مهدی صفری گرایلی

Judgment in the auditing profession as a subjective criterion in the decisions of auditors has a significant role in improving the quality of decision support for analysts, shareholders, and investors in the capital market. Therefore, recognizing the qualitative characteristics in this area can help the theoretical development of improving the quality of auditors' professional judgments. The purpose of this study is to develop the effectiveness of auditing professional judgment based on the mindset of auditors. In this study, to identify the components (auditing professional judgment) and research propositions (themes of auditors' mindfulness), meta-synthesis analysis was used with the participation of 12 experts and experts in the field of accounting and financial management at the university level. In the quantitative part, the identified components and propositions in the form of matrix questionnaires were evaluated by interpretive analysis by 18 auditors with work experience and a level of technical and specialized knowledge. The results showed that the statement of inferential mindfulness is the most influential theme of intuitive judgment in auditing, which can cause auditors to perform more effectively in professional judgment. This result suggests that inferential mindfulness is a factor in intuition in professional judgment.

Recent accounting and management literature shows that demographic character-istics of top management and corporate performance are related. Accordingly, using a two-stage least squares regression model (2SLS), this study examines the relationship between some management demographic characteristics including CEO tenure, gender and level of education with earnings quality and auditor choice. Sample includes the 420 firm-year observations from companies listed on the Tehran Stock Exchange during the years 2013 to 2017 and research hypothesis was tested using multivariate regression models. The results show a significant and positive association between managers education level and higher auditor quality choice. In addition, we find that firms with female directors in the composition of the board of directors and with higher education levels, have higher earnings quality. The current study is almost the first study which has been conducted in Iran, so the findings of the study not only extend the extant theoretical literature in developing countries including emerging capital market of Iran, but also help investors, capital market regulators and accounting standard setters to make in-formed decisions.

The efforts of the developers of capital market laws and regulations over the past years have been aimed at increasing the level of information transparency to create more symmetry between companies and shareholders so that they can be more attractive to investors to invest in the stock market. But given the interplay of individual characteristics of corporate decision-makers with the interests of shareholders and investors, it seems that focusing on behavioral functions in the area of promoting managerial ability can more effectively lead to increased protection of shareholder interests. The purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of management ability on the protection of investors based on the development of the theory of the devil's advocate. Therefore, the present study, using the structural equation modeling approach and partial least squares analysis (PLS), while fitting the model's desirability, examined the impact of management ability on protecting investors. In this study, in order to measure the in-field variable, ie protection of shareholders' interests, a researcher-made questionnaire was created through meta-analysis with the participation of 15 research experts. Then the criterion of Demirjan et al (2013) was used to measure managerial ability as an exogenous variable in partial least squares analysis. The researcher-made questionnaire was sent to 142 CEOs of companies listed on the Tehran Stock Exchange, and finally, after many follow-ups, 105 questionnaires were completed and returned and used as a final sample for analysis. After ensuring the acceptable fit of the measurement and structural models of the research, according to the theory of the devil's advocate, the results showed that the ability of management has a positive and significant effect on protecting the investors. Managerial ability, as one of the specialized decision-making capacities, puts the company on the path of effective interaction with stakeholders and provides the ground for investors to Protect in companies' priorities to gain their trust.