Investigation of the relationship between independent audit firm change and the timeliness of financial statements: A research on BIST-100 companies

In the decisions to be made through financial statements, the fact that the information is reliable, understandable and verifiable, as well as timely, is an important criterion for the users of the financial statements. The aim of this study is to examine the relationship between the change of independent audit firms and the timeliness of financial statements in the sample of Turkey. For this purpose, 468 firm/year data obtained from non-financial institutions in the BIST 100 index between 2016-2021 are analyzed with the least squares method and fixed effects model. The research results of the study indicate that there is a statistically significant and positive relationship between the independent audit firm change and the delay time of the financial statements according to the least squares method. However, the findings obtained from the fixed effects model of the study show that although there is a positive relationship between the change of independent audit firm and the delay time of the financial statements, this situation is not statistically significant. Keywords: Independent audit, audit firm change, timeliness of financial statements