Presenting a Tax Avoidance Model Using Thematic Analysis in the Tehran Stock Exchange
Keywords:
Tax Avoidance, Thematic Analysis, Corporate Governance, Audit Quality, Financial ReportingAbstract
This study aimed to present a comprehensive and multidimensional model of the factors affecting tax avoidance in companies listed on the Tehran Stock Exchange. This applied study adopted a qualitative-exploratory design using thematic analysis. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews with 20 experts, including university professors and senior managers of listed companies. Participants were selected purposively, and sampling continued until theoretical saturation was achieved. The interview data were analyzed using MAXQDA software through open, axial, and selective coding. To ensure the credibility and reliability of the findings, independent coding, Cohen’s kappa coefficient, and Lincoln and Guba’s trustworthiness criteria were employed. Thematic analysis resulted in the identification of 70 basic themes, 21 organizing themes, and 5 global themes. The global themes included corporate governance, environmental factors, audit quality, financial characteristics and financial reporting, and market- and stock-related factors. Among the organizing themes, board characteristics, firm performance, and ownership structure had the highest frequencies, indicating their greater relative importance from the experts’ perspective. In addition, the inter-coder agreement coefficient was 0.87, and the overall level of expert agreement was estimated at approximately 97%, confirming the adequacy and credibility of the extracted model. The findings indicate that tax avoidance among listed companies is a multidimensional phenomenon shaped by the interaction of internal organizational mechanisms and external institutional conditions. The proposed model can serve as a conceptual basis for tax policymaking, strengthening corporate governance, improving audit quality, and developing future quantitative studies on tax avoidance.
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Copyright (c) 2025 Hadi Mollaee (Author); Khosro Moradi Shahdadi (Corresponding author); Mostafa Ghanbari Ghalerudkhani (Author)
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