The Impact of Key Audit Matters Disclosure on Audit Report Complexity and its Reflection on Investment Decisions:An Experimental Study

This paper aims to investigate the direct and indirect impact of key audit matters disclosure on investment decisions toward stocks when using audit report complexity as a mediator variable. The paper relied on an experimental study of a sample consisting of 100 master students as non-professional investors. The results show that when using structural equation modeling (SEM), first, there is a significant positive effect of the disclosure of key audit matters on investment decisions. That is, disclosing key audit matters encourages investors to increase their investments in stocks. Second, there is a significant positive effect of the disclosure of key audit matters on the complexity of the audit report. That is, disclosing key audit matters increases the complexity of the audit report. Third, there is a significant negative effect of the complexity of the audit report on investment decisions. That is, the complexity of the audit report makes investors more likely to reduce their investments in stocks. Fourth, there is a significant negative indirect effect of the disclosure of key audit matters on investment decisions toward stocks when using audit report complexity as a mediator variable. This means that investors tend to reduce their stock investments when the disclosure of key audit matters increases the complexity of the audit report. Additional tests (the Mann-Whitney test and the PROCESS tool) confirm the main results. The results of this research contribute to providing useful information to investors, different groups of stakeholders, and professional organizations about the negative impact of the complexity of the audit report on the relationship between disclosure of key audit matters and investment decisions.