The primary goal of this study is to identify the influence of auditor incentives in audit quality and how and why it influences the auditor in practice in south Asian countries like Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. This research will be relevant to authorities like audit firms, regulators, practitioners, and academics and it will be helpful to make the standard setup to establish the methods or procedures to offer the incentives which can be matched with the global context.  Theoretical concepts are based on previous research and publications regarding incentives, technological use in audit, auditor motivation, auditor behaviour, audit report and audit quality. Literature was used to derive the research gap and research questions. According to the literature, there is no universal definition to define the audit quality and presently, it is applying the standard frameworks to overcome that requirement. In this study, the authors also identified such frameworks and were mainly concerned about the Knechel et al, (2013) and IAASB (2014). According to the Knechel et al, (2013), the authors recognized the audit quality indicators under input, process, context, and outcome.  The study is conducted based on the Interpretivism paradigm as qualitative research concerning subjective viewpoints of ontology and humanist ways. For this thesis purpose the authors use semi-structured interviews with auditors from big four, private firm and large local audit firm in Sri Lanka and Bangladesh as it helps to develop the findings, because these sorts of interviews provide detailed answers to the questions, interviewer can change the questions during the interview session according to the answer of the interviewee. From each country six participants have been chosen to conduct the interview.  The findings shows that auditor incentives have influenced on audit quality. Auditors who are highly motivated with incentives can produce audit report with free of misstatement. Moreover, Bangladeshi audit firms are not using technology and automation for auditing and accounting system except big four, whereas Sri Lankan audit firm are conducting their auditing and accounting through automation. Finally, the authors found that the Incentives, it may be financial or non-financial, are motivating the auditors and then auditors are doing their best effort to deliver the quality audit report.

This qualitative study delves into the effects of Computer Assisted Audit Tools (CAAT) onthe quality of audits in Sri Lanka. Recognizing the lack of a universal definition for auditquality, this research draws upon established frameworks by Knechel et al. (2013) and theInternational Auditing and Assurance Standards Board (IAASB) from 2014 to explore auditquality indicators within the domains of input, process, context, and outcome. The researchadopts an Interpretivism paradigm to appreciate subjective viewpoints and humanisticaspects within its methodology. In order to gain an in-depth understanding, semi-structuredinterviews were conducted with auditors from the big four, private firms, and large localaudit firms in Sri Lanka.Selection criteria ensured a diverse sample size of seven participants from each firmcategory. Findings reveal that not only does the use of audit software contribute to enhancedaudit quality in Sri Lanka, but motivated auditors armed with effective tools are also morelikely to produce reports devoid of misstatements.Furthermore, the study observes a discrepancy in technology adoption for auditing purposeswith larger firms utilizing more advanced systems compared to smaller local entities anddiscusses how this dichotomy impacts overall audit practices. The research ultimatelyunderscores the significance of technological innovation and auditor motivation in elevatingaudit quality within the Sri Lankan context and offers valuable insights for practitioners,regulators, and academics aiming to bridge practices with global standards.

Auditors play an important role in the reliability of financial statements. Many investors and other financial information users rely on their opinion. During the financial crisis, auditors were critised since they did not warn the markets about financially distressed companies. In our thesis, we examine whether auditors change their behaviour during a financial crisis. Using our collected data for joint stock companies in the Czech Republic, we focus on frequency of modified and going concern opinions, amount of audit and non-audit fees charged by auditors, and audit reporting lag. Our audit fees model showed that there were significantly lower audit fees after the crisis than during the crisis years. The results also suggest that both Big 4 and non-Big 4 auditors increased their frequency of issuing modified opinions (most of which were going concern opinions) during the crisis period. In our logit going concern models for the individual years we observed change of the auditors' behaviour during the crisis years 2008-2010. We have also found out that Big 4 auditors increased their audit reporting lag in 2008 but our overall results suggest that the audit reporting lag was shorter during the crisis.