Abstract

This study aims to investigate the association between audit report lag and audit quality for the Saudi listed non-financial firms in 2018. By measuring audit quality withaudit reputation and audit firm specialization, the findings indicate that Saudi listed firms take on average, 74 days to issue their audit reportfrom the end of balance sheet date to the signed audit report date. Moreover, the empirical findings illustrate that audit reputation, audit firm specialization, and Audit committee financial expertise are associated negatively at different significant levels. Based on the limited literature examined audit reputation, audit firm specialization and audit committee in the Saudi environment, the current study would add a contribution by exploring the impact of such factors on audit report lag in one of the Gulf countries, namely Saudi Arabia.

Key words: audit report lag, audit quality