Effect of auditor's professional skepticism on audit quality

The aim of this study is to demonstrate the effect of the auditor's professional skepticism on audit quality. For this aim, while the audit process is taken as a whole, the importance of audit of professional skepticism is emphasized in this process and audit quality framework and the criteria for ensuring audit quality are examined. In the study, data which is obtained from auditors who have received authorization for independent audit from the Public Oversight Authority and who are actively conducting an independent audit, examined with Structural Equation Model (SEM) in order to find out the effect of auditor's professional skepticism on audit quality. A skepticism scale to determine the professional skepticism of auditors, and an audit quality questionnaire form to determine the auditors' opinions on audit quality are used as data collection tools in this study and the data is analyzed and interpreted. As a result of this study, research hypotheses are accepted and it is found that there is a statistically significant positive relationship between the auditor's professional skepticism and audit quality. Accordingly, it is found that auditors behaviour with appropriate level professional skepticism increases the quality of auditing. Keywords: Professional Skepticism, Audit Quality, Professional Skepticism in the Audit Process, Structural Equation Modeling.