CEO power, audit quality and corporate financial performance evaluation criteria

The main purpose of this study is to investigate the relationship between CEO power, audit quality and financial performance evaluation criteria in listed companies in Tehran Stock Exchange. To measure the CEOchr('39')s power, a combination of the CEOchr('39')s duality criteria, CEO tenure and CEO ownership percentile was used and to measure the quality of audit, the audit fee criterion was used. Market value added, economic added value and growth opportunities have also been used to evaluate corporate financial performance. The research hypotheses were tested on the basis of statistical sample of 77 companies over a 10-year period from 2009 to 2018 using multivariate regression models and panel data alignment. The results show that there is a negative significant relationship between CEO power and economic value added and growth opportunities (ratio of equity market value to book value of equity). Also, there is a negative significant relationship between audit fees and economic value added and there is a positive and significant relationship between audit fees and growth opportunities. Finally, CEO power has a positive and significant moderating effect on the relationship between audit fees with economic value added and growth opportunities (the ratio of market value of equity to book value of equity).