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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 nature of corporate governance (CG) mechanisms in an entity may influence the timeliness of the audited annual report. The purpose of this paper is to argue that the “quality” of CG in a firm has a significant association with the time it takes the audited annual report and financial statements to be released.

Using a set of 543 firm-year observations over the period 2007–2016, the authors examine whether a validated CG-Index is associated with audit report delay (ARD). The authors employ both granular as well as aggregated approaches to the analyses. In addition, the authors include control variables known to have an association with ARD in the panel data regressions.

The findings, which are robust for self-selection among other checks, reveal that financial expertise in the audit committee, board size, board meetings and independence in the board are associated with longer ARDs. Some CG attributes such as board diversity (i.e. women and different nationalities in the board) are associated with improved timeliness of the annual reports. The results also reveal that a longer tenure for independent directors in the board is associated with a shorter ARD. Overall, the authors find that the composite CG score has a positive influence on the timeliness of annual reports.

The study focuses on listed companies in one developing country. Additional studies focusing on other jurisdictions could yield more results.

The study is useful in highlighting those CG characteristics firms should focus on toward the attainment of timely corporate reporting to aid in decision making by users.

The study is unique since it emphasizes the importance of focusing on an aggregate CG-Index, and the contribution of the CG-Index toward the timeliness of annual reports.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the association between audit committee effectiveness and timeliness of reporting. Specifically, the paper investigates whether there is any relationship between effectiveness of an audit committee and submission of audited financial statements to the Indonesian Stock Exchange (IDX).

Audit committee effectiveness is measured by an index based on the framework developed by DeZoort et al. Timeliness of reporting is defined as the number of days that elapses between a company's financial year‐end and the day on which its audited financial statement is received by the IDX. The sample comprises 211 non‐financial Indonesian listed companies. Multivariate regression analysis was performed to analyse the relationship between audit committee effectiveness and timeliness of reporting.

The findings show that timeliness of reporting is associated with audit committee effectiveness. This result suggests that audit committee effectiveness is likely to reduce the financial reporting lead time, i.e. the time taken by companies to publicly release audited financial statements to the stock exchange.

The audit committee effectiveness index employed in this study was based on DeZoort et al.'s framework. There could be other aspects of audit committee effectiveness such as the organizational context or multiple‐directorship which had not been addressed in the present study. Thus, future research may consider and examine these other aspects in developing a more comprehensive index.

The findings suggest that audit committee effectiveness is a significant factor ensuring timely submission of audited financial statements. Thus, companies perhaps can re‐look into how to further improve audit committee effectiveness in order to enhance timeliness of financial reporting.

Unlike the majority of prior studies which investigated the association between the presence/absence of audit committee and timeliness of reporting, this study is one of few which examined the relationship between effectiveness of audit committee and timeliness of reporting in an emerging country.

The purpose of this study is to examine the extent of audit report lag and its association with governance mechanisms in the Islamic banking institutions in Malaysia.

The extent of audit report lag is defined by the number of days from a company’s financial year-end to the signature date on its audit report. The sample of the study comprises 112 observations of Islamic banking institutions’ financial reports for the period 2008-2014. A balanced panel data analysis is performed to analyse the association between the extent of audit report lag and governance mechanisms.

The findings show that the extent of audit report lag for the sample selected ranges from a minimum period of 7 days to a maximum period of 161 days, and the extent of audit report lag is approximately two months on average. A fixed effects analysis indicates that audit committee expertise and audit committee meeting have significant association with the extent of audit report lag. On the other hand, board independence, audit committee size and Shari’ah board expertise have insignificant association with the extent of audit report lag. In addition, one control variable (Islamic bank size) is found to be significantly associated with longer audit report lag.

The findings provide useful feedback for Malaysian policymakers on the past and current practices of financial reports and of governance mechanisms. The findings of the study would help the policymakers in monitoring the Islamic banking institutions’ compliance with financial reports submission requirements. The policymakers perhaps could relook into governance mechanisms that reduce the extent of audit report lag in the Islamic banking institutions and implement regulations to strengthen them.

Unlike the majority of prior studies that investigated the association between the extent of audit report lag and governance mechanisms, this study provides two contributions. First, to the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first piece of research that examined the association between governance mechanisms and the extent of audit report lag in Islamic banking institutions. Second, the study examined the association of new governance variable, namely, Shari’ah committee expertise which has not been previously examined in the literature of audit report lag.

The purpose of this paper is to empirically examine the relation between two dimensions of auditor quality, namely, auditor industry specialization and auditor reputation and the audit report lag.

The data collection focuses on companies listed on the Indonesia Stock Exchange for the financial year of 2010 and 2011. To ensure data homogeneity and reduce industry bias, this study focuses solely on manufacturing companies identified by the Indonesian Capital Market Directory.

This study finds a negative and significant association between industry-specialist auditors and audit report timeliness. Companies audited by industry-specialist auditors have shorter audit delays. The authors also find evidence that Big 4 auditors perform significantly faster audit work than their non-Big 4 counterparts. In addition, this study reports a statistical and significant relationship between auditing complexity, companies’ profitability, auditors’ business risk, and industry classification and audit report lag. The results show that firms with a large number of subsidiaries and firms experiencing poorer financial performance are found to be associated with longer reporting delays. Moreover, audit report timeliness is found to be faster for companies in the low-profile industry sector and owned by family members.

Similar to other empirical investigations, this study is not without certain caveats. First, the period of audit report lag in this study reflects the audit work from the year-end to the audit report date. The authors do not consider audit work conducted outside this period in the analysis. Second, there are numerous control variables and although the authors have attempted to capture those variables to maintain the integrity of the research there are likely other excluded variables that may be important in explaining audit report timeliness. Finally, there are other factors, for example, an administrative approval process with the audit firm home office, which can affect audit report lags but have not been included in the model analysis. Future studies can seek to focus on refinements to the proxy measures for dependent and experimental variables.

Insights drawn from this study may be of assistance to policy makers as they consider the costs and benefits associated with varying levels of audit market concentration as well as providing a snapshot of the level of non-compliance on audit timeliness in Indonesia.

This study provides further empirical evidence on the relation between auditor quality and audit report lag using data from a different domestic setting. This study also enriches the auditor quality literature by employing industry-specialist and Big 4 auditors as a predictor for the timeliness of audit reports.

This paper aims to examine the influence of corporate governance mechanisms on audit delay in companies listed on the Kuwait Stock Exchange (KSE) in 2013. Kuwait has the unusual audit regulation that listed companies must be jointly audited by two independent auditors who both sign the report.

Audit delay is measured as the number of days that elapse between the end of the company’s financial year and the date of the audit report. A multivariate regression model analyzes the association between audit delay and six corporate governance mechanisms, namely, joint auditor combination, board size, board independence, role duality, institutional ownership and government ownership.

There is a wide range in audit delay among KSE companies, ranging from 7 to 159 days. After controlling for various company characteristics, there is a significant difference in the timeliness of audit reports depending on the combination of auditors: audit delay is significantly reduced when the audit is performed by Big-4 companies. Moreover, companies with larger boards, a greater number of independent directors and separate CEO–chairman roles are more likely to produce timely financial statements. Higher government ownership levels were associated with greater audit delay, while no significant association was found for institutional ownership. These results are robust to a variety of sensitivity checks.

The findings highlight the effectiveness of corporate governance mechanisms in shaping the timeliness of audit reports; thus, these mechanisms should be taken into account in any regulatory action to reduce audit delay. In addition, the findings of this study provide empirical evidence that can be used by regulators and enforcement bodies in their continued campaigns promoting the role and importance of corporate governance mechanisms in improving the quality and timeliness of financial reporting.

The study extends the audit delay literature by investigating the issue in a joint audit setting. The empirical evidence shows a wide range of audit delay in KSE-listed companies, which raises questions about the costs and benefits of the joint audit regulation for the length of this period.

This study aims to investigate the relationship between Chief Executive Officer (CEO) characteristics and audit report lag (ARL) in Egypt, an emerging economy characterized by high power distance and a culture of secrecy. The study utilizes a theoretical framework that integrates agency theory, stewardship theory, and upper echelons theory as the foundation for examining this relationship.

The sample consists of 587 firm-year observations from non-financial firms listed on the EGX100, covering the period from 2012 to 2019. The primary variable of the study (ARL) is measured using different proxies. The analysis utilizes both Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) and logistic regression models, with additional analysis considering CEO power and using board gender diversity as a moderating variable.

The study finds that CEO characteristics significantly affect ARL, demonstrating a negative association between CEO ownership, founder status, family ties, duality and ARL. These findings remain robust after a series of tests using alternative measures. Additional analysis reveals that CEO power is negatively and significantly related to ARL. Interestingly, the negative association between CEO characteristics and ARL is more pronounced in boards without female members.

Although extensive research has been conducted on the factors determining ARL, few studies have examined the impact of CEO characteristics on ARL, particularly in emerging economies such as Egypt. The business environment in Egypt is characterized by high power distance and a secretive culture, providing a unique context for this study.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate whether there is any relationship between the effectiveness of an audit committee and the financial reporting timeliness of Tunisian listed companies as proxied by external audit delay (AD). Analysis focuses on five audit committee characteristics: authority, financial expertise, independence, size and diligence.

Empirical tests address 162 firm-year observations drawn from Tunisian listed companies during 2011-2013.

Multivariate analyses indicate that audit committees with members who have financial expertise are significantly associated with shorter AD. Thus, the results suggest that audit committee financial expertise contributes to the improvement of financial statements’ timeliness.

The audit committee attributes examined in this study were based on DeZoort et al. (2002) framework. There could be other aspects of audit committee effectiveness such as audit committee tenure and audit committee chair characteristics, which were not addressed in the present study. Thus, future research may consider and examine these other components of audit committee effectiveness.

Findings have managerial implications. Companies can re-look into how to further improve audit committee composition in order to enhance the timeliness of financial reporting. The issues of audit committee effectiveness and timely reporting also affect regulators and policy makers since they need to play a role in the establishment of effective audit committees and the improvement of financial reporting timeliness.

This study is one of few that have examined the impact of audit committee effectiveness on ADs in an emerging market country. Findings lend credence to the belief that audit committee members’ financial expertise enhances the quality of financial reporting by firms in a North African market criticized for the lack of maturity of its corporate governance system (Klibi, 2015; Fitch Ratings, 2009).

This paper aims to examine whether audit committee ownership affects audit report lag. Independent audit committees are responsible for overseeing the financial reporting process, to ensure that financial statements are both credible and released to external stakeholders in a timely manner. To date, however, the extent to which audit committee ownership strengthens or compromises member independence, and hence, influences audit report lag, has remained unexplored.

This paper hypothesizes that audit committee ownership is associated with audit report lag. Further, the author hypothesize that both the financial reporting quality and the going concern opinions of a firm mediate the effect of audit committee ownership on audit report lag.

Using data from Australian listed companies, the author find that audit committee ownership increases audit report lag. The author further document that financial reporting quality and modified audit opinions rendered by external auditors mediate this positive relationship. The results are robust to endogeneity concerns emanating from firms’ deliberate decisions to grant shares to the audit committee members.

The study contributes to both the audit report timeliness and the corporate governance literatures, by documenting an adverse effect of audit committee ownership.

This study examines joint audits’ impact on financial statement timeliness in emerging markets in Kuwait.

We use a sample of nonfinancial firms listed on the Kuwait Stock Exchange from 2000 to 2020.

We find that joint audits are significantly negatively associated with financial statements’ timeliness. This suggests that firms employing two auditors (joint audits) issue their financial statements in relatively shorter periods. Our results are robust and consistent with our initial findings, even after assessing the impacts of the Big 4, profitability and firm size on them.

The findings show that mandating joint audits decreases audit report lag (ARL). We recommend that regulators and policymakers consider the potential implications of removing mandated joint audits, such as longer ARL.

This study contributes to the limited literature on joint audits and timeliness by exploring their relationship in the context of listed nonfinancial firms in an emerging market. The findings contribute to the ongoing debate about the costs and benefits of joint audits by showing the improvement of financial reporting timelines. Our findings assist regulators and policymakers in determining whether to implement or abolish joint audits.