Does corporate governance assurance decrease the agency conflict? The role of auditor opinion: Evidence from an emerging market

Objective: This paper aims to examine the impact of corporate governance (CG) internal mechanisms on the external auditor opinion regarding the assurance of corporate governance report
Design and Methodology: The sample used in the current research incorporates all companies listed in EGX from the period 2018 till 2020. The final sample comprises all corporate governance reports, management reports and auditors’ reports in the covered period with 550 observations. Statistical analysis is performed using multivariate regression through performing logistic regression as it fits the dichotomous dependent variable.
Findings and Recommendations: The results revealed a positive significant relationship between audit committee existence, audit committee independence and auditors’ opinion. Further, CEO rule duality and executives in audit committee were found to have negative insignificant impact on auditor opinion. Finally, board independence was found to have positive insignificant impact on auditors’ opinion. Future research can focus on the impact of the auditor report on CG on stock prices and the cost of capital.
Originality and Value: To the best of author knowledge, the current research represents an early attempt to investigate the impact of corporate governance internal, mechanisms and its impact on auditors’ opinion. This contribution extends and enrich the existing corporate governance and auditing literature.