Business strategy, Material Weaknesses of Internal Controls and Audit Report Delay

Firms follow different business strategies. Recent researches introduce two kinds of strategies called “prospector” and “defender” strategies. Organizational theory suggests that prospectors probably have weaker internal controls and more audit report delay than defenders. Hence, the main goal of this research is to examine this theory in firms listed in Tehran Stock Exchange. To measure the kind of business strategy, the study employs Rezaee et al. (2013) model and to recognize Material Weaknesses of Internal Controls it uses external audit reports like Munsif et al. (2012). The sample consists of 127 firms during 2012-2015. Findings imply that “prospector” firms have significantly weaker internal controls in audit report than defender firms. However, prospectors have fewer audits report delay than defenders. Findings of the first and second research hypotheses test confirm organizational theory and indicate that business strategy is a useful indicator for evaluating firms’ internal control strength. However, the findings of the third hypothesis test do not confirm this theory.