獨立董事及獨立監察人與現任會計師事務所之前任關係對財務報導品質的影響

Affiliation of Independent Directors and Independent Supervisors with Current Audit Firm and Financial Reporting Quality

阮黃勇(Hoang-Dung Nguyen)

指導教授 ： 劉嘉雯

共同指導教授 ： 王泰昌

國立臺灣大學/管理學院/會計學研究所/碩士(2014年)

https://doi.org/10.6342/NTU.2014.00156

摘要

本研究旨在探討與現任會計師事務所具有前任關係之獨立董事或獨立監事的存在是否會影響台灣上市公司的應計盈餘管理。所謂具有前任關係(affiliated)表示獨立董監事曾在現任會計師事務所任職審計職務，而不具前任關係(unaffiliated)之獨立董監事為擁有審計經驗但未曾於現任會計師事務所擔任過審計職務。

使用從民國97年至民國101年期間總共3,887筆觀察值的樣本與四種裁決性應計項目衡量盈餘品質，本研究發現，不具前任關係(unaffiliated)之獨立董事/監事的存在與盈餘品質具有顯著的正向關係。採用差異中之差異法（difference-on-difference）和工具變數法(instrumental variables)控制內生性之影響後，本研究亦發現具有前任關係(affiliated)之獨立董監事亦對盈餘品質呈現顯著的正向影響。

以獨立董監事與現任會計師事務所之前任關係和他們曾經擔任過的最高審計職位（包括查帳員，經理和合夥人）為分類基礎，本研究將具有審計經驗的獨立董監分為七種不同的“背景” (profiles)。其主要目的為探討不同的隸屬關係類型和審計經驗之“組合”是否顯著影響盈餘品質和這些效果是否具顯著差異。結果指出，曾於現任事務所擔任過查帳員並具有事務所合夥人經驗之獨立董監事背景與正裁決性應計項目(positive performance-included discretionary accruals)呈現顯著的正向效果，而此影響與其他隸屬和非隸屬獨立董監事背景呈現顯著差異。另一方面，儘管三種不具前任關係之獨立董監事的背景（包括查帳員、經理、合夥人）皆與盈餘品質呈現顯著之正向關係，本研究並未發現這些關係之間的任何顯著差異。

關鍵字

獨立董事 ； 獨立監事 ； 會計師獨立性 ； 前任關係 ； 盈餘品質

並列摘要

This research aims to investigate whether the presence of affiliated independent directors or independent supervisors affects accruals-based earnings management of Taiwanese listed companies. Independent directors/supervisors are “affiliated” if they previously assumed an auditing position at their current company’s audit firm. Independent directors/supervisors are “unaffiliated” if they possess auditing experience, but never worked for their company’s current audit firm.

Using a sample of 3,887 firm-years over the period of 2008 – 2012 and four measures of discretionary accruals to estimate earnings quality, this study finds that the presence of unaffiliated independent directors/supervisors is positively associated with earnings quality. Affiliated independent directors/supervisors are also found to have positive impact on earnings quality, after controlling for endogeneity using the difference-on-difference and instrumental variable approach.

By classifying unaffiliated and affiliated independent directors/supervisors into seven different “profiles” based on their affiliation relationship with their company’s current audit firm and their highest audit position ever held, this study aims to investigate whether specific “combinations” of affiliation type and audit experience (including staff, manager, and partner) affect earnings quality and whether these effects are significantly different from each other. Results indicate that the profile of independent directors/supervisors affiliated as audit staff and having audit partner experience is positively associated with positive performance-included discretionary accruals, and this impact is significantly different with the other affiliated and unaffiliated independent director/supervisor profiles. On the other hand, even though the three profiles of unaffiliated independent directors/supervisors, including unaffiliated audit staff, unaffiliated audit manager, and unaffiliated audit partner, are all positively linked with earnings quality, this study does not detect any significant difference among these relationships.

並列關鍵字

independent director ； independent supervisor ； auditor independence ； affiliation ； earnings quality

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