From Formal Adoption to Professional Practice: Professionalization and the Implementation Absorption Gap in Uzbekistan’s Audit Reform

This article examines the professionalization challenge underlying audit reform in Uzbekistan and develops the concept of the implementation absorption gap to explain the divergence between rapid formal adoption of international standards and slower substantive internalization in practice. Although Uzbekistan has moved quickly to align its auditing framework with international requirements through legal reform, ISA adoption, certification modernization, digital monitoring, and external quality assurance procedures, the deeper professional foundations required for effective implementation remain uneven. Drawing on documentary analysis and official audit market indicators, the study demonstrates that the key constraint in the Uzbek case is not the absence of regulation but the incomplete development of normative capacity: professional judgment, skepticism, training depth, continuing professional development, international integration, and firm-level learning culture. The evidence shows that international certifications remain limited to a minority of practitioners, international network participation is concentrated in a narrow segment of firms, audit activity is heavily concentrated in Tashkent, and small and medium-sized practices face disproportionate adjustment pressures. The article contributes to the literature by moving beyond a simple “successful convergence” narrative and by offering the implementation absorption gap as an analytical concept for understanding why formal institutional reform can outpace professional internalization in state-led transition economies. The findings suggest that the next phase of reform should prioritize professional education, mentoring, interpretive guidance, and capability-building mechanisms rather than further regulatory expansion alone.