Audit quality, firm performance and risk: evidence from Greece

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to accentuate whether audit quality or other variables matter for the performance of companies in Greece. Design/methodology/approach This study examines the effect of audit quality on firm performance using data of 75 companies listed in the Athens Exchange in Greece and covering the period 2018–2021. Panel data analysis is applied. The independent variables are audit quality, the size of firms, their age, leverage, liquidity and efficiency ratios. Seven alternative measures of performance are used, including, among others, return on assets and return on equity. Stock returns and risks are used too. Findings The results provide evidence of a positive relationship between financial performance and audit quality. The opposite is the case for stock returns and risk. On the other explanatory variables, age has a clearly negative relationship with financial performance. The opposite is the case for liquidity and efficiency. The size factor also has some sort of a positive correlation with financial performance, whereas the opposite correlation concerns the leverage ratio. Originality/value To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study to examine the relationship between audit quality and firm performance with data from Greece.