Relationship-Oriented Strategies in the Iranian Audit Market: A Qualitative and Quantitative Analysis

This study investigates the phenomenon of relationship-oriented strategies in the audit market of Iran and identifies the various forms of strategies used by audit firms to build and maintain relationships with clients.

Using qualitative and quantitative approaches, in-depth and semi-structured interviews were conducted with audit partners, and a questionnaire was designed to collect quantitative data.

The qualitative findings reveal that Iranian audit firms employ favoritism relationships with a social approach and utilitarian relationships with an economic and political approach. Moreover, the study found that large and old audit firms exhibit different behaviors in terms of utilitarian relationships compared to small and young audit firms. The quantitative approach involved factor analysis, which confirmed the validity and reliability of the introduced model, and the test of the data indicated that only half of the identified relationship-oriented strategies in qualitative approach were confirmed as common forms of relationship-oriented in the Iranian audit market.

The results of the study indicate that Iranian audit firms inevitably use relationship-oriented strategies as a business strategy to mitigate the negative effects of economic issues on their business.

Contribution:

 As an initial effort, this study provides a comprehensive and lucid depiction of the phenomenon of relationship-oriented strategies, and their classification into various forms, as well as their prevalence in the context of the Iranian audit market.