會計師事務所之產業專精及查核年資與盈餘品質之關係

The Effects of Audit Firms' Industry Specialization and Auditor Tenure on Earnings Quality

姜家訓(Jia-Xun Jiang) ； 楊雅雯(Ya-Wen Yang)

《當代會計》 6卷1期 (2005/05) Pp. 23-60

https://doi.org/10.6675/JCA.2005.6.1.02

摘要

本研究以民國86年至90年由五大會計師事務所查核之上市上櫃公司為樣本，探討會計師事務所之產業專精與查核年資對於盈餘品質之影響及其交互作用。本研究預期，文獻上發現查核年資縮短對於盈餘品質之不利影響可能忽略了會計師產業專精之緩和效果。本研究採績效調整後裁決性流動應計數（Kothari et al. 2002；Ashbaugh et al. 2003）與應計項目估計誤差（Dechow and Dichev 2002）二者來衡量盈餘品質，並參考相關文獻發展出五項產業專精之實證衡量。實證結果發現，具產業專精之會計師事務所可以限制受查公司透過流動應計項目所從事之盈餘管理，亦有助於降低經理人在認列應計項目時之策略性或隨機性估計誤差。對於不具產業專精之會計師事務所，查核年資縮短，其盈餘品質愈差；但對於具產業專精之會計師事務所，查核年資與盈餘品質並不具有顯著關聯性。此外，隨著查核年資之增長，產業專家與非產業專家之品質差距會逐漸縮小。鑑於透過強制會計師輪調縮短會計師查核年資已成為國內外主管機關之共識，但學術研究卻發現縮短會計師年資反而不利於盈餘品質。針對此一衝突，本研究提供一種調和觀點：縮短會計師查核年資對於盈餘品質之不利影響可以藉由選任產業專家會計師或提升會計師之產業專精加以緩和。

關鍵字

產業專家 ； 查核年資 ； 盈餘品質 ； 應計項目估計誤差

並列摘要

This study examines the effects of audit firms' industry specialization and auditor tenure on earnings quality and the interaction between industry specialization and auditor tenure. Prior work has examined the association between auditor tenure and earnings quality and finds earnings quality will get worse as auditor tenure gets shorter. In this study, we argue that the industry specialization of specialist auditors could mitigate the adverse effect of shorter tenure on earnings quality. Using the sample comprised of listed and OTC firms in Taiwan during 1997-2001, we find that after controlling for variables related to earnings quality, industry specialist auditors can restrict more effectively the earnings management attempts through current accruals and reduce the extent of intentional or unintentional accrual estimation errors of their clients than non-specialist auditors. Besides, the empirical results support our conjectures about the interaction between auditor firm's industry specialization and auditor tenure. The adverse effect of shorter tenure on earnings quality only exists for non-specialist auditors. Finally, as the tenure gets longer, the quality gap between specialist auditors and non-specialist auditors will get closer.

並列關鍵字

Industry specialization ； Auditor tenure ； Earnings quality ； Accrual estimation errors

參考文獻

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