CORPORATE CHARACTERISTICS AND AUDIT FEES: EVIDENCE FROM DISTRIBUTING FIRMS LISTED ON THE NIGERIAN STOCK EXCHANGE
Keywords:
Audits fees, Leverage, Firm size, Audit types, Profits, Board size, Board independenceAbstract
Around the globe, corporate units are connected about what informs the fees charged by audit firms for audit services. Many factors have been advanced by extant literatures but limited discussions exist on the relationship between ”audit firms and client” characteristics especially in Nigerian corporate sector. The objectives of this study is therefore to determine the influence of corporate socio-economic characteristics on Audit fees charged by distributive firms listed on the Nigerian Stock Exchange.
Panel analysis was adopted for this study. Secondary data, been extracts. From annual reports and accounts of sampled firms were employed for this work. Audit fees and corporate socio/economic characteristics proxied by firm size, leverage, firm type size, board size profitability and board independence were analyzed using Panel regression.
The study found appositive significant effect of firm size (FS), Audit firm Type (AUDTYPE), Board Independence (BDIND) and profitability (PROFIT) (B =17.2545; 7862.6861; 84246.5114, 0.0005, p > 0.0000) while leverage(LEV) and board size (BDSIZE) has negative effect on audit fees(B =19.5350, -23333.0214, p > 0.0000). The study recommended that audit client of distributive firms should focus on the management of the relationship between assets i.e. Audit fee without any significant negative effects on audits quality
