The Mediating Effect Of Internal Audit Sourcing On The Relationship Between Audit Committee Effectiveness And Earnings Management: Evidence From Oman

Abstract

The results of the surveys conducted in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) in 2007 and 2010 provide evidence on the existence of fraud and it is expected to increase over time. Therefore, it is vital to study the role of internal corporate governance to reduce this fraud. The objective of this study is to examine the mediating effect of internal audit sourcing on the relationship between audit committee effectiveness and earnings management. To achieve this objective, three main relationships are examined, namely, the relationship between audit committee effectiveness and earnings management, the relationship between audit committee effectiveness and internal audit sourcing and the relationship between internal audit sourcing and earnings management when controlling for audit committee effectiveness. The theoretical framework of these relationships depends on the agency theory and resource dependence theory. This study uses the panel data method and includes Omani non-financial listed companies. The sample of the study is 370 firm-year observations for the period of 2008-2012. The discretionary accruals by Modified Jones Model 1995 and discretionary revenue by Stubben (2010) were used to measure earnings management. Further, six audit committee characteristics are used to create the audit committee effectiveness measure.