The role of audit committee attributes in enhancing financial reporting value relevance in Saudi Arabia

This study investigates how individual audit committee characteristics moderate the value relevance of financial reporting in Saudi Arabia–an emerging market with concentrated ownership and evolving governance structures. While prior literature often uses composite governance indices, this study addresses a specific empirical gap by disaggregating the roles of audit committee independence (ACIND), size, meeting frequency and financial expertise. It also contributes theoretically by extending agency and resource dependence perspectives to the context of institutional transitions under Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030 reforms. Using panel data from 125 non-financial firms listed between 2018 and 2022, the study applies a generalized linear model (GLM) to test whether these attributes strengthen the association between accounting measures (earnings per share [EPS] and book value per share [BVPS]) and firm valuation. The results show that ACIND and expertise significantly enhance the value relevance of earnings, while size and meeting frequency improve the relevance of both earnings and book value. These findings offer targeted implications for policymakers and corporate boards: strengthening ACIND and expertise can improve financial transparency, support investor confidence and align governance practices with international standards–key objectives under Vision 2030. The study’s context-specific insights should be interpreted cautiously when generalizing beyond non-financial firms in Saudi Arabia.