16, 2023. The results indicate that market trust (clients and society) declines as auditing firms become involved in corporate economic scandals. The results also point to the need to avoid opportunistic corporate behavior and thus avoid undermining the auditor's reliability as a capable, qualified, skeptical, and independent professional.
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