The effects of gender balanced audit teams and partner gender on client satisfaction

Abstract

This thesis examines two relationships. First, the relationship between audit partners' gender and client satisfaction. Secondly, the relationship between gender-balanced audit teams and client satisfaction. The relationships are insufficiently researched in the audit literature. Characteristics of audit partners and audit teams could possibly influence audit service quality. High levels of audit service quality is suggested to result in client satisfaction. The data was collected through an anonymous survey distributed to 179 audit firms of various sizes in Norway. The targeted respondents were audit partners and managers, and the data were analyzed using logistic regression to test the relationships. The results revealed a positive and statistically significant relationship between gender-balanced audit teams and client satisfaction. The implications of these findings underline the importance of prioritizing gender balance in audit teams to enhance client satisfaction. The contributions from this thesis could be used to motivate further research in understanding the dynamics and effects of the gender composition in audit teams and its effects on the satisfaction of clients.