National University of Malaysia

About: National University of Malaysia is a education organization based out in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Population & Heat transfer. The organization has 26593 authors who have published 41270 publications receiving 552683 citations. The organization is also known as: NUM & Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia.

Audit committee characteristics in financially distressed and non‐distressed companies

Abstract: Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate whether there is any difference in the characteristics of an audit committee between financially distressed and non‐distressed companies listed on the Bursa Malaysia (formerly known as the Kuala Lumpur Stock Exchange). Financial distress among big companies is a sign of weak corporate governance, of which the audit committee is one of elements. Four characteristics of the audit committee being examined are size, independence, activity, and accounting knowledge.Design/methodology/approach – The sample comprises 73 financially distressed and the matched pair of 73 financially non‐distressed listed companies. The financially distressed companies have been suspended from the listing under the provision of the practice note 4 (PN4) of the listing requirements.Findings – Results show that financial distress of companies has a significant negative association with financial literacy of the audit committee and the quality of external audit.Research limitations...