客户重要性对会计师事务所审计质量影响的实证研究

发布时间：2018-01-04 06:33

本文关键词：客户重要性对会计师事务所审计质量影响的实证研究　出处：《西南财经大学》2011年硕士论文　论文类型：学位论文

【摘要】：根据经济理论中的经济人假设,在我国目前的审计制度框架下,会计师事务所、审计人员同样是经济人,自负盈亏,以追求物质利益为目的而进行经济活动,其推出的审计产品——审计报告必须得到市场的认可、客户的满意,事务所才能维持并争取赢得更高的市场份额,以求在这个竞争激烈的市场环境中生存发展。在开放的市场里,“卖家”与“买家”存在天然的经济依赖性,即使是会计师事务所这种具有社会监督职能的中介服务机构也不例外。会计师事务所作为“卖家”对重要的客户必然十分重视,并尽力提供客户满意的“产品”。然而,令客户满意的审计产品并不一定是高质量的审计产品,事务所可能为了满足客户的需求而牺牲独立性,降低审计质量,因此,客户与会计师事务所之间的经济依赖关系可能会对审计质量造成威胁。众所周知,事务所不是单纯的服务机构,被称为“经济警察”的审计还具有重要的社会监督职能。如果对重要客户的妥协导致会计师事务所的声誉受损,则会降低未来的准租,同样不利于事务所的生存和发展,高质量的审计服务才是会计师事务所长远发展的基础。是向重要客户妥协还是保持自己的独立性?审计师面临两难选择。客户与会计师事务所之间的经济依赖性也称为审计客户重要性,在现有的学术研究中,客户重要性对审计质量的影响是不确定的,主要存在两种观点：一种观点认为会计师事务所对客户的经济依赖性越强,所承受的解聘或者降低审计收费的压力越大,向重要客户妥协的概率越大,对被审计单位盈余管理的抑制力越弱,审计质量越低,这一点在小规模所体现的更为明显；另一种观点认为在我国以审计所得作为对审计失败的处罚依据的制度背景下,经济依赖性越强,审计师因出具不恰当的审计意见而承担的法律责任越大,为了控制审计风险,反而可能使注册会计师深入了解客户的营运方式及业务流程,提升其专业能力,另外,由于受到声誉损失的威慑,对重要客户的风险控制意识更强,审计质量更高,这一点在大规模所体现的较为突出。因为一旦审计失败,广大投资者对事务所的审计质量及其所服务客户的财务信息的信任度就会大幅度降低。对于具有不同声誉的事务所而言,声誉受损对审计师的负面影响程度有明显差异,如果事务所的声誉越高,这种调整幅度就越大,市场的自动惩罚机制在高声誉审计师上体现的更为显著。当前我国审计市场竞争日益激烈,会计师事务所为维护和争夺客户资源采取“低价揽客”策略,加入价格战,甚至以牺牲独立性和审计质量为代价,这不仅对广大投资者的合法利益造成威胁,更严重危害到市场的公平竞争和我国审计行业的健康发展。因此,研究重要客户如何影响审计质量,提高事务所对重要客户的抗胁迫能力,无论在理论研究还是实务操作方面都具有十分重要的意义。另外,随着时间的变迁,重要客户对于审计质量的影响也因为外部环境和审计行业自身的发展变化而不断变化,因此,对这一问题的持续关注和研究也是有意义的。然而,仍然存在一个重要问题悬而未决,这就是如何定义重要客户。2009年10月18日,中注协发布《中国注册会计师职业道德守则》,其中明确指出,“如果会计师事务所连续两年从某一属于公众利益实体的审计客户及其关联实体收取的全部费用占其从所有客户收取的全部费用的比重超过15%,会计师事务所应当向客户治理层披露这一事实,并由其他会计师事务所实施项目质量控制复核,将不利影响降低至可接受水平。”另外,英国特许公认会计师公会在《执业会计师道德准则》中明确提出,从审计收入的角度衡量,“社会公众理解的损害审计人员独立性的经济依赖性,对于上市或公众利益公司是10%,对于其他公司则为15%。”由此可见,为了更好的监管社会审计机构和从业人员的执业行为,保护审计的独立性,寻找适当的审计收入贡献率作为划分重要客户和一般客户的依据,对于实践操作具有参考价值。本文以2008-2009年沪深A股上市公司及为其提供年报审计的会计师事务所为研究对象,实证检验客户重要性对审计质量的影响。由于可控操纵性应计利润的绝对值可以衡量公司的盈余管理水平,而事务所抑制被审计单位的盈余管理程度又是审计质量的体现,因此,本文将可控操纵性应计利润的绝对值作为审计质量的替代变量。关于如何定义重要客户在理论界存在分歧,国外的研究文献主要以来源于被审计上市公司的全部收入占会计师事务所当年总收入的比重来衡量,国内外文献也都认为这一指标是客户重要性的良好替代指标,但由于我国审计收费信息披露制度尚不完善,国内的研究文献主要以客户资产规模对数占事务所当年全部客户资产规模对数之和的比重定义客户重要性。本文认为随着近年来审计市场的发展和证券监管机构的重视,对审计收费信息的披露已逐步透明和规范,以审计收入贡献率衡量客户重要性是可行的。在控制了其他影响因素后,本文实证分析了客户重要性对会计师事务所审计质量的影响。关于客户与会计师事务所之间的经济依赖性是否损害到审计质量的问题,本文的实证结果表明：首先,对事务所整体而言,对客户的经济依赖性已经对审计人员的独立性产生了负面影响,降低了审计质量。由于审计市场竞争激烈,争取并维护客户的压力超过了保护声誉的动机,在面对重要客户时,会计师事务所与审计师不得不降低标准,在一定程度上向客户妥协,以求进一步生存与发展。其次,基于事务所规模不同,其重要客户对审计质量的影响可能有所不同。本文将“四大”和“非四大”所审计的上市公司划分为不同的样本组分别进行检验。实证结果显示“四大”会计师事务所审计的上市公司的审计收入所占比重越高,可控操纵性应计利润的绝对值越低,对上市公司盈余管理水平的抑制效果越好,审计质量越高。这可能是由于规模较大的事务所拥有丰富的资源,事务所的业务量较大,因而受到某一客户胁迫而降低审计质量的可能性较小,反而出于保护声誉的动机,它们更有动力去维护高质量的审计服务,另外,相对而言,“四大”在审计市场有一定的垄断地位,其能否继续生存和发展不取决于争取更重要的客户而在于控制执业风险,同时,“四大”所对于重要客户一般不仅仅提供财务报表审计业务,还在税务、咨询等非审计业务方面与客户有更密切的合作,提供这些非审计服务有助于会计师事务所和审计人员深入了解被审计单位的财务状况和风险点,有利于提高审计质量。在“非四大”样本组中,客户重要性与盈余管理水平呈正相关关系,经济依赖性越高,审计师对盈余管理的抑制程度越低,审计质量越低,但并不显著,原因可能是“非四大”会计师事务所由于市场竞争的压力,面临着更大的生存危机,迫使其可能对重要客户予以妥协,它们与客户之间的经济依赖性已经损害了审计的独立性,导致了较低的审计质量。然而,我国会计师事务所在与国外尤其是“四大”所的合作与竞争中不断拓展业务,做大做强,并吸收引进了先进的管理经验和风控理念,使得这种正相关关系并不显著。关于从客户审计收入贡献率角度定位重要客户的问题,目前,国内外文献对客户重要性与审计质量相关关系的研究结论不一致,一种观点认为客户重要性与审计质量成正相关关系,另一种观点认为客户重要性与审计质量成负相关关系,两种观点难分伯仲。因此,本文设想,客户重要性与审计质量可能存在另一种关系,即,从审计收入贡献率的角度定义重要客户可能存在一个临界值,如果审计收入比重值未达到该临界值,则事务所与该客户的经济依赖性不足以对审计质量构成威胁,此类客户为一般客户；如果比重值达到甚至超过这一临界值,此类客户为重要客户,审计的独立性会受到显著威胁,审计质量明显降低,应当引起有关监管部门和会计师事务所风险控制部门的关注和审慎对待。本文在实证研究部分着重探讨了重要客户临界值的定位问题：首先,以2008-2009总样本组为研究对象,将高于和低于假设临界值定义为虚拟变量,以虚拟变量与审计质量相关关系的显著性程度为判断标准,检验现有文献和实务中提出的参考临界值是否适当,如果虚拟变量与审计质量显著相关,则重要客户与一般客户对事务所审计质量的影响有明显差异,表明此临界值是合适的。本文实证结果显示,《执业会计师道德准则》提出.的15%和外文文献中提出的0.5%均不是适合我国审计市场的临界值。然后,为了寻找合适的临界值,本文运用逐步试算法详细检验了相关的临界值,最终提出参考的临界值和临界值范围分别为3.7%(或3.8%)和2%-3.8%,并试图采用某一临界值分别讨论“四大”所和“非四大”所在权衡经济依赖性与品牌声誉的表现上是否一致。鉴于本文所采用的样本中,“四大”会计师事务所审计的上市公司的审计收入贡献率最大值约为2%,因此本文仅以2%作为参考临界值进行检验,结果表明“非四大”组中重要客户对审计质量有显著负面影响,但在“四大”组中不显著,表明以2%定义“非四大”所的重要客户是合适的,而对于“四大”所并不适合。鉴于“四大”所审计收入贡献率的平均值低于“非四大”所,本文可推知“四大”所中此临界值低于2%。这说明对于不同规模事务所,应使用不同的审计收入贡献率作为临界值定义重要客户,此临界值在大规模事务所较低。本文的主要贡献和创新有以下两点：第一,国内外文献均认为来源于审计客户的全部收入占事务所总收入的比重是检测经济依赖性的最佳指标,但目前国内的多数文献是用客户资产规模比重作为客户重要性的替代变量,最主要的原因是过去我国上市公司对审计费用的披露不规范。本文认为随着证券市场的日趋完善和审计行业自身的发展,对审计收费信息的披露制度会逐步完善,中注协从2008年起披露的会计师事务所前百强信息中不仅披露了事务所总收入,还披露了审计总收入,意为将审计收入和非审计收入区分开来,这些都为进一步理论研究提供了便利。从2008和2009年度中注协发布的信息来看,目前审计收入仍然是事务所总收入的主要组成部分,约占到80%,鉴于目前只能搜集到上市公司的审计收费信息,而其披露的非审计服务收费信息仍不规范,本文认为将来源于客户的审计收入占事务所审计总收入的比重替代来源于客户的全部收入占事务所总收入的比重是有意义的。第二点在于对定位重要客户临界值的初步探索,这也是文章最大的创新点。本文认为,除正相关、负相关关系外,客户重要性与审计质量可能存在另一种关系,即假设存在一个临界值,当客户审计收入贡献率低于此临界值时,事务所与客户的经济依赖性并不会显著降低审计质量,如果客户审计收入贡献率达到甚至超过此临界值,则这种经济依赖性会对审计的独立性造成显著的不利影响,这是本文实证研究的重点。首先,本文实证结果显示,中注协在《执业会计师道德准则》中提出的15%和外文文献中提出的0.5%均不是适合我国审计市场的临界值,然后,采用逐步试算法提出了可供参考的合适的临界值和临界值范围,最后,本文的实证结果说明对于不同规模事务所,应使用不同的审计收入贡献率作为临界值定义重要客户,此临界值在大规模事务所较低。本文以来源于客户的审计收入/该事务所年度审计总收入(即审计收入贡献率)来衡量客户重要性,而目前中注协只披露了2008年和2009年度会计师事务所审计总收入信息,研究样本量不足。随着今后披露的年度审计收入信息与非审计服务收费信息的不断规范和完善,通过搜集更多的样本数据,可以得出更有统计意义的研究结果。由于研究所需,本文没有考虑上市公司的境外审计费用和其他相关费用,如果今后我国上市公司对于境外审计费用与其他相关费用信息的披露能够更加详细、明确,可以增加相关样本数据,提高统计效果。另外,由于现有的研究成果尚缺乏对如何定义会计师事务所的重要客户的实证研究,对于审计收入贡献率是否存在临界值,如何定位临界值不仅缺乏理论分析和实践经验数据,也缺乏实证检验。随着对实证分析方法的进一步研究以及对相关信息披露的日益规范,对于此方面的理论研究和实证分析不仅具有研究价值且对于实务操作有较高的指导意义。
[Abstract]:According to the economic theory of economic man hypothesis in the framework of China's current audit system, accounting firms, audit staff is also an economic man, self financing, in pursuit of material interests for the purpose of economic activities, the introduction of audit product audit report must be recognized by the market, customer satisfaction, in order to maintain the firm and strive to win more market share, in order to survive and develop in the fierce competition in the market environment.
In the open market, "there is a natural economic dependence between sellers and buyers, even if the accounting firms which have social supervision function is no exception. The accounting firm as" seller "must attach great importance to the important customers, and try our best to provide customers with" products ". However, the customer satisfaction is not high quality of audit product audit, the firm may be in order to meet customer needs at the expense of independence, reduce audit quality, therefore, between the client and the accounting firm's economic dependence may pose a threat to audit quality. As everyone knows, the firm is not a simple service agency, known as the" economic the police "audit also has important social supervision function. If you compromise on key customers led to the reputation of the accounting firm, will reduce Future quasi rent is also not conducive to the survival and development of firms. High quality audit service is the foundation for long-term development of accounting firms. Is it important to compromise with important customers or maintain their independence? Auditors are facing a dilemma.
Between the client and the accounting firm's economic dependence is also known as the importance of clients, in the existing academic research in the effect of client importance on audit quality is uncertain, there are two main views: one view is that the accounting firm client economic dependence is stronger, the dismissal or reduce audit fees the greater the pressure, the greater the probability to compromise on key customers, by inhibition of earnings management audit more weak, audit quality is low, the small scale reflected more obviously; another view is to audit the income in China's institutional background of audit failure according to the punishment under the economy more dependent, legal responsibility of auditors issued by the inappropriate audit opinion and take more, in order to control the audit risk, but may make CPA in-depth understanding of customer business Transport mode and business process, improve their professional ability, in addition, due to loss of reputation and deterrence, stronger awareness of risk control for major customers, audit quality is higher, the scale reflects the more prominent. Because once the audit failure, will trust greatly the investors of the firm's audit quality and customer service financial information is reduced. For firms with different reputation, reputation has obvious difference degree of negative influence on auditor, if the firm's reputation is high, the magnitude of this adjustment is greater, the automatic market punishment mechanism is reflected in the high reputation of the auditor is more significant.
At present our audit market competition is becoming increasingly fierce, the accounting firm for the maintenance and for customers to take "cheap showmanship" strategy, to join the price war, even at the expense of independence and audit quality for the price, this is not only for the legitimate interests of investors threat more serious harm to the healthy development of fair competition in the market and audit in China industry. Therefore, how to study the important customer influence audit quality, improve customer firm of important anti stress ability, both in theory and practices are of great significance. In addition, as time changes, important customers for the impact of audit quality and audit development because of changes in the external environment and the industry itself changing, therefore, sustained attention and Research on this problem is meaningful.
However, there is still an important problem in suspense, this is how to define an important customer.2009 in October 18th, the AICPA issued "Chinese CPA occupation ethics", which explicitly pointed out that "if the full cost accounting firm for two consecutive years from a public interest entity belongs to audit clients and related entities accounted for all the fees charged from all the customers accounted for more than 15%, accounting firms shall submit to the customer the fact that management disclosure, and by other accounting firms to implement the project quality control review, will not adversely affect the reduced to acceptable levels. In addition, the association of Chartered Certified Accountants in" CPA ethics > clearly, measured from the the audit income point of view, "the damage auditor independence the public understanding of economic dependence, for the public interest or public listing Our company is 10%, for the other is 15%. "therefore, in order to better the supervision of social audit institutions and the practitioners of the practice and to protect the independence of the audit, to find the appropriate audit revenue contribution rate as an important customer by customer basis and general, it has reference value for practical operation.
In this paper, 2008-2009 Shanghai and Shenzhen A shares of listed companies and accounting firms audit for it as the research object, and test the influence of client importance on audit quality. Because of the absolute value of the controlled manipulation of accruals to measure the company's earnings management, and business is inhibited by the degree of earnings management and audit unit is reflect, audit quality, therefore, this article will control of the absolute value of accruals as a proxy for audit quality. There are differences in the theory about how to define the important customer, foreign literature mainly originates from the total income audit of listed companies by accounting firms accounted for that year to measure the proportion of total income, both at home and abroad the literature also believe that this index is a good indicator to substitute the importance of the customers, but because the audit fee information disclosure system is not perfect, the domestic research The main research literature on customer assets accounted for firm asset size all the year customer numbers and the proportion of the definition of client importance. This paper argues that with the attached great importance to the development of audit market and the securities regulatory authorities in recent years, information disclosure of audit fees has been gradually transparent and standardized, to audit the income contribution rate to measure the importance of customer is feasible. After controlling for other factors, this paper empirically analyzes the effect of client importance on audit quality.
The empirical results of this paper are as follows: whether the economic dependence between customers and accounting firms is harmful to the audit quality.
First of all, the firm as a whole, the economic dependence to the customer has had a negative impact on the independence of the audit staff, audit quality is reduced. Because the audit market competition, and strive to exceed the pressure to protect the reputation to maintain customer motivation, in the face of an important client, accounting firms and auditors have to lower the standard, compromise to the customer in a certain extent, in order to survive and develop.
Secondly, based on firms of different sizes, the impact of important customers on audit quality may be different. The different groups of samples were tested for four "and" non big four audit of listed companies. The empirical results show that the division of the "big four" accounting firms audit of Listed Companies in the income share the higher the proportion, the controlled manipulation of accruals absolute value is low, the better inhibition effect on earnings management of Chinese listed companies, audit quality is higher. This may be due to the larger firms with rich resources, the larger volume of business, and thus have a customer stress decreased less likely to audit quality instead, for the protection of reputation motivation, they have more power to maintain the high quality audit service, in addition, relatively speaking, the "big four" in the audit market is a monopoly, the Can continue to survive and development depends on the more important for customers is to control the risk in practice, at the same time, the "big four" are important for customers not only provide audit services, financial statements and tax still, business consulting and other non audit clients have closer cooperation, to provide the non audit services to help accountants firms and auditors are deeply understand the financial situation and risk audit units, is conducive to improve the quality of audit. In the "non big four" sample group, client importance and earnings management are positively correlated. The economic dependence is higher, the auditor to inhibition of the extent of earnings management is low, the audit quality is low. But it was not obvious, the reason may be the "non big four accounting firms because of the pressure of market competition, facing greater survival crisis, forcing it to compromise may be the important customer, they Between the customer and the economic dependence has undermined the independence of the audit, leads to lower audit quality. However, the accounting firms in China and abroad, especially the "business development four" cooperation and competition, bigger and stronger, and absorb the advanced management experience and risk control concept so, this positive correlation is not significant.
About from the customer audit revenue contribution angle positioning important customer problems, at present, the conclusion of study on customer importance and audit quality related literature at home and abroad is not the same, a view that the customer importance and audit quality is positively related, another view is a negative correlation between client importance and audit quality, two view nanfenbozhong. Therefore, in this essay, the customer importance and audit quality may exist in another relationship, that is, from the perspective of the definition of audit revenue contribution rate of important customers may have a critical value, such as the proportion of the value of fruit audit revenue has not reached the critical value, the customer is firm and economic dependence is not enough pose a threat to the quality of the audit, such as customer general customers; if the proportion reached or even exceeded the critical value, such as customer customer, independent audit will be A significant threat, the audit quality is significantly reduced, should cause concern and prudent treatment of the risk control department of the relevant regulatory authorities and accounting firms.
In this paper, the location of critical value of important customers is discussed in the part of empirical research.
First of all, with the total sample 2008-2009 group as the research object, the above and below the threshold hypothesis is defined as a dummy variable, with significant degree of correlation between dummy variables and audit quality criterion, is proposed for testing existing literature and practice reference critical values are appropriate, if significant correlation of dummy variables and audit quality, influence key customers and general customers on audit quality have obvious difference, show that the critical value is appropriate. The empirical results show that: CPA ethics are put forward. The 0.5% > 15% and foreign language literature in not suitable for the critical value of the audit market in China.
Then, in order to find the optimal threshold, by means of stepwise trial method test with critical value of the correlation, finally puts forward the critical value and the critical value of the reference range were 3.7% (or 3.8%) and 2%-3.8%, and try to use a certain critical value respectively discuss the "big four" and "four" the balance economic dependence and brand reputation performance is consistent. In view of the sample, the audit revenue contribution of big four CPA audit of listed companies of the maximum rate is about 2%, so the paper only chooses 2% critical value as a reference for the inspection, the results showed that the "non important customers of the four group the audit quality has a significant negative impact, but in the" big four "group is not significant, showed that in 2% the definition of" four important customer "is appropriate, and for the" big four "are not suitable. In view of the" big four "audit charge The average contribution rate of lower than the "non big four", this paper follows "four

【学位授予单位】：西南财经大学
【学位级别】：硕士
【学位授予年份】：2011
【分类号】：F233;F239.4;F224

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