An Application Of The Conceptual Model Of Service Quality To Independent Auditing Services

Abstract

<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; margin: 0in 0.5in 0pt; mso-pagination: none;"><span style="color: black; font-size: 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">Auditing’s expectations gap has been documented over the last 35 years beginning with Liggio (1974) who initially coined and defined the term.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">  </span>Porter’s (1991) and Australian Education Research’s (2009) models explored this gap.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">  </span>However, these models don’t recognize the auditors’ three customer groups: auditees, the public, and regulatory agencies.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">  </span>Additionally, these models don’t consider communication’s role between auditors and their customer groups.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">  </span>The<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">  </span>following discussion applies the service quality model (SERVQUAL) developed by Parasuraman, Zeithaml and Berry (1988 and 1991) to the audit expectation gap and makes recommendations for researching the components, causes, effects of and solutions to the auditing expectations. This model identifies expectation gaps between the service provider (the auditor) and its customers including the auditee, the financial statement user, and the regulatory agencies.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">  </span>Nyeck, Morales, Ladhari, and Pons (2002, p. 102) concluded in a review article of SERVQUAL research”. . .the SERVQUAL model remains the most complete attempt to conceptualize and measure service quality.” </span></span></p>