AN ANALYSIS OF THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN AUDIT COMMITTEE CHARACTERISTICS AND THE LEVEL OF ASSURANCE OF THE SUSTAINABILITY REPORT. CASE STUDY FOR COMPANIES LISTED ON THE BUCHAREST STOCK EXCHANGE
AN ANALYSIS OF THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN AUDIT COMMITTEE CHARACTERISTICS AND THE LEVEL OF ASSURANCE OF THE SUSTAINABILITY REPORT. CASE STUDY FOR COMPANIES LISTED ON THE BUCHAREST STOCK EXCHANGE

Author(s): Mihaela Neacsu, Iuliana Eugenia Georgescu
Subject(s): Economy
Published by: Editura Universităţii »Alexandru Ioan Cuza« din Iaşi
Keywords: audit committee; sustainability report; assurance
Summary/Abstract: Our study aims to examine the effects of audit committee characteristics on the voluntary external assurance (SRA) of sustainability reports or annual activity reports for 59 companies listed on the Regulated market of the Bucharest Stock Exchange (BSE), in the Premium, Standard, and Int’l categories, between 2018 and 2022. Using regression analysis, we found that audit committee independence and financial expertise are inversely related to the level of SRA, and the size and frequency of audit committee meetings significantly and positively influence SRA. Based on these findings, we believe that an increase in companies’ focus on improving audit committee characteristics would have a positive effect on the quality and credibility of sustainability reporting. Note that our study is for the first time investigating the potential links between the quality of the audit committee and the voluntary external assurance of sustainability reports in the case of Romanian companies.

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