Do Characteristics of Audit Firm Affect Timeliness of Audit Report? Empirical Evidence from China

This study´s mainly purpose is to investigate whether characteristics of audit firm can affect timeliness of audit report base on empirical evidence from stock market of China. The characteristics we think that may have significant effects on timeliness of audit report are audit firm size, industry specialization and audit opinion. In this paper we use audit report lag to measure timeliness of audit report. The sample we used includes 4899 observations from 2009 to 2011 based on listed companies of Shanghai and Shenzhen stock exchange. The empirical evidence from China doesn´t support the argument that firms audited by large audit firms have shorter audit report lag. Companies audited by audit firms with industry specialization don´t have shorter audit report lag either. But we find that the audit report lag is significantly longer for firms which: (1) have bigger size, (2) report negative net income, (3) have smaller unexpected earnings, (4) receive qualified audit opinion.