The Social Construction of the Audit Expectation Gap: The Market of Excuses*

We examine in this paper the audit expectation gap in regards to the development of statutory audit objectives in France. We conduct in-depth a longitudinal study from 1966 to 2007, based on 9 interviews with experts and the analysis of 162 articles published in 5 French professional accounting journals. We give a description of the history of expectation gap during 1966-2007 and thus underline the gap that has been widened over time. We show that the audit expectation gap is a socially constructed notion, serving a justification role for the reproduction of the status of auditor. Our research suggests that the real function of the expectation gap is to provide the auditing profession with rationales or excuses for the market.