CEO Power, Family Ownership and Audit Fees: Analysis of Alignment and Entrenchment Theories

According to the of alignment and entrenchment theories, the CEO power may lead to a reduction audit fees by increasing the earning quality and reducing audit risk, or through opportunistic earnings management and fraudulent financial reporting can lead to increased agency problems and audit risk, and ultimately to increased audit fees. Therefore, the purpose of the this study is to investigate the relationship between CEO power and audit fees and study the moderating effect of family ownership on this relationship with respect to alignment and entrenchment theories. To test the research hypotheses, the financial information of 88 companies listed on the Tehran Stock Exchange in the period between 2012 to 2019 has been used. The results of statistical tests show that there is a negative and significant relationship between CEO power and audit fees. In addition, the results showed that family ownership also moderated and exacerbated the relationship between CEO power and audit fees.