The Effect of Audit Tenure to Audit Quality With Professional Skepticism, Independence & Experience as Intervening Variables

Abstract

Audit tenure becomes an issue after the revelation of some accounting scandal resulted from long audit tenure between accounting firm and company. Then, in some country limitation of audit tenure were regulated. Some believes this will impair audit quality. In this research, the researcher aims to find out the effect of audit tenure on audit quality, with considering some aspect that expected to influence audit quality base on most research relate to audit quality. Those are professional skepticism, independence, and experience, and placed it as intervening variables. The data used in this research are primary data, collected from distributing questionnaire. The populations are auditors working in all of accounting firm in Yogyakarta. Then, data analysis is performed Computer Statistic Program SPSS for Windows Release 19.0 and using Sobel Test macro developed by Preachers & Hayes (2004) to test mediation model. Besides providing information about direct affect of audit tenure on audit quality, here the researcher also emphasizing on simple mediation model or indirect effect, whether the intervening variable namely, professional skepticism, independence, and experience completely mediate or partially mediate the relationship between audit tenure and audit quality. The results of hypotheses testing reveal that audit tenure positively influence audit quality. And professional skepticism and experience have completely mediated the relationship between audit tenure and audit quality, while independence only partially mediated. Means that independence not mediated the relationship, it has direct effect instead.