Securities laws mandate public corporations to hire an independent auditor. Since the
advent of such mandates, there has been a concern that auditors face a potential conflict of
interest because they are hired and paid by the companies they audit (Mautz and Sharaf
1961). It is a challenge for regulators to strike the right balance between the auditors serving
commercial versus professional interests (Zeff 2003; Barrett, Cooper, and Jamal 2005;
Humphrey 2008; Suddaby, Gendron, and Lam 2009).