Abstract:

The recent collapse of several companies in the last two decades has called to question the integrity of the audit profession and resulted in a decline in shareholders' confidence in audited financial statements. To restore the confidence of shareholders, it is crucial to improve audit service quality by investigating the factors that might influence it. While previous studies have mainly focused on perceived audit service quality from the perspectives of auditors and external stakeholders, the issue of perceived audit service quality by the clients is also highly relevant. This is because the clients are able to give unbiased opinions on the level of audit service quality. However, the auditing literature lacks qualitative insight from audit clients on the factors that might influence the audit service quality. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to report the perceptions of the listed companies' staff in Libyan Stock Market (LSM) concerning how they perceive the influence of auditor’s reputation, auditor’s independence, auditor’s tenure, and auditor’s Islamic ethics on audit service quality in Libya. A total of 10 semi-structured interviews were conducted and then analyzed using content analysis. The results revealed that the interviewees generally believed that auditor’s independence and auditor’s Islamic ethics have an important influence on audit service quality in Libya. However, auditor’s reputation was perceived by interviewees not to have any influence on the level of audit service quality in the same context. Finally, the results indicated that the majority of the interviewees perceived that the length of auditor’s tenure has a negative influence on audit service quality in Libyan market. It is suggested that the professional body concerned namely, the Libyan Accountants and Auditors Association (LAAA), should be more active in controlling, guiding, and supervising its members and providing legal support to the factors that impact audit service quality, such as auditors’ independence, tenure, and Islamic ethics. Key Words: Audit Service Quality, Auditor’s Reputation, Auditor's tenure, Auditor’s Independence, Auditor’s Islamic Ethics, Libyan Stock Market.

Keywords: