Research on factors affecting audit quality of financial statements of listed companies in the Vietnamese Stock Market

<p> New contributions of the topic are as follows: - Collecting and developing theory with a deep viewinto factors affecting audit quality of financial statements of listed companies in the Vietnamese stock market. Through detailed analysis of domestic and international literature, a theoretical framework is established;3 groups of factors affecting audit quality audit quality of financial statements of listed companies are systemized and classified. - In analyzing reality in Vietnam, identifying 16 factors under 3 groups as having impact on audit quality of financial statements of listed companies in the Vietnamese stock market: group of external factors, group of factor related to auditors and group of factor related to auditing firms. The research also explains in details the content of these 16 factorsvia 62 evaluation criteria. 24 - Basing on identified factors, the author carries out survey and collecting opinions of 138 auditors eligible to audit financial reports of listed companies in the Vietnamese stock market. According to survey findings, 14 factors (with 60 criteria) affecting audit quality of financial statements of listed companies in the Vietnamese stock market are divided into 3 groups with different level of impact, specifically: 6 factors in the group of auditors with decreasing impact including: Experience and industry expertise; compliance, conduct, pressure, independence, competence; 3 factors in the group of external factors: Listed companies, legal environment and external control; 5 factors in the group of auditing firm with decreasing impact including: Quality control system, working condition (mostly about method and process), audit fee, reputation and size of firms. - From survey results about impact level of these factors and interviews of a number of specialists, the author presents 3 groups of solutions, including: enhancing the quality of auditors, auditing firms and legal environments. Some recommendations are given to authority, listedcompanies and investors. These solutions are useful for auditing firms and auditors, management agencies of audit quality of financial reports and especially for users of financial reports. They contribute to the sound development of the stock market and help investors to improve their understanding about risks as well as benefits of using audited financial reports. The topic of research will serve as important premise to identify evaluation attributes of audit quality of financial statements of listed companies in the Vietnamese stock market. </p>