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The purpose of this paper is to examine the direct and interactive effects of audit service quality and audit market concentration on performance of public accounting firms in Taiwan.

Empirical data of this study come from registered public accounting firms in Taiwan, an industrial data. From the perspective of industrial economics and based on the structure-conduct-performance paradigm (Cowling and Waterson, 1976), this study use OLS to test the linear regression equation.

Empirical results indicate that both audit service quality and audit market concentration have positive effects on performance. The interaction terms between audit service quality and audit market concentration are positively related to performance.

This documents that human capital is the core resource in public accounting firms which could enhance performance through higher audit service quality under intense market competition. Specifically, facing increasingly competitive audit market, public accounting firms response to the hostile situation by employing auditors with higher educational level, more work experience, with professional licenses, and taking more continuing professional education.

Few previous researches consider the effects of either market concentration or audit service quality on firm performance. This study simultaneously examines the relation among audit service quality, audit market concentration, and performance of public accounting firms. With the results, this study contributes knowledge to human resource and quality management-related literatures.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate challenges facing auditing firms in designing and measuring their performance and discusses why and how the balance scorecard (BSC) could support the auditing firms overcome such challenges. The paper contributes to the existing literature by identifying the peculiarity of the auditing firms in designing and implementing performance measurement systems including the need for sound and advanced information systems, subjectivity embedded in measuring customer satisfaction, growth and success of the firms and restrictions imposed by regulations and auditing standards for the provision of non-audit services which may increase the firms’ revenues and profits to help maintain high-quality outputs. Also, the paper provided evidence for the use of non-financial measures in service industry in particular for customers and finance. The unique dilemma in the auditing firms to provide services to satisfy customers yet maintaining distance and independence from them represent an important research question requiring investigation and study.

A review of the literature for performance evaluation in general and in particular BSCs in service industries was made to identify challenges facing auditing firms when measuring their performance. Data were collected using case study approach; two auditing firms, one of the Big 4 and a medium size auditing firm with international affiliation operating in the Egyptian market were selected. Interviews, document analysis and participant observations were used in the analysis of each firm performance measurement system.

The paper suggests that major challenges face auditing firms in measuring their performance mainly the size of the firm and its affiliation with international auditing firm, the qualification and experience of partners and audit managers needed for the design and implementation of a BSC or similar performance measures, the resources required for the introduction of such performance measure and the peculiarity of the auditor and client relationship with the need to maintain independence and confidentiality while providing high-quality services. Although both auditing firms being studied have formal performance measurement systems, they differ in their degree of comprehensiveness. In particular, the performance measurement system of the larger firm is more elaborate than that of the smaller one and both place more emphasis on qualitative measures such as learning and growth and internal business processes than financial measures.

Overall, the results have implications for understanding the performance measurement process of auditing firms in general and in particular in an emerging economy such as Egypt. The identification of the challenges facing auditing firms in measuring their performance and how the implementation of BSC can help partners and employees to overcome those challenges will add to the literature for performance evaluation in service companies. Future research should be carried to compare and assess differences between the behavioural aspects of performance measures in auditing firms and possible application of BSC in such firms and those used in services industry. Also, the practicality of implementing a BSC measures for different auditing firms should be investigated further in future research.

The research among the first to investigate the challenges facing auditing firms in designing and operating a performance measurement system and to discuss, using case studies, how a BSC could support the auditing firms to overcome such challenges. Further, the research provides insights into performance measures in auditing firms in developing economies like Egypt which are sparse since most studies have been conducted in developed economies. Also, the paper enriches the literature of performance measurement systems in service rather than the manufacturing sector especially for medium and small size firms.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the impact of audit committee characteristics on firm performance. In particular, the authors employ the random-effects variant of the Hunter–Schmidt meta-analyze procedure to analyze the effects of key audit committee attributes, namely audit committee independence, audit committee expertise, audit committee size, audit committee meeting along with big four impact on firm performance. The authors hope to gain a better understanding of the function of audit committees in enhancing firm performance and to uncover potential discrepancies in prior findings due to varying economic levels or performance metrics.

This study uses the Hunter–Schmidt method to conduct a meta-analysis of 39 previous studies published between 2012 and 2022 to investigate the relationship between audit committee characteristics and firm performance.

The results indicate that audit committee independence, expertise, size and affiliation with the big four have a significant and positive effect on firm performance, while audit committee meetings have a non-significant effect. Furthermore, findings suggest that companies should carefully consider the contextual factors that may impact the effectiveness of their corporate governance structures, such as economic level, when designing and implementing governance mechanisms.

This study is significant as it is the first to combine and analyze previous research on this topic and highlights the importance of certain audit committee characteristics in enhancing financial reporting quality and corporate governance.

The purpose of this paper is to accentuate whether audit quality or other variables matter for the performance of companies in Greece.

This study examines the effect of audit quality on firm performance using data of 75 companies listed in the Athens Exchange in Greece and covering the period 2018–2021. Panel data analysis is applied. The independent variables are audit quality, the size of firms, their age, leverage, liquidity and efficiency ratios. Seven alternative measures of performance are used, including, among others, return on assets and return on equity. Stock returns and risks are used too.

The results provide evidence of a positive relationship between financial performance and audit quality. The opposite is the case for stock returns and risk. On the other explanatory variables, age has a clearly negative relationship with financial performance. The opposite is the case for liquidity and efficiency. The size factor also has some sort of a positive correlation with financial performance, whereas the opposite correlation concerns the leverage ratio.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study to examine the relationship between audit quality and firm performance with data from Greece.

This study aims to examine the link between boards and audit committees and firm performance in Kuwaiti listed firms in the context of recent and extensive corporate governance regulatory reform.

Panel data regression analysis with fixed effects and clustered standard errors of firm performance for 61–97 listed industrial and services firms in Kuwait over a seven-year period. The dependent variables are the returns on assets and equity, the debt-to-equity ratio and leverage and Tobin’s Q and the independent variables comprise board of directors and audit committee characteristics, including size, the number of meetings and the numbers of independent and outside board and expert committee members. Firm size, subsidiary status and cash flow serve as control variables.

Mixed results with respect to the characteristics of the board of directors. Board size and independent and outsider board members positively relate only to Tobin’s Q and insiders only to debt to equity. For audit committee characteristics, committee size, independence and expertise positively relate to the return on equity and committee size and expertise only to Tobin’s Q. Of the five performance measures considered, board and audit committee characteristics together best determine Tobin’s Q.

Data from a single country limits generalisability and control variables necessarily limited in a developing market context. Need for qualitative insights into corporate governance reform as a complement to conventional quantitative analysis. In combining accounting and market information, Tobin’s Q appears best able to recognise the performance benefits of good corporate governance in terms of internal organisational change.

The recent corporate governance code and guidelines reforms exert a mixed impact on firm performance, with audit committees, not boards, of most influence. But recent reforms implied most change to boards of directors. One suggestion is that non-market reform may have been unneeded given existing market pressure on listed firms and firms anticipating regulatory change.

Kuwait’s corporate governance reforms codified corporate governance practices already in place among many of its firms in pursuit of organisational legitimacy, and while invoking substantial change to audit committees, involved minor change to firm performance, at least in the short term. Some firms may also have delisted in expectation of stronger corporate governance requirements. Regardless, these direct and indirect processes both improved the overall quality of listed firm corporate governance and performance in Kuwait.

Seminal analysis of corporate governance reforms in Kuwait, which have rapidly progressed from no corporate governance code and guidelines to an initially voluntary and then compulsory regime. Only known analysis to incorporate both board of directors and audit committee characteristics. Reveals studies of the corporate governance–firm performance relationship may face difficulty in model specification, and empirical significance, given the complexity of corporate governance codes and guidelines, leads in changing firm behaviour and self-selection of firms into and out of regulated markets.

The purpose of this paper is to analyse the influence of audit committee characteristics and external audit quality on the performance of non-financial public limited companies listed on the National Stock Exchange 100.

One-way random effect panel data regression was applied to 74 non-financial firms in the Nifty 100 from 2014 until 2019. The overall audit committee index and external audit index were built based on the new Indian Companies Act, 2013 and on a review of the literature to capture the impact of the new Act on firm financial performance.

The outcome of the study revealed that there is lack of evidence to show that audit committee characteristics improve the performance of top Indian non-financial listed firms. However, external audit quality was found to have a significant positive impact on the financial performance of firms as measured by Tobin’s Q, while firm size and leverage were found to have a significant impact on the financial performance of firms as measured by return on assets and return on equity.

This paper will be greatly beneficial for financial practitioners and policymakers because it provides practical suggestions and recommendations about the types of external audit that are indispensable for the overall effectiveness and performance of firms. The study findings may also aid strategic policy formulation and execution for better corporate governance practices for the purpose of profit and wealth maximisation.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, to date, no previous research has evaluated the effects of audit committee features and external audit quality on the financial performance of firms in India after the implementation of the new Companies Act, 2013. Hence, this study fills this void in the present literature by examining the overall features of the audit committee and external audit and their impact on firm performance in the setting of India.

This study aims to investigate the effects of corporate board and audit committee characteristics and ownership structures on market-based financial performance of listed firms in Thailand.

It applies system GMM (generalized method of moments) as the baseline estimator approach, and ordinary least squares and fixed effects for robustness checks on a sample of 452 firms listed on the Thai Stock Exchange for the period 2000-2016.

Relying mainly on the system GMM estimator, the empirical results indicate some emerging trends in the Thai economy. Contrary to expectations for an emerging market and prior research findings, ownership structures, particularly ownership concentration and family ownership, appear to have no significant influence on market-based firm performance, while managerial ownership exerts a positive effect on performance. Moreover, as expected, board structure variables such as board independence; size; meeting and dual role; and audit committee meeting show significant explanatory power on market-based firm performance in Thai firms.

These findings are important for policymakers in constructing an appropriate set of governance mechanisms in an emerging market context, and for corporate entities and investors in shaping their understanding of corporate governance in the Thai institutional context.

Unlike previous literature on the Thai market, this study is the first to use the more advanced econometric method known as system GMM estimator for addressing causality/endogeneity issues in governance–performance relationships. The findings indicate new trends in the explanatory power of ownership structure variables on market-based firm performance in Thai-listed firms.

To maintain auditor independence, Section 201 of the Sarbanes–Oxley Act of 2002 (SOX) imposes restrictions on audit firms in rendering management advisory services (MASs) to audit clients. Responding to the requirement, audit firms establish a strategic alliance with consulting companies to expand their scope of services to alleviate the impairment of auditor independence. Taiwan follows the spirit of SOX in related laws and regulations. To investigate the effects of SOX on Taiwanese auditing industry, this study aims to examine the relationship between MASs and operating performance of audit firms.

This study obtains empirical data from the 1989–2017 Survey Report of Audit Firms in Taiwan, published by the Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC). FSC administers the survey across all registered audit firms annually to collect business information on the auditing industry for macro-economic analysis and industrial policy development. The authors group audit firms into three categories: national, regional and local firms. Based on the structure-conduct-performance (S-C-P) theoretical framework, this study establishes the following cross-sectional regression equation to test the authors’ hypotheses.

Main results indicate that national firms have better post-SOX firm and alliance performance. Both firm and alliance MASs contribute more to the performance of national firms after SOX.

This study claims that national firms establish alliance with consulting companies for resource sharing but regional and local firms for tax-saving.

Consistent with the economic theory of regulation and resource-based theory, SOX matters in Taiwan.

This study aims to assess the effect of director board and audit committee attributes and ownership structure on firm performance. In general, resource dependency and agency theories have underlined the superior performance of firms equipped with stronger Corporate Governance (CG) versus those of deficient governance. Concurrently, the study delineated the provisions of ownership structure provision, specifically foreign ownership and institutional ownerships, thus describing the component denoting the structural significance in explicating firm performance.

The current study implemented an empirical approach involving the construction of extensive CG measures thus, subjected to 81 non-financial firms listed on the Amman Stock Exchange spanning the period of 2014–2018.

The current study identified the positive and significant relationship between the board of directors and audit committee characteristics with the firm performance measures tested, namely, return on equity (ROE) and Tobin’s Q. In terms of ownership structure, both foreign and institutional ownerships yielded a significant and positive relationship with ROE. Meanwhile, Tobin’s Q led to an insignificant and negative relationship between both ownership types and firm performance measures.

The analytical outcomes substantiate the possibility of enhanced performance shown by growing global firms because of the implementation of CG mechanisms, specifically because of the practices resulting in minimised agency costs.

The current study offers novel evidence detailing the impact of CG effectiveness towards performance and its implementation in emerging markets following the minimal amount of scholarly efforts on the topic. It is a timely contribution towards the current understanding of the relationship linking governance and performance for the purpose of ensuring the adoption and imposition of a strong corporate governance code by the government.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relation between corporate social responsibility (CSR) and firm financial performance, and how audit quality moderates this relationship.

This study uses panel dataset of 200 French firms listed during 2007–2018 period. The direct and moderating effects were tested by using multiple regression technique.

The authors find that CSR has a positive impact on firm financial performance proxy with return on assets (ROA), return on equity (ROE) and Tobin's Q (TQ), suggesting that investment in social activities helps firms to achieve better financial results. The authors also find that the improvement effect of CSR on corporate financial performance is more pronounced for firms audited by Big 4 auditors.

One limit of this study is the selection of independent variables. We are limited to one variable, namely CSR engagement. Further studies may consider other independent variables, such as the age of the company, the type of industry, the composition of the board of directors, etc., in order to provide an in-depth analysis of corporate financial performance drivers.

The findings have practical implications that may be useful to managers in their management of the firm. They encourage all board members to seriously weigh investing in developing strategies that promote the social behavior components in order to improve overall corporate performance.

The research adds to the current literature on CSR by revealing the impact of external auditor quality on the CSR–financial performance relationship. In addition, it investigates not only the overall CSR ratings but also each of CSR dimensions, namely environmental, social and governance.