THE ROLE OF BIG 4 AUDIT FIRMS IN THE REDUCTION OF AUDIT REPORT DELAY IN SAUDI ARABIA: EMPIRICAL EVIDENCE

Hassan, Waddah Kamal; Nabil Ahmad, Senan; Khaled Salmen, Aljaaidi; Ghassan Saeed, Bagulaidah

مجلة إضافات إقتصادية
Volume 2, Numéro 2, Pages 250-272
2018-09-01

The Role Of Big 4 Audit Firms In The Reduction Of Audit Report Delay In Saudi Arabia: Empirical Evidence

Authors : Hassan Waddah Kamal . Nabil Ahmad Senan . Khaled Salmen Aljaaidi . Ghassan Saeed Bagulaidah .

Abstract

This paper examines whether audit quality is associated with audit report lag. We posit that hiring a Big 4 audit firm reduces external audit report lag. Data was obtained from 82 listed companies in Saudi Stock Exchange (Tadawul) for the year 2013. An OLS regression analysis shows that, audit quality is associated negatively with shorter audit report lag. The outcomes of this study have significant implications to the auditor independent issues in the setting of Saudi Arabia.