The relationship between audit quality and firm performance: the mediating effect of integrated reporting

Decision-makers in any organization require an audit to ensure the reliability of the information presented in the reports. This task is performed by a qualified person who meets specific and necessary criteria, such as experience, competence, and credibility. These qualifications are used in implementing the integrated report. The present work aimed to provide empirical evidence of the mediating effect of integrated reporting (IR) on the relationship between audit quality and company performance. Our sample included 36 French companies between 2012 and 2021. The structural equation model was used to analyze the data and test the hypotheses via STATA17 software. The empirical results show that IR quality plays a mediating role (complementary mediation) in the relationship between Big4 firms, auditors’ competence and experience, and the performance of French companies. However, it negatively mediates the relationship between auditors’ experience and performance in a complementary way.