Azam Rowshanali - PhD student in accounting, Department of accounting, Bandar abbas branch, Islamic Azad University, Bandar abbas, Iran
Rezvan Hejazi - Professor of Accounting, Department of Accounting, Faculty of Management and Finance, Khatam University, Tehran, Iran
Mohammad Hossein Ranjbar - Associate Professor, Department of Accounting and Finance, Faculty of Humanities, Bandar Abbas Branch, Islamic Azad University, Bandar Abbas, Iran
Bizhan Abedini - Assistant professor, Department Accounting, Hormozgan University, Bandar Abbas, Iran
Hamid Rostamijaaz - Assistant Professor, Department of Accounting and Finance, Faculty of Humanities, Bandar Abbas Branch, Islamic Azad University, Bandar Abbas, Iran

As a significant consequence of internal and external characteristics in auditors, independence plays a vital role in promoting professional judgment in auditing. This dimension of individual audit functions has always been considered one of the areas studied in this profession due to its integration with the perceptual and often intangible features of auditors’ behavior. Therefore, this study, understanding the importance of independence functions in the auditing profession, seeks to identify the characteristics of inertia as a stimulus for independence in auditing in the petrochemical industry to act on its interpretive ranking. This research is a mixed method due to the nature of data collection. It first uses interviews to identify the characteristics of inertia in the auditing profession and then employs the checklists of the pair scale to determine the interpretive ranking. Accordingly, the grounded theory and the quantitative part are used in the qualitative part, and Delphi analysis and the interpretive ranking process are used. The statistical population in the qualitative section were ۱۲ auditing professionals who, in terms of theoretical knowledge, had the necessary capabilities to develop the concept studied in this study. They were selected through theoretical sampling based on the snowball technique. The statistical population in the quantitative part were ۱۹ auditors with work experience in the petrochemical industry and a level of technical and specialized knowledge; they were selected using homogeneous sampling. The research results in the qualitative part indicate the existence of ۳ categories, ۸ components, and ۳۵ concept codes that have laid the inertial features in the auditing profession in the form of an ۸-dimensional integrated model. On the other hand, the results in the quantitative part show that the percentage of influence of the locus of control feature is higher than other inertial features in the audit profession in the petrochemical industry, implying that the auditor’s encirclement on individual control in success and failure can avoid a set of external factors such as chance and lead fate in audit functions. In other words, an auditor with the characteristics of an internal locus of control tries to use his/her ability to express independent behavior in professional comments and judgments, regardless of external reasons

Auditing Profession Inertia, Auditors Independence, Petrochemical industry, Interpretive Ranking Process