Factors Affecting the Number of Audit Committees Meetings

The Audit Committee, as one of the corporate governance oversight committees in listed companies, has become a very important factor in the financial reporting process to increase the credibility of financial reports. Therefore, the audit committee needs to hold meetings to perform its duties, and so far Limited research has been done to examine the factors affecting the number of meetings of the audit committee. This study sought to investigate factors influencing the number of meetings of the audit committees held in companies enlisted in the Tehran Stock Exchange (TSE). This study specifically aims to examine whether the number of meetings of the audit committees is affected by factors such as ownership concentration, board size, board independence, audit committee size, audit committee independence, and audit committee financial experience.

Accordingly, the financial statements of 150 companies enlisted in the TSE during the eight-year period from 2013 to 2020 were analyzed. To test the research hypotheses, Tobit regression model with combined data method and random effects method was used.

Testing the research hypotheses showed that the concentration of ownership, size of the board, independence of the board, size of the audit committee,</em> and independence of the audit committee have a significant positive effect on the number of meetings of the audit committees. The results also showed that the financial expertise of the audit committees has a significant negative effect on the number of their meetings.

The results indicated with increasing ownership concentration want more supervision over managers' performance and the number of audit committee meetings increases. In addition, any increase in the size of the board, the independence of the board, the size of the audit committee, and the independence of the audit committee as criteria for corporate governance increases the number of meetings of the audit committee. This is while any increase in financial expertise of the members of the audit committee, ends in a decrease in the need to convene the number of meetings of the audit committee.