ETHICAL DILEMMAS AND PROFESSIONAL SKEPTICISM IN FORENSIC ACCOUNTING INVESTIGATIONS: A MULTI-COUNTRY ANALYSIS OF EMERGING ECONOMIES

This study explored how ethical dilemmas and professional skepticism shape forensic accounting investigations across emerging economies, where governance structures and institutional oversight remain evolving. Using the Global Forensic Skepticism Model grounded in the Theory of the Firm, the research analyzed multi-country secondary data from India, South Africa, Türkiye, Egypt, Indonesia, and Vietnam collected between 2020 and 2024. Structural Equation Modeling and multilevel regression were applied to assess the effects of ethical accountability and institutional oversight on forensic judgment quality. Results showed that ethical accountability had a significant positive effect on forensic skepticism (β = 0.325, p < .05), while institutional oversight amplified this relationship by 28 percent. The findings confirmed that integrity, confidentiality, and fair reporting jointly enhanced fraud detection accuracy and stakeholder trust across jurisdictions. This research contributes to theory by extending the Theory of the Firm through the addition of ethical accountability and oversight as behavioral governance factors, thereby broadening its explanatory scope and offering a refined framework for understanding forensic integrity in emerging market settings. The results advance global debates on corporate ethics by demonstrating that moral reasoning functions as a cost-control mechanism in forensic investigations. The study recommends institutionalizing ethics-based governance models and reinforcing oversight systems to strengthen forensic reliability and restore global investor confidence.