KAMs Reporting and Financial Performance: Empirical Evidence from Thai Listed Companies

This study seeks to investigate Key Audit Matters (KAMs) reporting of Thai listed companies in Thailand, and examines the influence of KAMs reporting on corporate financial performance. Data were collected from 180 companies listed in Thailand during 2016 to 2018, which accounted to 540 annual reports. KAMs reporting was quantified by content analysis from the audit reports, while financial performance and corporate characteristics were collected from the corporate annual reports. Descriptive analysis and multiple regressions were performed to analyze the data. The study results reveal that there was an increasing of KAMs reporting in audit report of listed companies in Thailand in terms of both number of issues and number of words across the observed period. The regression analysis indicates that was a significant and negative influence of words counted as KAMs reporting on financial performance, while there was no influence of KAMs reporting issue on the performance. Moreover, there was a negative relationship between corporate complexity and financial performance, while audit type had a positive correlation with financial performance. This study shows significant contribution on the implication of KAMs in an emerging economy and the role of KAMs as a communication device between auditor and stakeholders.