The Determinants Factors of External Audit Quality: A Quantitative Study from Companies in Cameroon

Abstract

The spate of audit failure in the world and Cameroon economy in particular because of poor audit services rendered, has brought great disappointment for the users of financial report. The objective of this study is to examine the determinants factors of external audit quality in Cameroon. In specific terms, this study examined the effect of going concern audit opinion, industry specialized auditor, the respect of the steps of the audit process by the external auditor on audit quality. Based on the chi-square independence test, and the binary logistic regression on the data collected using the  questionnaire from 98 companies in Cameroon, the results revealed that going concern audit opinion and the respect of the steps of the audit process by the external auditor significantly affect audit quality in Cameroon. However, the result also revealed that there exist an insignificant relationship between auditor industry specialization and audit quality. Again, the result also shows that company age, company size, company sector and company profitability as the control variables of this study has an insignificant influence on audit quality. This study therefore recommends that companies should hire auditors that respect the steps of the audit process and auditors that issue a going concern audit opinion concerning the future of company.