Investigation the Relationshio between Audit Report Lag and Future Stock Price Crash Risk and the Effect of Internal Audit Performance on It

This study aimed to investigate the relationship between audit report delay and future stock price crash risk. It also aimed to investigate the effect of internal audit performance on the relationship between audit report delay and future stock price crash risk.

In order to measure the Internal Auditor Performance, the number of employees of the internal audit unit and the age of the internal audit unit was used. In this regard, data of 167 companies listed on the Tehran Stock Exchange between 2015 to 2020 were collected from Rahavard Novin, their financial statements, and the official website of the Tehran Stock Exchange and then analyzed using the multivariate regression.

The results showed that the audit report delay had a significant positive effect on the future stock price crash risk. A significant negative relationship was also observed between the effect of the size of the internal audit unit and the age of the internal audit unit on the relationship between the audit report delay and the future stock price crash risk.

An internal auditor can have a decisive role in adjusting the type, nature, and scheduling of the audit procedures and reducing the limitations of the independent audit procedures, and also improving reporting timeliness and reducing the stock crash risk.