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Motivated by a recent call from DeFond and Zhang (2014) for auditing scholars to use “a richer set of audit firm, auditor office, and individual auditor characteristics to capture competency”, this study aims to extend the related line of research by examining the association between lead engagement partner workload, defined as the number of public listed clients the partner is in charge of, and audit lag. The moderating effects of partner tenure on the partner workload–audit lag relationship have also been examined.

The association between auditor workload and financial reporting timeliness on 651 non-financial firms listed on Bursa Malaysia is tested in this study. Data to compute the partner workload are based on 222 lead engagement partners who signed off the audit reports for all 892 public listed firms in 2013.

The busy auditors are observed to prolong audit lags, and the effect is more acute for non-Big 4 clients, busy season clients and a short partner tenure. The engagement partners with heavy workload can also mitigate the adverse effects of reduced audit report timeliness when they have a longer partner–client tenure.

This study may understate the level of engagement partner workload when partners have private firms in their client portfolios. Notwithstanding that, this study reiterates the growing importance of examining accounting and auditing outcomes at the individual partner level.

The findings that over-burdened engagement partner takes a longer time to complete the audit add to the current debate, where audit regulators and various stakeholders are actively promoting discussions on potential indicators of audit efficiency and quality.

This study provides new evidence on the association between partner workload and audit reporting lag, which has hitherto been unexplored. This study also extends the research carried out by Gul et al. (2017) and Sharma et al. (2017) by providing additional evidence on the relationship between partner tenure and audit delay.

The purpose of this study is to empirically examine the effect of board multiple directorships and chief executive officer (CEO) characteristics on firm performance among nonfinancial firms listed on the Palestine Security Exchange (PSE) during the period from 2009 to 2016.

Based on 200 observations, this study utilizes panel data to examine the effect of the predictors on firm performance measured by return on assets. The analysis is repeated using the return on equity and two regression methods to evaluate the robustness of the main analysis (pooled regression, and backward stepwise regression analysis).

The results show that the “busyness” of a CEO reduces their effectiveness and is associated with losses in the companies where they are in charge. On the other hand, the results show that CEO tenure, CEO experience and CEO political connections have a positive effect on corporate performance.

This study is timely given that the practice of multiple directorships is widely common among firms in developing countries. Prior research in Palestine has not investigated the role of multiple directorships and the CEO characteristics on corporate outcomes. This study provides a picture of the potential benefits to firms, policymakers and professional bodies from considering CEO variables. The findings of such an examination can help them to set up suitable policies and enhance the role and the quality of the CEO in firms.

Purpose – The purpose of this study is to examine the impact of corporate governance characteristics on audit report timeliness in Malaysia. The corporate governance characteristics examined are board independence, audit committee size, audit committee meetings and audit committee members' qualifications.

Design/Methodology/Approach – The sample comprises of 703 Malaysian listed companies from Bursa Malaysia, for the year 2009. It excludes companies from the finance-related sector as they operate under a highly regulated regime under supervision by the Central Bank of Malaysia. Further, regression analysis was performed to examine the audit report timeliness determinants.

Findings – Results show that audit report timeliness is influenced by audit committee size, auditor type, audit opinion and firm profitability. However, no association was found between board independence, audit committee meetings, audit committee members' qualifications and audit report timeliness.

Research limitations/Implications – It is a cross-sectional study of the year 2009. Practical implications for policy makers are consideration of the minimum submission period for audit reports Regulators' support for firms to have larger audit committee sizes is also discussed.

Originality/Value – The study investigates the impact of corporate governance on audit timeliness in light of the recent amendments to the Malaysian Code of Corporate Governance made in 2007.