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This paper reviews a substantial body of scholarly work on the audit expectation gap (AEG) for many years and aims to construct a new synthesis of the existing knowledge of the AEG discovered by numerous scholars in the world.

A broad search of the literature was conducted using a few AEG related keywords in the Google Scholar search engine and two databases of Scopus and Emerald from 1974 to 2021. Only the articles published in reputable journals concerning the AEG were selected after applying some selection criteria.

The concept of AEG is a multidimensional concept. Different causes for the AEG were identified, and several strategies were summarized into major promising strategies for narrowing it. It was found that the AEG cannot be eradicated entirely from society.

This review of the literature will be of interest to auditors, financial statement users, regulatory agencies, and policymakers, among other parties. Further, this AEG synthesis may be useful in understanding misperceptions and determining how they differ across diverse stakeholders.

There is a dearth of literature review studies incorporating all the facets of AEG. Hence, this study incorporates all those facets, namely research methods and instruments and dimensions used along with causes and mechanisms to narrow down the AEG while addressing the gaps and highlighting the themes for future research. Finally, a fresh, yet more straightforward definition was generated as a result of the comprehensive review of the literature, adding novelty to the extant literature.

The purpose of this study is to provide fresh insights into whether there is an expectation gap between external auditors' and other stakeholders' perceptions of external auditors' responsibilities in an emerging economy, in light of recent changes to the global audit landscape.

A quantitative approach in the positivistic paradigm was adopted, and a structured questionnaire was used to gather data.

The findings suggested that there was a statistically significant discrepancy between external auditors' and social groups' perceptions of the responsibilities of external auditors. More than half of the gap was due to deficiency in standards, 19% due to unreasonable expectations by society, while 25% of the gap was found to be due to deficient performance.

The study focused on the duties of external auditors and not on the duties of other types of auditors while examining the audit expectation-performance gap (AEG), and this was due to the drastic differences in the scope of their duties.

The findings of this study are likely to have direct policy implications for regulators, authorities, educators and auditing professionals, who should take immediate actions and measures to reduce the AEG in light of the current global audit landscape advancements and changes.

The present study used a substantially updated model to measure the AEG to suit the contemporary changes in the auditing landscape, and could be considered as a pioneering study that measures the AEG in an emerging economy amid recent changes.