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This paper aims to explore the potential effect of key audit matters (KAM) on the audit report lag (ARL). In particular, it aims to discover whether the number of KAMs reported by an audit firm in Jordan is related to the length of its ARL.

The authors analysed data from the first three years of KAM reporting in Jordan (2017–2019) for 194 public listed Jordanian companies to examine the relation between the number of KAMs and the ARL, taking into account several control variables related to the Jordanian context.

This study found that there is no statistically significant relation between the number of KAMs reported by Jordanian audit firms and their ARLs, suggesting that the KAM reporting in Jordan is somewhat superficial, with the selection of what is actually reported as a KAM not directly related to the efforts needed to deal with its concerns. However, this study also found statistically significant positive relations between the ARL and each of audit fees, audit firm size, the issuance of a qualified audit opinion and company leverage and a statistically significant negative relation between the ARL and company profitability.

This is one of the very few studies to cover the potential relation between KAM reporting and the ARL. In a developing country context characterised by limited demand for an external audit of high quality, this study finds that auditors may decouple on their reporting of KAMs by not actually making significant efforts to deal with them.

The various factors influencing audit fees are still unclear, which may undermine the possibility of attaining fair audit pricing. Against this concern, this study aims to investigate the relationship between the auditee’s corporate characteristics and audit fees. In addition, it reveals if accounting comparability, as a proxy for financial reporting quality, mediates such a relationship by bringing evidence from an emerging market.

This study depends on data from nonfinancial companies listed on the Egyptian stock exchange from 2016 to 2019. It adopts multiple regression models to test the impact of corporate characteristics and accounting comparability on audit fees and uses path analysis to test the indirect effect of the audit clients’ characteristics on audit fees through accounting comparability.

The authors found a significant positive (negative) effect of firm profitability on audit fees (accounting comparability). Further, accounting comparability has a significant negative effect on audit fees. The authors also found that accounting comparability partially mediates the significant relationship between profitability and audit fees. However, the authors found no significant association between leverage and audit fees. Finally, the authors found that accounting comparability does not mediate the relationship between leverage and audit fees.

This study’s findings can benefit audit practitioners in Egypt by showing the main factors affecting audit fees, especially audit clients’ attributes. The current findings also guide professional bodies responsible for issuing accounting and audit standards regarding the importance of financial reporting quality for audit pricing decisions.

This study contributes to the literature by examining the mediating effect of accounting comparability concerning the corporate characteristics-audit fees relationship in developing African countries such as Egypt. This study’s findings can benefit audit practitioners in Egypt by showing the main factors affecting audit fees, especially audit clients’ attributes. The current findings also guide professional bodies responsible for issuing accounting and audit standards regarding the importance of financial reporting quality for audit pricing decisions.

Building defects are becoming recurrent phenomena in most high-rise buildings. However, little research exists on the analysis of defects in high-rise buildings based on data from real-life projects. This study aims to develop dashboards and models for revealing the most common locations of defects, understanding associations among defects and predicting the rectification periods.

In total, 15,484 defect reports comprising qualitative and quantitative data were obtained from a company that provides consulting services for the construction industry in Victoria, Australia. Data mining methods were applied using a wide range of Python libraries including NumPy, Pandas, Natural Language Toolkit, SpaCy and Regular Expression, alongside association rule mining (ARM) and simulations.

Findings reveal that defects in multi-storey buildings often occur on lower levels, rather than on higher levels. Joinery defects were found to be the most recurrent problem on ground floors. The ARM outcomes show that the occurrence of one type of defect can be taken as an indication for the existence of other types of defects. For instance, in laundry, the chance of occurrence of plumbing and joinery defects, where paint defects are observed, is 88%. The stochastic model built for door defects showed that there is a 60% chance that defects on doors can be rectified within 60 days.

The dashboards provide original insight and novel ideas regarding the frequency of defects in various positions in multi-storey buildings. The stochastic models can provide a reliable point of reference for property managers, occupants and sub-contractors for taking measures to avoid reoccurring defects; so too, findings provide estimations of possible rectification periods for various types of defects.