客戶重要性、非審計服務與會計師任期對審計品質之影響

The Impact of Client Importance, Non-audit Service, and Auditor Tenure on Audit Quality

官月緞(Yue-Duan Guan) ； 郭子建(Tzu-Chien Kuo)

《當代會計》 12卷1期 (2011/05) Pp. 1-30

https://doi.org/10.6675/JCA.2011.12.1.01

摘要

本文以2002至2006年潛在財務困難公司為研究對象，探討客戶重要性、非審計服務與會計師任期對審計品質之影響，審計品質以會計師簽發繼續經營疑慮意見的可能性加以衡量。經控制相關變數後，實證結果發現客戶重要性與繼續經營疑慮意見呈顯著正向關聯，顯示安隆事件後，會計師重視聲譽維護甚於經濟依存考量。再者，四大（非四大）樣本，重大非審計服務與繼續經營疑慮意見呈現不顯著（顯著）的負向關係，可能係非四大會計事務所之審計與非審計服務部門未各自獨立，損及獨立性。最後，額外分析發現輪調制度生效後，相較於輪調制度實施前，會計師任期雖與繼續經營疑慮意見呈正向關聯性，但未達顯著水準，輪調制度對於提升獨立性未見明顯成效。

關鍵字

客戶重要性 ； 非審計服務 ； 會計師任期 ； 繼續經營疑慮意見

並列摘要

Using a sample of potential financially stressed companies during 2002-2006, this study examines the impact of client importance, non-audit services and auditor tenure on audit quality, which is measured by possibility of auditors issuing a going-concern-audit-opinion. After controlling for other related variables, our empirical results show that client importance is positively correlated with a going-concern audit opinion. These findings indicate that, after the Enron scandal, auditor's attention shifted much more towards safeguarding reputation rather than economic reliance on important clients.Furthermore, our results show that, in Big 4 (non-Big 4) samples, major non-audit services are negatively and insignificantly (significantly) correlated with going-concern audit opinions, possibly a consequence of auditor independence being impaired due to non-separation between non-audit service divisions and audit divisions within non-Big 4 audit firms. Finally, further analysis reveals that, after auditor mandatory rotation had been in effect, auditor tenure is, in comparison with pre-rotation, positively but insignificantly correlated with a going-concern-audit-opinion. The results suggest that auditor mandatory rotation has insignificant effect in enhancing auditor's independence.

並列關鍵字

client importance ； non-audit service ； auditor tenure ； going-concern-opinion