The Impact of Environmental Uncertainty on the Relationship between Standards Quality, Accounting Estimations Quality and Share Prices: An Empirical Study

This study investigates the impact of environmental uncertainty (EU) on the relation between standards quality and accounting estimations quality (AEQ) and explores the impact of the interaction between EU and AEQ on stock prices. The study uses the quality of accounting regulations and the quality of the application of financial reporting standards as proxies of the quality of standards. The study also uses both auditing quality and chief executive officer (CEO) reputation as proxies for financial reporting standards application quality, and discretionary accrual as a proxy for AEQ. Data were collected from 107 companies registered on the Saudi Arabia Stock Exchange over seven years (from 2015 to 2021) and provides four empirical findings. First, AEQ was not significantly affected by the adoption of international standards (International Financial and Reporting Standards and International Auditing and Assurance Standards) instead of Saudi accounting and auditing standards. Second, there was a significant and direct association between audit quality and AEQ. On the other hand, the reputation of the CEO did not have a significant effect on AEQ. Third, in response to increasing EU, the reputation of the CEO and audit quality had a significant effect on enhancing AEQ. Finally, the interaction between the intensity of EU and AEQ was reflected in a firm’s share price.