social trust , moral identity and commercialization of auditing profession

With the formation of the Iranian Association of Certified Public Accountants(IACPA) and increase in the number of auditing firms, the competition in the auditing market has enhanced. By performing various financial and audit services, these firms seek to attract new clients in order to stay in the competitive market. In fact, the auditing profession is witnessing the commercialization of auditing by audit firms. Therefore, this article aims to introduce the concept of commercialization of the auditing profession and examine the relationship between social trust and moral identity. The current research is applied in terms of purpose and descriptive-correlation type. The statistical population of the present study consists of 228 auditors working in audit firms that are members of the IACPA. The research variables were measured using standard questionnaires and multivariate regression test was used to analyze the collected data. The research findings show that moral identity has a positive and significant relationship and social trust has a significant negative relationship with the commercialization of the auditing profession. Other results of the research indicate that the auditor's gender has a negative and significant effect on commercialization of the auditing profession.