Interestingly enough, the above partner emphasizes the existence and significance of the self review threat to independence – which the largest accounting firms were at the same time trying to deny in public arenas (SEC 2000b). Her/his comments appear to imply receptiveness to regulatory solutions that would prevent large accounting firms to operate both as consultants and auditors. The views expressed by our interviewees, however, can be atypical of values and beliefs held by the majority of professional accountants – which motivated us to carry out a survey based study to assess the extent to which practitioners adhere to the notion of independence commitment, and how the latter varies in accordance with certain key variables.