Role of Mediator of Abnormal Audit Report Delay in Explaining Relationship between Earnings Quality and Firm Value

Since investors react to delay in presentation of financial statements by firms, and this leads to reconsidering their investment locations, this study concentrated on empirical investigation of the role of mediator of abnormal audit report delay in explaining the relationship between earnings quality and firm value. In this study a sample of 98 companies listed in the Tehran Stock Exchange, in the period 2004-2014, was selected.
This study is an applied research and uses the structural equation model to test the hypotheses. The results, after passing tests, suggested that there is significant negative relationship between earnings quality and abnormal audit report delay. Also, the results indicated that there is significant negative relationship between abnormal audit report delay and firm value. Additionally, the role of mediator of abnormal audit report delay was confirmed in explaining the relationship between earnings quality and firm value. Therefore, it could be concluded that poor quality of earnings leads to increase in audit report delay, and this leads to a negative adjustment (decrease) in firm value by investors.