Audit committee

This paper investigates the variability of real business activities in the form of discretionary expenditures (accounts receivable, selling, general and administrative expenses, and net change in accruals), and the firm’s stock price performance concerning the frequency of meeting or beating analysts’ earnings forecast. Also, the study investigated the relationship between the firm’s stock price performance and the variability of these financial statement accounts. The objective was to examine if these selected financial statements of accounts could be used by management to manipulate earnings in order to meet and/or beat analysts’ earnings forecasts so as to enhance the firm’s stock performance. The study found that there is a significant difference between the variance of SG&A, NCA and stock returns of the firms that meet and/or beat the analysts’ forecast and those that do not. It was also found that there is a significant difference in stock returns based on meeting and/ or beating the analysts’ estimate.

In recent financial scandals, related parties transactions (RPTs) have been as one of the major concerns, so that the targeted use of these transactions and lack of their disclosure or insufficient disclosure are some of the factors in the failure of the corporates. In RPTs, there is a risk that the related party may be favoured with terms that could harm the interests of the company’s shareholders. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of different types of related parties transactions on the firm value with the moderating role of the audit committee incorporates listed in Tehran Stock Exchange. The research statistical sample consists of 100 listed firms in the Tehran Stock Exchange in 6 years of 2013-2018. This research, based on the nature and content, is a descriptive/ correlational research. Using Panel data and multiple regression, the results of the research show that there is a negative relationship between RPTs and the firm value. The findings also show that there is a positive relationship between the audit committee and the firm value. Also, the findings show that different types of RPTs have a different effect on the firm value. The results also show that the audit committee does not affect the relationship between RPTs and the firm value. 

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the role of political instability in the context of the association between board of directors (BOD) and audit committee (AC) quality as indicators of corporate governance effectiveness and earnings management (EM). The non-financial listed companies on the Palestine Exchange (PEX) between the period from 2011 to 2018 were the samples of the study. Based on the OLS regression results by using a panel data of 232 observations, the findings show that the BOD quality is positively related to EM, while AC quality is negatively associated with EM. The results also reveal that political instability plays a moderating role by weakening the relationship between the AC quality and EM during the severe unstable political situation, while the BOD quality is negatively associated with EM under the same situation. This finding implies that the BODs might substitute ACs under severe political instabilities to protect the stockholders and stakeholders’ interests. Unlike most previous studies, this article addresses political instability as a moderating variable for the relationship between the BOD and AC quality as a composite measure of EM in the most emerging and smallest stock market in the region. The results of this work may assist the regulatory bodies, policymakers, and practitioners in revising the corporate governance code to promote the efficiency of the BOD and AC monitoring functions for the purpose to improve the faithfulness and reliability of financial reports and also to deter the management from engaging in critical levels of EM.