The Transition from Self-Regulation to Public Oversight in the Independent Audit: An Investigation of Developments by Accounting Sub-Culture

Abstract

Although the independent audit environment has changed from time to time, it has increased its importance in the capitalist economic system day by day. The patronage of the audit activity, which occasionally had significant criticism, was carried out by professional organizations with a recent self-regulation approach. At the beginning of the current century, the scandals that took place led to partial abandoning of self-regulation and led to the establishment of autonomous public oversight institutions authorized to oversee independent auditing. Public oversight institutions, which have been implemented in many countries, have followed different trends among countries. In this research, the various characteristics of the public oversight institutions of some selected countries were examined. Moreover, the similarities and differences between the countries were discussed in terms of subcultural dimensions. As a result of the descriptive research carried out, it is observed that public oversight institutions have been implemented in Anglo-Saxon culture before other countries. More similar approaches were seen in Anglo-Saxon and Northern European countries. In European countries with Mediterranean culture and Asian countries, the more different positions are observed. © 2021, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.