Corporate Governance, Firm Characteristics and Audit Quality: Evidence from Thai Listed Companies

Abstract

This paper examines the impact of corporate governance mechanisms and organization
characteristics on audit quality. Secondary data was collected from annual registration statements
(Form 56-1) and financial statements. The samples included 1,188 firm-year observations of Thai
listed Companies from 2015 to 2017. Descriptive statistics and a binary logistic regression were used
to analyze the data and test the hypothesis. Corporate governance variables were composed of
board size, foreign board, board independence, board education, and audit committee size. Firm
characteristics variables consisted of firm size, debt ratio, and firm profitability. In this research, the
audit firms big 4 were used as the audit quality.
The results revealed that foreign board, board education, firm size, and firm profitability have
positive effects on audit quality. On the other hand, the evidence shows that board independence
and audit committee size have negative effects on audit quality. All in all, the results suggest that
corporate governance mechanisms are important for a firm’s audit quality.