earnings management, firm performance, financial distress status and disclosure on corporate social responsibility.
None so far has assessed them with conservative accounting. According to a survey performed by Ismail and
Abdullah (1999), 73% of the financial analysts agreed with the notions that conservatism can improve earnings
quality and it is influenced by the audit committee. However, the study did not provide empirical evidence on the
association between audit committees and conservatism. Even if empirical evidence is available, it is mainly from
developed countries. For instance, UK studies done by Beekes, Pope and Young (2004) which focused on the
board composition; US studies by A. S. Ahmed and Duellman (2007) which examined several characteristics of
the board of directors whilst Krishnan and Visvanathan (2008) illustrated attributes of the audit committee in
addition to those the board of directors. Thus, there is a need to identify whether their results are applicable in
Malaysia, especially for studies on UK firms, since the Malaysian code on corporate governance largely follows
the UK code.