Increased use of marketing in the audit industry : Effect on independence price and quality

Abstract: Background: The concept of marketing is quite new to the audit industry, prior to 1978 all marketing of audit services were strictly forbidden. In 2010, the statutory audit was abolished in Sweden forcing auditors to market their services to convince their clients that they still should hire an auditor. This increased use of marketing adds a new dimension to the profession and might affect the pricing of audit, the quality of audit and might threaten the auditors‟ independency. Purpose: This paper focuses on how the increased use of marketing affects the auditing firms‟ services, more specifically how it affects auditor independence, audit quality and audit pricing. It is obvious that it is a fine line between auditors marketing their services and keeping their independence. It is clear that it has had implications on the business and after reading the disciplinary case it is clear that the rules are not defined in a way so that all the players in the industry interpret them in same way. Our purpose is to investigate how auditors in Sweden use marketing and how they make sure that they are still independent. We also want to investigate if the use of marketing has any effect on the quality of the audit and also the price of auditing. Completion: The study is based on qualitative approach focusing on interviews with auditors active in Sweden. A statistical survey to determine any potential changes in price is also added to add on to the credibility of our study. Conclusions are drawn based on the result of the survey and based on the interviews with our auditors. Conclusion: The increased use of marketing has changed the audit profession, the auditors need to market their services and cannot only focus on conducting audits. It has had implications on the audit quality and the auditors struggle with the balance between marketing themselves and keeping their independence.