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Audit Committee Member as Lead Independent Director and Oversight Quality

Yonghong Jia & Xinghua Gao

Auditing: A Journal of Practice and Theory2025https://doi.org/10.2308/ajpt-2023-082article
AJG 3ABDC A*
Weight
0.46

Abstract

SUMMARY This study examines how the appointment of an audit committee (AC) member as the lead independent director (AC_LID) is associated with AC oversight quality. On one hand, this designation can elevate AC prominence and authority on the board and improve AC oversight quality. On the other hand, appointing an AC_LID may overburden the AC member and compromise oversight quality. Consistent with the enhanced AC authority argument, we find that the presence of an AC_LID is positively associated with oversight quality, but only when AC personal power is weak. The impact of AC_LID on oversight quality is not due to the personal power effect, the accounting expertise effect, or the executive compensation effect. Only AC_LIDs who are not overburdened exhibit a beneficial effect, and their connections with CEOs do not compromise oversight quality. Data Availability: Data are available from the public sources cited in the text. JEL Classifications: M49; G30.

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https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.2308/ajpt-2023-082

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@article{yonghong2025,
  title        = {{Audit Committee Member as Lead Independent Director and Oversight Quality}},
  author       = {Yonghong Jia & Xinghua Gao},
  journal      = {Auditing: A Journal of Practice and Theory},
  year         = {2025},
  doi          = {https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.2308/ajpt-2023-082},
}

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Audit Committee Member as Lead Independent Director and Oversight Quality

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Evidence weight

0.46

Balanced mode · F 0.40 / M 0.15 / V 0.05 / R 0.40

F · citation impact0.37 × 0.4 = 0.15
M · momentum0.57 × 0.15 = 0.09
V · venue signal0.50 × 0.05 = 0.03
R · text relevance †0.50 × 0.4 = 0.20

† Text relevance is estimated at 0.50 on the detail page — for your query’s actual relevance score, open this paper from a search result.