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Dr Ros Haniffa. "Culture" in Malaysian accounting&auditing
Introduction
Service quality is the major driving force for business sustainability ([14] Carlzon, 1987) and in today's competitive global marketplace, it is recognized that high quality service is essential for the success of the firm ([49] Rust and Oliver, 1994). When other factors have been considered, it leads to customer loyalty ([33] Lewis, 1994) and higher profitability ([27] Gundersen et al. , 1996). Therefore, a key strategy for customer-focused firms is to measure and monitor customer satisfaction and service quality. In the marketing literature, service quality, customer satisfaction and customer loyalty are three distinctive elements that firms offering services should strive for. Customer satisfaction or dissatisfaction results from experiencing a service and comparing that experience with the kind of quality of service that was expected ([38] Oliver, 1980). Many customer satisfaction studies have concluded that there is a significant relationship between customer satisfaction and loyalty. Hence, the primary objective of service providers and marketers is identical; i.e. to develop and provide services that satisfy customer needs and expectations. In short, in the service industry, the goal of the service marketer is to close or narrow the gap between expectations and perceptions of customers.
In the context of auditing, the quality of service provided by audit firms is a very important issue when signs of dissatisfaction with the services arise ([54] Sutton, 1993). In a recent survey by the US General Accounting Office (GAO) in September 2003, it was found that half of the public companies reporting that they were satisfied with the audit service stated that they had used the services of their current auditor for 10 years or more. GAO also found service quality to be a very important consideration for public listed companies when choosing or looking for a new audit firm to act as their auditor. Usually, when the public listed companies are satisfied with the quality of service received from a particular audit firm, there is a strong probability that they will also use the same audit firm for other non-audit services such as taxation, secretarial practice, review engagement or other related non-assurance engagement. In addition, GAO also found a positive association between audit tenure and client satisfaction. Audit quality is important in the...