Board characteristics, auditing characteristics and audit report lag in African Central Banks

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Henry Chalu
Keyword(s):  
Audit Committee ◽  
Audit Quality ◽  
Gender Diversity ◽  
Central Banks ◽  
Audit Report ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Independent Variables ◽  
Board Characteristics ◽  
Mediating Variables ◽  
Board Gender Diversity

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to examine the determinants of audit report lag in Sub-Saharan African Central Banks. In this case, the determinants were divided into two categories: independent variables and mediating variables. The independent variables, which were generated from board characteristics, included board size, board gender diversity, governor duality, audit committee size and audit committee meetings. The mediating variables were auditing characteristics and they comprised audit mandate, audit approach and audit quality.Design/methodology/approachThe study used data from 192 observations from African Central Banks' financial reports for the period 2000–2016. The data collected were analyzed using path analysis, whereby four regression models were run and tested simultaneously. From the analysis, the study determined total effects and then decomposed the total effects into direct and indirect effects.FindingsThe study results indicate that in the case of board characteristics, governor duality and audit committee size were found to have a positive influence on audit report lag. In the case of audit quality, only audit mandate was found to have a negative influence on audit quality in the Central Banks. However, the introduction of mediating variables increased the positive effect of governor duality and audit committee size, while also making board size and board gender diversity have a significant negative effect on audit report lag.Practical implicationsThe findings of this paper have implications for the practice and policy of the auditing and governance of Central Banks, which includes designing appropriate governance structures as well as proper auditing strategies.Originality/valueThis is the first study which has examined factors influencing audit report lag in Central Banks. Previous studies on Central Banks' governance have examined the independence and autonomy of the Central Banks, as well as their accounting. This paper extends prior studies by examining the effects of those factors. Another contribution is the study's application of auditing characteristics as mediating variables.

scholarly journals The Relationship Between Board Characteristics and Environmental Disclosure: Evidence from Turkish Listed Companies

2016 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 7-19 ◽  
Author(s):  
Halil Emre Akbas
Keyword(s):  
Audit Committee ◽  
Gender Diversity ◽  
Annual Reports ◽  
Environmental Disclosure ◽  
Board Size ◽  
Independent Variables ◽  
Board Characteristics ◽  
And Gender ◽  
Board Gender Diversity ◽  
The Relationship

Abstract This study primarily aims to analyze the relationship between selected board characteristics and the extent of environmental disclosure in annual reports of Turkish companies, using a sample of 62 non-financial firms listed on the BIST-100 index at the end of 2011. The content analysis is used to measure the extent of environmental disclosure. Four board characteristics, namely board size, board independence, board gender diversity and audit committee independence, are considered as the independent variables that may have an impact on the extent of the environmental disclosures of Turkish companies. According to the results of the regression analysis, only board size has a statistically significant and positive relationship with the extent of environmental disclosure. This result implies that firms with larger boards disclose more environmental information than firms with smaller boards. On the other hand, the rest of the independent variables are found to be unrelated to the extent of environmental disclosure. The low degree of independence and gender diversity on the boards of the sample companies for the time period analyzed in the study could be one possible explanation for this result.

scholarly journals Corporate governance and dividend pay-out policy in UK listed SMEs

2017 ◽  
Vol 25 (4) ◽  
pp. 459-483 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mohamed H. Elmagrhi ◽  
Collins G. Ntim ◽  
Richard M. Crossley ◽  
John K. Malagila ◽  
Samuel Fosu ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Corporate Governance ◽  
Fixed Effects ◽  
Audit Committee ◽  
Gender Diversity ◽  
Negative Relationship ◽  
Corporate Board ◽  
Board Size ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Board Gender Diversity ◽  
Alternative Investment

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine the extent to which corporate board characteristics influence the level of dividend pay-out ratio using a sample of UK small- and medium-sized enterprises from 2010 to 2013 listed on the Alternative Investment Market. Design/methodology/approach The data are analysed by employing multivariate regression techniques, including estimating fixed effects, lagged effects and two-stage least squares regressions. Findings The results show that board size, the frequency of board meetings, board gender diversity and audit committee size have a significant relationship with the level of dividend pay-out. Audit committee size and board size have a positive association with the level of dividend pay-out, whilst the frequency of board meetings and board gender diversity have a significant negative relationship with the level of dividend pay-out. By contrast, the findings suggest that board independence and CEO role duality do not have any significant effect on the level of dividend pay-out. Originality/value This is one of the first attempts at examining the relationship between corporate governance and dividend policy in the UK’s Alternative Investment Market, with the analysis distinctively informed by agency theoretical insights drawn from the outcome and substitution hypotheses.

Gender diversity on audit committees and its impact on audit fees: evidence from India

2019 ◽  
Vol 32 (4) ◽  
pp. 568-586 ◽  
Author(s):  
Seema Miglani ◽  
Kamran Ahmed
Keyword(s):  
Audit Committee ◽  
Audit Quality ◽  
Gender Diversity ◽  
Audit Fees ◽  
Ordinary Least Squares ◽  
Audit Committees ◽  
Women Directors ◽  
Least Squares Regression ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Financial Expert

Purpose The purpose of this study is to examine the relationship existing between gender diverse (women directors) audit committees and audit fees. Design/methodology/approach The authors use a sample of 200 listed Indian firms over a four-year period (2011-2014). Ordinary least squares regression is used to assess whether and how the presence of women directors on audit committees affects the fee paid to the external auditor in India. To deal with the self-selection bias, the authors use a two-stage model developed using Heckman’s (1976) method. Findings The results show a significant positive relationship between the presence of a woman financial expert on the audit committee and audit fees after controlling for a number of firm-specific and governance characteristics and potential endogeneity with the propensity-matching score analysis. From the demand-side perspective of audit pricing, the results indicate that women financial experts on audit committees increase the need for assurance provided by external auditors. Using interaction terms, the authors find that women with financial expertise on an audit committee have a stronger association with audit fees as entity becomes more complex. Research limitations/implications The findings suggest that audit committees with women financial experts are likely to demand higher audit quality, ceteris paribus. Practical implications Gender of the financial expert is critical to the audit committee’s effectiveness. The findings of this study have implications for the composition of an audit committee in a firm. Originality/value This study contributes to the extant literature by examining the less-researched topic of the association between the women representation on audit committees and audit fees. It also offers further empirical evidence that will influence the debate on the importance of gender diversity in corporations.

New insights into the nexus between board characteristics and intellectual capital disclosure: the case of the emerging economy of Mauritius

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Oren Mooneeapen ◽  
Subhash Abhayawansa ◽  
Dinesh Ramdhony ◽  
Zainab Atchia
Keyword(s):  
Intellectual Capital ◽  
Stock Exchange ◽  
Gender Diversity ◽  
Annual Reports ◽  
Small Island ◽  
Board Members ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Board Characteristics ◽  
Multiple Directorships ◽  
Board Gender Diversity

PurposeWe investigate the association between intellectual capital disclosure (ICD) and board characteristics in the unique setting of Mauritius, a Small Island Developing State. The uniqueness of the setting stems from the country's corporate governance landscape, where most companies have female directors and a high proportion of directors with multiple directorships, director independence is symbolic and directors come from a close-knit group.Design/methodology/approachWe use 120 firm-year observations from companies listed on the Stock Exchange of Mauritius from 2014 to 2017. All data is hand collected from annual reports using content analysis method. Panel multivariate regression is used to test the hypotheses with relevant controls, including intellectual capital performance.FindingsICD is negatively associated with board independence and positively associated with gender diversity of the board. No association is found between ICD and the size of the board, multiple directorships or the average tenure of the board members.Originality/valueThis is the first study investigating the association of board gender diversity, multiple directorship and tenure of board members with ICD in annual reports. The relationships observed between board characteristics and ICD highlight the context-dependent nature of these relationships. This study also overcomes the correlated omitted variable bias likely to have affected the analyses in previous studies examining the nexus between board characteristics and ICD through its control for intellectual capital performance.

Corporate governance and sustainability reporting quality: evidence from Nigeria

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Olayinka Erin ◽  
Alex Adegboye ◽  
Omololu Adex Bamigboye
Keyword(s):  
Corporate Governance ◽  
Audit Committee ◽  
Gender Diversity ◽  
Reporting Quality ◽  
Sustainability Reporting ◽  
Board Governance ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Listed Firms ◽  
Board Gender Diversity

Purpose This study aims to examine the association between corporate governance and sustainability reporting quality of listed firms in Nigeria. Design/methodology/approach The authors measure corporate governance using board governance variables (board size, board independence, board gender diversity and board expertise) and audit committee attributes (audit committee size, audit expertise and audit meeting). The authors measured sustainability reporting quality using a scoring system, which ranges between 0 and 4. The highest score is achieved when sustainability reporting is independently assured by an audit firm. The lowest score refers to the absence of sustainability reporting. The study emphasizes 120 listed firms on Nigeria Stock Exchange using the ordered logistic regression technique. Findings The results indicate that board governance variables (board size, board gender diversity and board expertise) and audit committee attributes (audit committee size, audit expertise and audit meeting) are significantly associated with sustainability reporting quality. Additional analysis reveals that external assurance contributes to the quality of sustainability reporting through corporate governance characteristics. Research limitations/implications This study is restricted to a single country. Future studies should consider a cross-country study, which may help to establish a comparative analysis. Likewise, the future study could consider other regression techniques using a continuous measurement of the global reporting initiative in measuring sustainability reporting quality. Practical implications This study’s findings have important implications for policymakers and practitioners, especially the corporate executives and top management. Companies are encouraged to restructure their board to enhance better monitoring and support towards better sustainability reporting. Social implications Disclosure on sustainability reporting helps corporate organizations advance the issues of sustainability both nationally and globally. Originality/value This current study adds to accounting literature by examining how corporate governance contributes to sustainability reporting practices within the Nigerian context. Drawing from the result, the study provides strong interconnectivity between the corporate board and audit committee in driving sustainability reporting quality within an organizational context.

Effects of other comprehensive income on audit fees and audit report lag in Egyptian firms: does board gender diversity matter?

2022 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Tariq H. Ismail ◽  
Karim Mansour ◽  
Emad Sayed
Keyword(s):  
Gender Diversity ◽  
Audit Fees ◽  
Equation Model ◽  
Small Sample ◽  
Audit Report ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Comprehensive Income ◽  
Other Comprehensive Income ◽  
Board Gender Diversity ◽  
The Relationship

PurposeThis paper aims to (1) investigate the effect of other comprehensive income (OCI) on audit fees (AF) and audit report lag (ARL) and (2) test the moderating effect of board gender diversity (BGD) on such relationships.Design/methodology/approachThis paper uses data extracted from the financial reports for a sample of Egyptian firms from 2013 to 2019, where the data are processed using the Panel Corrected Standards Errors (PCSE) and the Structure Equation Model (SEM).FindingsThe results reveal that (1) the OCI existence and OCI volume have a significant positive effect on AF and ARL, and (2) the presence of female directors on the board and the percentage of female representation affect the relationship between OCI and AF positively, but this effect on the relationship between OCI and ARL is insignificant.Research limitations/implicationsThis paper has some limitations, where the analysis uses a small sample of Egyptian listed firms, as well as, the measures that were used as proxies of the study variables, which do not necessarily express the most suitable ones.Practical implicationsThe results of this paper would (1) provide signals to the audit market, the professional bodies in Egypt and stakeholders about the determinants of AF and ARL, (2) provide guidelines that support the capital market authority to consider gender diversity in boards of companies taking into considerations its impact on AF and ARL, and (3) help the accounting setters in emerging economies as Egypt in drafting more suitable standards and guidelines regarding OCI.Originality/valueThis paper adds to the literature on OCI, where it investigates the effect of OCI on ARL, which was not yet studied in prior studies. Also, this paper complements and extends the literature by providing empirical evidence from one of the emerging markets as Egypt about the effect of BGD on the relationships between OCI, AF and ARL, as these relationships have not been examined before.

scholarly journals Agency and institutional-related factors and the heterogeneity of sustainability and integrated report information disclosures in Kenya

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Geoffrey Injeni ◽  
Musa Mangena ◽  
David Mathuva ◽  
Robert Mudida
Keyword(s):  
Audit Committee ◽  
Gender Diversity ◽  
Equation Model ◽  
Annual Reports ◽  
Integrated Reporting ◽  
Related Factors ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Promotional Efforts ◽  
Board Gender Diversity

Purpose This paper aims to examine the factors influencing the level of disclosures of sustainability (SR) and integrated report (IR) information in a developing country context, with particular reference to Kenya. Design/methodology/approach The study uses a panel data set of 419 firm-year observations of listed companies in Kenya covering the period 2010 through 2018. Data are collected from the annual reports and analysed using a generalized estimations equation model. Findings The results reveal that there is momentum towards newer reporting frameworks in Kenya with substantial IR and SR disclosures in their annual reports. The results also show that level of SR and IR disclosures is influenced by both agency-related factors (board gender diversity, audit committee independence, block ownership and the presence of foreign ownership). Additionally, institutional-related factors (regulatory pressure and promotional efforts of regulatory and professional bodies [reporting excellence awards]) influence the disclosures. Practical implications The results highlight that initiatives such as those led by the regulatory and professional bodies in Kenya are effective in motivating companies to enhance disclosures. Thus, regulators and professional bodies might need to continue and even intensify their efforts. These results have implications for further research as they show that SR and IR disclosures are influenced by similar factors. Social implications The study has the potential to contribute to the ongoing initiatives and discussions on the adoption of IR by firms in Africa as spearheaded by the African Integrated Reporting Council. Originality/value To the best of the knowledge, the study is, perhaps, the first to examine both SR and IR disclosures at the same study allowing comparison of the extent and drivers of the two disclosures. Moreover, examining the institutional-related factors in a single country has not been done in prior literature, and so this is an innovation.

Female audit committee directorship and audit fees

2020 ◽  
Vol 35 (3) ◽  
pp. 398-428 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yosra Mnif Sellami ◽  
Imen Cherif
Keyword(s):  
Audit Committee ◽  
Audit Quality ◽  
Gender Diversity ◽  
Audit Fees ◽  
Audit Committees ◽  
Women Directors ◽  
Initial Finding ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Female Directors ◽  
Demographic Attributes

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine the association between female audit committee representation and audit fees, taking into account their demographic attributes. Design/methodology/approach Research hypotheses have been tested by performing both univariate and multivariate analyses based on a sample of 790 firm-year observations from Swedish listed firms, spanning the period 2013-2017. Findings Initial finding derived from the empirical analyses provides consistent evidence of a positive association between female audit committee representation and audit fees. Controlling for self-selection bias, this finding holds unchanged. Therefore, female directors are voluntarily appointed to the companies audit committees. Including demographic attributes of women directors sitting in audit committees in the audit fees, models show that increased audit fees is driven by the level of female directors’ professional experience rather than their mere representation. Results from supplementary analysis document that the positive relationship between female audit committee representation and audit fees is more pronounced when the partner in charge of the audit engagement is a female, indicating that women presence on both the demand and supply-side of audit pricing enhance audit quality more importantly than when women are present on only the demand-side position of audit fees. Originality/value This study extends beyond recently published literature on the relation between audit committee gender-diversity and audit fees by offering a novel insight on demographic attributes of female directors enabling them to demand higher quality audits, as reflected by increased audit fees.

Impact of board characteristics on governance, environmental and ethical disclosure

2020 ◽  
Vol 15 (3) ◽  
pp. 273-295 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hanen Khaireddine ◽  
Bassem Salhi ◽  
Jabr Aljabr ◽  
Anis Jarboui
Keyword(s):  
Gender Diversity ◽  
Generalized Least Squares ◽  
Board Independence ◽  
Environmental Disclosure ◽  
Board Size ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Board Characteristics ◽  
Panel Regressions ◽  
Mandatory Adoption ◽  
Board Gender Diversity

Purpose The purpose of this study is to investigate how board characteristics impact the governance, environmental and ethics disclosure. Board characteristics such as board size, gender diversity, board independence, CEO/chair duality and board meeting are included. Design/methodology/approach This study is based on a sample of 82 companies listed in the SBF120 between 2012 and 2017. A number of econometric techniques are used such as generalized least squares to test the panel regressions. Findings Board independence, board gender diversity and board meetings have a positive and significant influence on governance, environmental and ethics disclosure. Board size is positively and significantly associated only with corporate environmental disclosure. The adoption of Global Reporting Initiatives (GRI, G4) has not affected or biased the corporate governance (CG), environmental and ethics disclosure. Originality/value This study adds to the literature on management reporting behavior and ethics and contributes to the extant CG literature by offering new evidence on the disclosure of good CG practices as well as environmental and ethics behavior. This study offers new insights about the potential influence of board characteristics on such specific disclosure practices focusing “during the optional period of GRI4 and after their mandatory adoption”.

Corporate governance compliance and accrual earnings management in eastern Africa

2018 ◽  
Vol 33 (2) ◽  
pp. 171-191 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nelson M. Waweru ◽  
Ntui Ponsian Prot
Keyword(s):  
Corporate Governance ◽  
Earnings Management ◽  
Capital Markets ◽  
Audit Quality ◽  
Stock Exchange ◽  
Gender Diversity ◽  
Eastern Africa ◽  
Annual Reports ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Board Gender Diversity

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine whether compliance with corporate governance (CG) requirements has constrained earnings management (EM) for companies listed in Kenya and Tanzania. Design/methodology/approach The sample comprises of 48 companies listed on the Nairobi Stock Exchange and the Dar es Salaam Stock Exchange. The data are collected from annual reports over the period 2005-2014, a total of 480 firm-year observations. Panel data models are used in the analyses. Findings The results show that discretionary accruals (DAs) average about 11.3 per cent, whereas audit quality is negatively and significantly related to DAs. However, board independence, board gender diversity and director share ownership were positively and significantly related to DAs suggesting that CG may not have constrained EM in eastern Africa. Research limitations/implications The findings should be understood within the context that only annual reports and audited financial statements that were filed with Capital Markets Authority (Kenya) and Capital Markets and Securities Authority (Tanzania) are used as source of information. Originality/value The study potentially contributes in three main ways. First, this is the first cross-country analysis that has examined the effect of CG structures on EM in an African context. Second, literature on CG and EM has been extended. Finally, the authors have extended research by observing the limitations of CG in reducing EM in an environment that is experiencing weaknesses in CG structures.

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