Influence of Audit Committee Characteristics on Voluntary Ethics Disclosure

This study examines the influence of audit committee characteristics on voluntary ethics disclosures of the top 94 companies listed on Bursa Malaysia. The study employs content analysis of company's annual report and multiple linear regressions to look at the relationships between voluntary ethics disclosure and audit committee characteristics. The result from the study suggests that only two audit committee characteristics (tenure and multiple directorships) are associated with the voluntary ethics disclosure, whilst independence, expertise, meeting frequency and size were inconsistent. This study serves to assist the stakeholders in putting greater emphasis on audit committee in determining ethics disclosure of companies.