Introduction

The main aim of this study is to investigate the under-researched relationship between corporate governance mechanisms and audit fees within the SMEs context. Indeed, such relationship has been investigated in large firms (Abbott et al., 2003; Goodwin-Stewart and Kent, 2006; Knechel, 2016), yet we find no evidence of this relationship within the SMEs context. We adopt this framework for different reasons. First, there is growing evidence that governance features are important in SMEs as in large firms. It is found that good corporate governance will bring better alternatives for SMEs and provides SMEs with effective strategies and best practices to access different resources and enhances better management decisions (Drucker, 1992; Sparrow, 1993). Accordingly, we aim to investigate in more details the theoretical and empirical aspects of corporate governance and audit features in SMEs using panel data set and to expand our knowledge of the audit features within the SMEs context. Second, investigating SMEs is very important in the UK, for example, in 2007, 99.9 per cent of the businesses were SMEs. In addition, SMEs are a key employer in the UK with approximately 59.2 per cent of private sector employees. From the macro-level perspective, SMEs represent 50 per cent of the UK gross value added and 51.5 per cent turnover (BIS: Department for Business Enterprise and Regulatory Reform, 2009). Hence, our study has an importance for policymakers and managers for a key sector in the UK. Finally, Afrifa and Tauringana (2015) detect that corporate governance is related to SMEs performance in the UK; however, they reported some differences in the role of corporate governance factors between small and medium-sized firms. Hence, investigating the role of corporate governance in SMEs will be of importance and will add to our understanding of the determinants of audit fees.