Impact of Audit Firm Characteristics on Audit Quality: A Study of Business Sustainability Strategy

The aim of this paper is to investigate the impact of audit characteristics such as, audit firm size, audit fees, non-audit fees and audit firm age on Audit Quality (AQ) of the Malaysian Listed Companies. The research design of this study is quantitative analysis based on the secondary data and the unit of analysis is the organizational level. This study employs a cross‐sectional regression analysis of 201 firms listed on Bursa Malaysia. Smart-PLS were used to estimate the relationships proposed in the hypothesis. Overall, the finding shows that, audit fee, non-audit fee and audit firm size does have a positive significant with AQ. Unexpectedly, the audit firm age has a negative effect on AQ. This research contributes to audit literature by growing the academic ‘s knowledge. Further, the study fill-up the gap in literature by provides empirical evidence on the seldom-used audit firm age as one of the audit firm characteristics. This study could be benefits policymakers, especially the Malaysia Institute of Accountants (MIA) to come up with more policies that can enhance the AQ. Moreover, this study also could help the shareholder and management as a guide on which audit characteristics that they need to focus on a better understanding of financial reporting quality.