INTRODUCTION
Prior research has shown that auditor performance can be enhanced by both industry- and
task-based experience. As much of this research has focused on industry-specialist auditors,
who gain task experience predominantly in one industry setting, the relative contribution of
each is unclear. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the comparative influence of industryand
task-based experience on auditor performance, using non-specialist auditor participants, who
gain task experience in a variety of industry settings.