Acionista estrangeiro como determinante explicativo da constituição voluntária do comitê de auditoria nas firmas listadas no mercado de capitais brasileiro

Abstract

This dissertation has the objective to analyze the link between the participation of foreign stockholders in the ownership structure by listed firms in the Brazilian capital market and the voluntary constitution from the audit committee. A logistic regression was used to analyze whether foreign stockholders impact on the probability of a voluntary audit committee. The results indicated that the greater the participation of foreign stockholders, the greater the likelihood of a voluntarily constituted audit committee, and that this probability increases at increasing rates. In other words, the relationship is positive and non-linear and the research hypothesis is supported. In addition, other factors pointed in the literature were also significant as explanatory of the voluntary constitution of the audit committee. Among the qualitative variables, being audited by a big four greatly increases the likelihood of the audit committee being set up, while accumulating the functions of the CEO and chairman significantly reduces this probability. In short, in addition to the influence of foreign stockholders, there is a greater probability of voluntary constitution of the audit committee in firms: 1) Larger; 2) With boards of directors with a higher percentage of independent members; 3) With boards of administration larger in number of members; 4) Audited by big four; and 5) Listed in any of B3's special governance segments. On the other hand, there is less probability of constitution of the audit committee in firms: 1) With a higher percentage of shares owned by members of the administration; 2) More indebted; 3) That they accumulate the functions of CEO and chairman of the same person; and 4) That possess a greater concentration of property.