Toward understanding the self-efficacy of external auditors during COVID-19: empirical testing of traditional sources and virtual audit proficiency

Purpose Auditors' self-efficacy (SE) represents their level of confidence in improving their audit performance. This may be a crucial factor for auditors to perform effectively during the health crisis of COVID-19. This study aims to build on a social cognitive perspective to assess the SE of auditors during the coronavirus of 2019 (COVID-19) and to anticipate that mastery experience, verbal and social persuasion, vicarious experience, physiological and emotional states and virtual audit are determinants of auditors' SE during COVID-19. Design/methodology/approach Based on data from Saudi Arabia, this study surveyed all auditors using an online questionnaire and collected 193 useful responses. Thus, this study analyzed the data using primary statistical tests and a structural equation model of partial least squares. Findings This study observes that auditors feel confident in their ability to perform audit activities as well during COVID-19 as at other times. This study also documents that VEs, physiological and emotional states and virtual audits play significant roles in SE. In further analyses, this study observes that auditors who are affiliated with big4 audit firms moderate the positive association between virtual audit and SE. All these results are verified under several econometrical appraisals and held constant. Originality/value This study provides a number of theoretical and practical implications.