This study investigates how key audit matter (KAM) characteristics influence financial statement understandability and subsequent investor decision making. Using Structural Equation Modeling-Variance Based (SEM-VB) through Partial Least Squares (PLS), the analysis was conducted on a diverse global sample of investors from Europe, North America, Asia-Pacific, Africa, and Latin America. The results indicate that KAM accuracy, reliability, audit quality, and financial reporting quality significantly enhance perceived financial statement understandability, which in turn positively impacts investor judgments. The mediating role of understandability is confirmed, emphasizing its crucial influence on investors’ decisions. Additionally, an importance-performance map analysis (IPMA) identified KAM reliability and accuracy as the most critical factors. This study contributes to the theoretical and managerial understanding of audit practices and investor behavior.

This study investigates how audit quality moderates the effect of financial performance indicators on the stock returns of Amman Stock Exchange-listed firms (ASE). The panel data analysis selected the data of 95 ASE-listed firms from 2013 through 2021. This analysis demonstrates a significant inverse relationship between a company's book value and its stock returns. A statistically negative relationship was observed between cash flow, dividends per share, and stock return. The empirical results of this study confirm the moderating influence of audit quality in the relationship between financial performance and stock return. Firstly, auditor's fees have a significant impact on the relationship between firm stock returns and EPS, BV, DPS, and cash flows (CFO). The size of the auditing firm moderates the relationship between company stock returns and EPS, DPS, and the CFO, but not with book value (BV). The auditor's opinion moderates the relationship between business stock returns and EPS, BV, and DPS but not the relationship between firm stock returns and cash flows (CFO). The study suggests that regulatory bodies like the Companies Control Department (CCD) and ASE should make sure that local audit firms in Jordan improve their audit quality to be on par with the Big 4 audit firms in order to improve their financial performance measures and stock returns.

This study aims to present further evidence of cost stickiness by employing Selling, General, and Administrative (SG&A) costs. It also provides empirical evidence on the effect of audit committee meetings and audit quality on cost stickiness. The study used data from listed companies on the Saudi Arabian stock exchange during 2015–2019. Based on pooled panel data regression, the study proves that the SG&A costs are sticky. The results show the level of SG&A costs increases more with an increase in sales revenue (activity) while it decreases less with an equivalent reduction in sales revenue (activity). Also, this study finds that the frequency of audit committee meetings decreases the magnitude stickiness of SG&A costs, which supports the view that frequent meetings of AC significantly enhance its overseeing function and effectiveness. The study further reveals that audit quality “by BIG4 audit firms” is not related to reduced cost stickiness. This result implies that there is no difference in CS between companies audited by BIG4 or by non-BIG4. In general, the research highlights the importance of AC diligence (i.e., meetings) in improving its effectiveness and controlling management’s discretions affecting the cost structure in the context of sticky cost behavior.

The article aims at investigating whether audit quality impacts the relationship between ownership structure and dividends in companies listed on the Amman Stock Exchange (ASE). The article is constructed on the analysis of time-series–cross-section (TSCS) (Panel Data). The study sample comprises 34 companies listed on the Amman Stock Exchange between 2016 and 2021. The study sample’s content of the financial reports is analyzed to attain appropriate data for the study. The Findings indicate that family ownership and ownership of board members negatively impact dividends. In contrast, institutional ownership and concentrated ownership positively impact dividends, as no effect of foreign ownership is found on dividends. By introducing audit quality as a modified variable on the relationship between ownership structure and dividends, the findings demonstrate that audit quality positively enhances and strengthens this relationship. This article with its results is of great significance to future stockholders and shareholders, as they help in selecting companies capable of distributing higher dividends than other companies and achieving satisfactory investment returns. The findings of the study also focus on the significance of audit quality as a guarantor for regulating the relationship between forms of ownership structure and the distribution of dividends. This study is regarded among the little research investigating the factors that would impact the relationship between ownership structure and dividends. This article plays a key role in bridging the research gap related to the lack of studies dealing with the relationship between ownership structure and dividends in emerging markets.

This research tries to find a relationship between audit quality and audit software, impacted by the latter. In this study, multiple sentiments of audit professionals and finance executives on the relation of audit software and quality of audit in Kuwait are examined where, on the basis of agreed perspectives of professionals, it was found that audit software positively influences audit quality. This particular article tries to extend the previous works and emphasizes on the observation of audit professionals and their perspectives through a well-structured survey and semi-structured interviews. This study is to identify the distinctiveness of the audit industry in Kuwait comparing market size and available inadequate local auditors. The authors try to establish the relationship between audit quality and audit software considering the fact that acceptance of audits software will definitely give a more effective and robust audit process to cover market needs. The paper also considers the auditors’ training and experience as a moderating factor for the adoption and usage of audit software in auditing practices in Kuwait, resulting in useful insights on the effects of the adoption and use of auditing software in enhancing the quality of audit reports as well as suggesting resources for the use of technological developments in auditing practices. Thus, the study contributes to the extant literature on the dynamics for the adoption and usage of computerized systems in auditing practices to improve the quality of audit reports.

In today's dynamic business landscape, the audit profession encounters numerous obstacles, particularly in adapting to the necessity of computer-assisted audits due to the immense volume of data requiring scrutiny. Despite the emergence of different digital auditing tools, there is a gap in research regarding the level of adoption, and its effects on the quality of audit services especially in the context of developing countries. This study seeks to investigate the impact of digitalization of audit tasks on the quality of audit services of accounting firms in Nigeria. The study, which has its foundation on the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) integrated with the Technology, Organization, and Environment (TOE) framework, adopted the survey research design. The population of study was made up practitioners of accounting firms in Abuja and Lagos, Nigeria. A self-designed questionnaire was used as a tool for data collection for the study. Findings of the study indicate that automation of audit tasks enhances the quality of audit services suggesting that adopting IT infrastructures leads to more reliable audit procedures, improved efficiency and accuracy, as well as mitigating audit risks. Results also revealed that Big Four auditors are significantly ahead in the adoption of digital technologies compared to the non-Big Four auditors, confirming the dominance of larger accounting firms in application of emerging technologies in performing audit tasks.

The evolution of audit technology is changing the profession, but studies conducted in Kuwait and the GCC have remained ad hoc, tending to treat traditional audit software and AI analytics as two separate entities rather than as a unified technological trajectory. This research addresses that gap by analysing the interaction of these tools as a sequential process of improving audit quality. A mixed-methods design was employed, combining a structured survey of 219 auditors and finance executives with semi-structured interviews. Analysis proceeded through hierarchical descriptive tabulation, factor validation testing, structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM), bootstrapped mediation and moderation testing, incremental value analysis, and multi-group comparison. The findings demonstrate that audit software and AI analytics are complementary rather than competing technologies: software improves process efficiency and compliance foundations, while AI analytics extends these foundations through predictive risk capabilities and fraud detection maturity. Auditor expertise, targeted training, and organisational readiness significantly moderate both pathways. Adoption of both tools in combination produced the strongest gains in audit quality, and multi-group analysis revealed contextual differences across GCC firms. This paper makes three contributions. First, it provides empirical validation of a Sequential Adoption Model, demonstrating that audit software and AI analytics are complementary and sequentially ordered phases of a single audit technology trajectory. Second, it identifies auditor expertise, targeted training, and organisational readiness as key moderators of both pathways, and documents significant contextual differences between Kuwaiti and broader GCC firms. Third, it establishes a planning-phase boundary condition: AQF-based evidence from the GCC indicates that the planning dimension (AQF 2) remains the least effectively technology-supported phase even after sequential adoption, pointing to a phase-specific gap whose mechanisms are examined in complementary conceptual work.

This study develops and empirically tests a conceptual model that positions audit quality (AQ) as a direct driver of the financial integrity (PFI) of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Saudi Arabia and examines digital accounting (DA) as a mediating variable. Based on agency theory, signaling theory, and a resource-based firm perspective, we hypothesize that (i) higher audit quality improves PFI; (ii) reliance on DA enhances audit effectiveness; and (iii) the relationship between audit quality and an enterprise's financial integrity is partially mediated by DA. Using a multi-stage survey of 180 SMEs managers, auditors, and finance officers in Saudi Arabia SMEs, structural equation modeling (SEM) was employed to test the hypotheses. The results confirm a strong positive effect of application quality on PFI and reveal an indirect effect of DA. The findings underscore that digital accounting not only automates bookkeeping processes but also reshapes the audit process, enhancing the quality of audit evidence, enabling real-time monitoring, and focusing on risk. This study contributes theoretically to clarifying the complex interaction between audit quality, financial integrity, particularly in light of the rapid digital transformation of emerging markets. Practically, it offers valuable insights for Saudi policymakers, SMEs managers, and financial auditors on how to leverage audit quality and digital accounting in ensuring financial soundness and the successful implementation of Vision 2030 projects.

This paper performs an empirical investigation on the effect of audit quality on performance of companies listed in Hanoi Securities Trading Floor, Vietnam. For the purpose of the article, the study conducts a comprehensive analysis of data based on 228 companies listed on Hanoi Securities Trading Floor using software SPSS 22 and Smart PLS 3.0. The results indicate that audit quality positively impacted the financial performance of the companies listed on Hanoi Securities Trading Floor. The results also indicate that audit quality also positively impacted to customer loyalty and employee satisfaction. The study also provides some recommendations for the improvement of the audit quality in Vietnam.

This study is conducted to investigate the levels of factors influencing audit fees for clients of Vietnamese garment and textile firms. Data are collected from 186 auditors in independent audit firms in Vietnam. We use PLS analysis on Smart PLS 3.0 and test the scale’s reliability with Cronbach’s Alpha index and the total correlation on the software of SPSS 22.0. The results show that the characteristics of audit firm, customers, auditors, characteristics of the audit and the relationship between the audit firm and customers had positive effects on the audit fee. The moderate role of auditor's age, qualification in the relationship between the auditor's characteristics on the audit fee are also verified. The findings reveal that the higher level the auditors are, and the more experiences the auditors are, the higher the cost of audit fee is. The results of multi-group analysis between auditors and customers group show that auditors believed that the characteristics of customers had the strongest impact on audit fees, whereas the audited clients claim that the characteristics of audits had the strongest impact on audit fees.