The role of social trust structures in auditors' ethical responsibility

Abstract

According to the increasing concern of rejecting the connection with unethical behaviours and its underlying factors, paying attention to the ethical behaviour of auditors in the current era has gained great importance, and the abundance of research conducted in this chapter and recent studies is proof of this claim. In this regard, the present study aims to explain the role of social trust structures on auditors' ethical responsibilities by predicting the causal relationships between social trust structures on auditors' moral responsibilities by predicting the causal relationships between confidence, honesty, openness, trust-based behaviour, and cooperative tendencies and ethical responsibilities of auditors. The statistical population of this research is employed and non-employed certified accountants and a standardized questionnaire was used to collect data. After conducting the reliability and validity tests of the sample data, related analyses were done based on the linear structural relations. The results of the structural model show that some constructs of social trust, including honesty, openness, trust-based behaviour and cooperation-seeking tendencies, have a significant effect on auditors' ethical responsibilities.