The role of big 4 audit firms in the reduction of audit report delay in Saudi Arabia : empirical evidence

الملخص EN

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