Fit Between Regulatory Focus and Goal Pursuit Strategies on Auditors’ Professional Skepticism

Regulators and researchers indicate that auditors do not exercise sufficient professional skepticism (hereafter skepticism) in auditing accounting estimates. Drawing on regulatory fit theory, we propose and find that priming auditor regulatory focus along with the goal pursuit strategy could enhance auditors’ skepticism. Specifically, auditors with a promotion focus exercise greater skepticism when primed with an eager-means goal. Auditors with a prevention focus exercise greater skepticism when primed with a vigilant-means goal. In contrast, auditors in ‘nonfit’ conditions exercise lower skepticism. We also find that auditors experiencing a ‘fit’ between their regulatory focus and goal pursuit strategy engage in more effortful evaluation of evidence items, leading to greater skepticism. Additional analyses show that auditors ‘feeling right’ because of experiencing regulatory fit will exercise greater skepticism. Our findings suggest that a goal pursuit strategy enhances skepticism when the goal fits with the auditors’ regulatory focus.