The Effect of Audit Committee, Audit Delay, and Audit Capacity Stress on Big Four Auditor Choice of Consumer Non-Cyclical Sector Companies Listed on the Indonesia Stock Exchange in 2021-2024

Abstract

This study examines the effect of audit committee, audit delay, and audit capacity stress on Big Four auditor choice as a proxy for audit quality. The research is motivated by financial reporting vulnerabilities, where publicly listed companies obtaining unqualified audit opinions continue to experience reporting failures and regulatory trading suspensions. Focusing on the consumer non-cyclical sector on the Indonesia Stock Exchange during 2021–2024, purposive sampling yielded a balanced panel of 82 firms (328 observations). The empirical analysis employs binary logistic regression using secondary data from annual reports and the Indonesian Institute of Certified Public Accountants directory. The model explains 54.5% of auditor choice variance (Nagelkerke R Square = 0.545). Specifically, audit committee (B = -0.084, OR = 0.920, p < 0.001) and audit delay (B = -0.084, OR = 0.920, p < 0.001) exert significant negative effects, whereas audit capacity stress has a significant positive effect (B = 1.988, OR = 7.301, p < 0.001). These findings indicate that audit committees balance governance compliance with cost efficiency, while Big Four auditor selection is driven by reporting timeliness demands and auditor reputation under workload compression.