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This study aims to examine the effects of agency cost on auditor choice. This paper also deals with the moderating role of the board’s financial expertise (Bfe) and the status of the internal control (Intecon) system on the relationship between agency cost and auditor selection.

This study’s sample consists of 1,040 firm-year observations of Iranian nonfinancial companies listed on the Tehran Stock Exchange from 2012 to 2019. The information required for this research is mainly extracted from Comprehensive Database of All Listed Companies (in Iran Stock Exchange). Data from 130 companies were obtained during the research period. This study used logistic regression to test the hypotheses.

The findings indicate that companies with higher agency costs choose the auditor from lower classes. As the proportion of financial expert members on the board increases, the intensity of this relationship will be reduced. Companies with higher agency costs choose the auditor from the lower classes, but the higher the ratio of financial expert board members, the more these companies will choose high-quality auditors. However, findings showed that the status of the Intecon system has no moderating effect on the relationship between agency costs and auditor selection.

The results of this study can expand the existing literature on the relationship between auditor selection and agency costs and the factors affecting this relationship, especially the Bfe and Intecon. This research has significant suggestions for regulators, stakeholders, shareholders and analysts in emerging economies that may encounter similar contextual implications.

The purpose of this study is to investigate whether research and development (R&D) activities reduce the performance damage caused by a critical situation, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, or not. Also, this study tries to explain whether the market in its reactions pays attention to companies' R&D activities or not during the COVID-19 critical situation.

The official announcement of the COVID-19 disease in Iran is considered the date of the event in this study. To consider the effect of R&D activities on the performance, three similar time periods before and after the coronavirus pandemic have been considered. Due to the widespread prevalence of coronavirus in Iran, this country has been selected to answer the research questions.

The results showed that the companies that have more R&D activities performed better than other companies during this period and were able to better manage this crisis. Furthermore, companies with more R&D activities suffered lower abnormal returns during coronavirus shocks than other companies.

Based on the research results, the issues that were discussed on the importance of R&D activities in the accounting literature is confirmed, and the results show the importance of R&D activities on the company's ability to overcome crises.

Based on the results of this research, it can be suggested that even in difficult and critical conditions, investment in R&D activities should not be stopped and decrease.

In the accounting literature, the long-term effect of R&D activities on the survival of companies has always been considered. In this study, the effect of R&D activities on market response and firm performance in a real shock is investigated, which is the innovation of this research.