Corporate governance and reporting quality of accounts in China-listed firms. A moderating role of ownership pattern

Financial reporting quality is critical for businesses, stakeholders, and government to ensure transparency and accountability. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationship between corporate governance, financial reporting quality, and ownership structure as a moderating factor for Chinese stock exchange-listed firms. Quantitative data of 550 listed firms from 2012 to 2022 are collected from the annual reports. For investigating the relationship between variables, panel data analysis with random and fixed effect models is used. Our results show that corporate governance’s different attributes such as Auditor brand name, Existence of an audit committee, independent board, family ownership, and profitability have a significant negative impact on the audit report lag that decreases the lags and increases the financial reporting quality in China listed firms. Auditor opinion, Board diligence Board size, and CEO duality have a significant positive impact on the audit report lag that increases the lags and decreases the financial reporting quality of China-listed firms. Furthermore, our findings show that ownership concentration has no moderating effect between corporate governance, different attributes, and financial reporting quality. Family ownership, on the other hand, has a strong moderating effect between corporate governance characteristics and financial reporting quality. However, due to limitations, this study provides the opportunity for future research on corporate governance mechanisms in different cultures and environments. Moreover, this study has some important implications for investors, policymakers, and government.