Purpose This study is motivated by the competing views on whether internal governance mechanisms complement or substitute for external auditing, and how this association is affected by ownership concentration. The complementary view predicts that good internal governance mechanisms are related to high-quality audit. On the other hand, corporate governance mechanisms may be substituted for each other, so more investment in governance mechanisms leads to less investment in external auditing. Therefore, this study aims to examine the association between internal governance mechanisms and the demand for audit quality. Design/methodology/approach Data from Malaysian listed companies during the period 2009 to 2012 are used. Ordinary least square (OLS) regression is applied to analyse the data. Findings Companies with a higher concentration of ownership are less likely to demand extensive auditing. In addition, the study provides supporting evidence for the complementary association between a company’s governance and audit fees. However, the ownership concentration plays a minor role in the positive association between internal corporate governance and audit quality. Further tests are conducted and support the main findings. Practical implications Significant implications are provided for the audit profession in emerging economies, where concentrated ownership is common, to help policymakers and regulators in determining the power of controlling shareholders on audit quality and firm’s governance. The study’s findings open up avenues for further research. Originality/value This is the first work to address the role of ownership concentration in the association between corporate governance and audit quality; it suggests that the ownership structure must be considered in examining the effectiveness of corporate governance. The study also provides a comprehensive combination of internal governance mechanisms.

Purpose This study is motivated by the lack of internal audit function (IAF) research and by the call for research on the impact of dominant owners such as family shareholders on audit fees and the demand for audit quality. This study aims to examine the impact of the IAF budget on the selection of industry-specialist auditors and on audit fees, particularly in companies with family-controlled shareholders, a feature unique to Malaysia. Design/methodology/approach Data of Malaysian-listed companies during the period 2009-2012 are used. To examine the relationships, logit and ordinary least square regressions are used. Several additional analyses are conducted to assess the robustness of the main results, including alternative measures of specialist auditor and family ownership, endogeneity problems and self-selection bias. Findings The results show that the IAF budget is positively related to hiring industry-specialist auditors and audit fees. However, family companies are less likely to support the positive association between IAF costs and engage specialist auditors than non-family companies. In addition, a complementary association between the costs of IAF and audit fees for both family and non-family companies was found. Finally, the results show that there is a negative association between family ownership and the ratio of IAF costs to audit fees, suggesting that family companies rely more upon external auditing than internal auditing. Originality/value The contribution of this study is to provide an empirical evidence about the tradeoff between IAF and both industry-specialist auditors and audit fees with considering the moderating impact of family-ownership shareholdings. This issue is yet to be examined, and it provides implications for policymakers and practitioners, as it offers insights into the importance of investing in IAF toward hiring industry-specialist auditors and pricing the audit services.

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This study examines the impact of board meeting frequency on the firm performance of the firms listed on the Amman Stock Exchange from industry and service sectors for the 2009-2013 period. The study controls for endogeneity and simultaneously problems using the dynamic panel technique of Generalized Method of Moments (GMM). The findings of the study suggest that a positive association between the frequency of corporate board meetings and firm performance. This suggests that through meetings, board members determine operational issues through discussing and engaging with each other frequency meetings enhancing the decision making process, and consequently the performance of the firms. The findings also show that lagged dependent variable in the estimation model is important in explaining the relationship, which further indicates the appropriateness of the estimation models in our study. This study provides insightful evidence to policy makers on the effectiveness of the of the 2009 Code of Corporate Governance

This study examines the occurrence of fraud and identifies the prevention programs in place at the State and Local Government entities in Malaysia. Issues related to fraud are of interest due to the frequent coverage by the media which has affected public confidence. The findings suggest that fraud is a significant problem, and the main causes of fraud are poor management practices and economic pressure. Interestingly, the study finds that, in most cases, management did not take firm action against the culprits when they were caught and found guilty. Most fraud incidents were discovered through the internal audit review, employee notification and accidental discovery. The findings also reveal that most of these entities did not have effective policies and procedures for dealing with fraud.