RESUME | The succession of financial crises worldwide has led several firms, particularly SMEs due to their vulnerability, to begin cost-cutting measures. With the media coverage of certain audit scandals, the question of the value of auditing for some SMEs has arisen in several countries. As a result, some governments have revised their audit regulations and exempted certain SMEs from this obligation, on the grounds that its usefulness is not proven. In other countries, however, the debate continues, and Morocco is no exception.

This raises the question of whether statutory auditing, beyond its legal legitimacy, also holds social legitimacy for SMEs. Since legitimacy is fundamentally a sociological concept, its operationalization in the field of management sciences, and particularly in audit research, is not common. This research paper aims to address this scientific issue by exploring how to operationalize the concept, in order to analyze the legitimacy of statutory auditing for SMEs. To this end, it proposes a theoretical framework for analysis based on Suchman’s (1995) approach to legitimacy, which synthesizes both the strategic perspective (Aldrich and Fiol, 1994) and the institutional perspective (Hybels, 1995) of legitimacy.

Keywords: SMEs; Statutory Audit; Management Tool; Legitimacy; Perception