The Impact of Auditor Characteristics on Key Audit Matters Disclosure in Indonesian Listed Companies

Selfiah Kusumawati (Faculty of Economics and Business, Universitas Airlangga, Surabaya, Indonesia)
Novrys Suhardianto (Faculty of Economics and Business, Universitas Airlangga, Surabaya, Indonesia)

Jurnal Dinamika Akuntansi dan Bisnis (JDAB)
Vol. 12 No. 2 (2025): September 2025

This study examines the impact of external auditor characteristics on the disclosure of Key Audit Matters (KAM) in the Indonesian context. The
characteristics considered include audit fees, educational background,
gender, the size of the certified public accounting (CPA) firm, and auditor
experience. Employing a quantitative approach, the study analyzed 1,383
IDX-listed companies from 2022 to 2023 using multiple linear regression
with fixed effects to control for industry and year variations. The results
indicate that CPA firm size has a significant negative effect on KAM
disclosure, suggesting that companies audited by Big 4 firms tend to
disclose fewer KAMs. In contrast, audit fees, education, gender, and
auditor experience show no significant effects. These findings suggest
that the complexity and scale of the audited company, together with the
audit policies of the CPA firm, play a more decisive role in determining
the extent of KAM disclosure than individual auditor characteristics.