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Synthesis of the Thesis

1 Introduction The purpose of this synthesis is to summarize the major findings and implications of the two studies that are the focus of the dissertation. In Section 2, the purpose of the two studies is reiterated. In Section 3, a summary of the findings is presented, following the research model that was presented in Chapter 1. The limitations are presented in Section 4. Finally, the studies' combined contributions and suggestions for further research are assessed in Section 5. 2 The purpose of the studies The objective of both empirical studies in this dissertation was to examine the association between auditors' skeptical characteristics and auditors' skeptical judgments and decisions. The main purpose of the first exploratory study in Chapter 2 was to examine how auditors' skeptical characteristics are related to auditors' skeptical judgments and decisions. control) and a comprehensive professional skepticism scale developed for the field of auditing were related to six skeptical judgments and decisions. In order to examine the effect of client risks, the influence of control environment strength on the relationship between skeptical characteristics and auditors' judgments and decisions was also studied. The purpose of the second study in Chapter 3 was to examine Rotter's Interpersonal Trust Scale (1967) in more depth by exploring the association between individual interpersonal trust factors (determined with factor analysis) and skeptical judgments and decisions, also considering interactive effects between control environment strength and skeptical characteristics. In particular, the relationship of the extracted factors to skeptical judgments and decisions was compared with the summated Interpersonal Trust Scale. Since individual constructs underlying interpersonal trust are more specific and focused than the summated scale, the expectation was that they better predict skeptical judgments and decisions. As an additional analysis, this study also looked at the relationship between auditor rank and interpersonal trust and skeptical judgments and decisions. The underlying reason was that it is very important to know whether, for example, partner's skepticism is higher than that of the audit team members since partners have the responsibility and authority for determining whether the audit evidence is sufficient and what type of audit opinion to issue.