The Implications of Ownership Structure and Audit Quality on Financial Reporting Quality: Evidence from Egypt

Abstract

Financial reporting reliability and accuracy are very crucial to evaluating the management's stewardship and making wise financial decisions, high audit quality supports the financial reporting quality (FRQ) and is an indicator of its accuracy. The ownership structure plays an important role in firm performance, offers regulators insights into how to enhance corporate governance, and helps firms become more efficient. This study explains how the audit quality and ownership structure can enhance FRQ and depict the business's financial position. The research sample is 40 nonfinancial firms listed in the Egyptian stock market (EGX) from 2018 to the year 2022. Results find an insignificant relationship between audit quality and FRQ. Results find that blockholder ownership has a significant positive impact, managerial ownership has an insignificant impact, and institutional ownership has a significant negative impact on financial statement quality. The model finds that board size has a positive significant relationship and firm size has a negative significant relationship with FRQ. This study contributes to the corporate governance and financial reporting literature and enlightens policymakers on the current situation regarding audit quality and current business pressures for profit maximization.