IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/plo/pone00/0338840.html

Moderating role of CEO expertise on the relationship between capital structure and financial reporting timeliness of Saudi-listed companies

Author

Listed:
  • Hamid Ghazi H Sulimany
  • Ehsan Almoataz
  • Adnan Ali
  • Faisal Faisal
  • Abdulrahman Atllah Alharbi

Abstract

In this study, we investigated the effect of capital structure on financial reporting timeliness with an interaction role of CEO financial expertise. Using the fixed effects technique, we analysed data from listed firms on the Saudi Stock Market between 2014 and 2023. Our results showed that capital structure choice through debt financing may significantly influence firms to reveal their audited accounts on a timely basis to signal their financial capabilities. Additionally, the results provide strong evidence that a CEO’s financial expertise may enhance the role of debt financing in reducing audit report delays, consistent with upper echelons and agency theories. The findings appear to be robust with the use of alternative measures, the COVID-19 effect and endogeneity control.

Suggested Citation

  • Hamid Ghazi H Sulimany & Ehsan Almoataz & Adnan Ali & Faisal Faisal & Abdulrahman Atllah Alharbi, 2026. "Moderating role of CEO expertise on the relationship between capital structure and financial reporting timeliness of Saudi-listed companies," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 21(3), pages 1-20, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:plo:pone00:0338840
    DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0338840
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0338840
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0338840&type=printable
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1371/journal.pone.0338840?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Mohamed A.K. Basuony & Ehab K.A. Mohamed & Mostaq M. Hussain & Omar K. Marie, 2016. "Board characteristics, ownership structure and audit report lag in the Middle East," International Journal of Corporate Governance, Inderscience Enterprises Ltd, vol. 7(2), pages 180-205.
    2. Hamid Ghazi H Sulimany, 2024. "Does Institutional Ownership Moderate the Relationship Between Audit Committee Composition and Audit Report Lag: Evidence From Saudi," SAGE Open, , vol. 14(2), pages 21582440241, April.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Hamid Ghazi H Sulimany, 2025. "Effect of environmental, social and governance performance on the financial reporting lag of Saudi listed companies," Humanities and Social Sciences Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 12(1), pages 1-8, December.
    2. repec:mth:ijafr8:v:9:y:2019:i:1:p:450-461 is not listed on IDEAS
    3. Abdullah Kürşat Merter & Gökhan Özer, 2024. "Audit Committee and Timely Reporting: Evidence From Turkey," SAGE Open, , vol. 14(1), pages 21582440241, March.
    4. repec:mth:ijafr8:v:9:y:2019:i:1:p:152-169 is not listed on IDEAS
    5. Beylem Çelik & Gökhan Özer & Abdullah Kürşat Merter, 2023. "The Effect of Ownership Structure on Financial Reporting Timeliness: An Implementation on Borsa Istanbul," SAGE Open, , vol. 13(4), pages 21582440231, November.
    6. Aref M. Eissa & Ahmed Diab & Arafat Hamdy, 2025. "Business Strategy and Auditor Report Lag: Do Board Characteristics Matter? Evidence from an Emerging Market," JRFM, MDPI, vol. 18(2), pages 1-20, January.
    7. Husaini, 2019. "The Substitution Role of Audit Committee Effectiveness and Audit Quality in Explaining Audit Report Lag," GATR Journals afr171, Global Academy of Training and Research (GATR) Enterprise.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:plo:pone00:0338840. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: plosone (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.