會計師品牌聲譽、產業專精及查核年資與盈餘品質之關連性

Auditor Brand Name, Industry Specialization, Auditor Tenure and Earnings Quality

李智逸(Chih-Yi Li)

指導教授 ： 侍台誠

元智大學/管理學院/會計學系/碩士(2006年)

摘要

在安隆(Enron)等一連串重大企業弊案發生後，投資大眾對於企業之財務報表所提供之資訊與會計師審計品質產生空前的疑慮，加以過往實證文獻對於何種會計師特質具有較高審計品質之結論並不盡相同，故引發本研究對於會計師審計品質決定因素之探討。本研究係以會計師事務所品牌聲譽、產業專精及查核年資做為審計品質之替代變數，其中由於產業專精係為抽象且多面向之概念，故以多種實證方式衡量會計師事務所之產業專精。盈餘管理實證衡量上，Watkins, Hillison and Morecroft(2004)認為會計師之審計品質應具備資訊品質(information quality)與資訊可靠性(information credibility)等兩種特質，鑑於以往實證文獻多僅以裁決性應計數(discretionary accruals)或盈餘反應係數(earnings response coefficients)等單一實證方式衡量企業之盈餘品質，並無法綜覽上述審計品質之特質，故本研究同時採用上述兩項盈餘品質之代理變數進行實證研究，俾驗證在何種會計師特質下，較能有效降低公司不當財務報表盈餘管理之行為，同時獲致報表使用者之信賴。本研究最終實證結果如下：

一、就是否為品牌聲譽會計師事務所而言，實證結果顯示非品牌聲譽會計師事務所之受查客戶透過裁決性應計數從事盈餘管理之程度較低，亦即盈餘品質較高；品牌聲譽會計師事務所受查客戶之盈餘反應係數則較非品牌聲譽者為高，顯示報表使用者普遍認為品牌聲譽會計師事務所之受查客戶擁有較高之盈餘品質。

二、產業專家會計師事務所方面，實證結果顯示當會計師事務所為產業專家時，其簽證查核客戶透過裁決性應計數從事盈餘管理之程度較低，亦即保有較高之盈餘品質；非產業專家會計師事務所簽證客戶之盈餘反應係數較產業專家者為高，顯示對報表使用者而言，非產業專家會計師事務所之簽證查核客戶有較高之盈餘品質。

三、無論係以裁決性應計數亦或盈餘反應係數作為盈餘管理之替代變數，實證結果皆指出當會計師查核年資為短任期(1至2年)時，其受查客戶透過裁決性應計數進行盈餘管理之程度較其他會計師查核年資者高，而盈餘反應係數則較低，亦即盈餘品質較低；當會計師查核年資為長任期(3至5年)時，其受查客戶透過裁決性應計數進行盈餘管理之程度較其他會計師查核年資者低，盈餘反應係數則較高，亦即擁有較高之盈餘品質。

關鍵字

品牌聲譽 ； 產業專精 ； 查核年資 ； 盈餘品質 ； 裁決性應計數 ； 盈餘反應係數

並列摘要

Investors have unprecedented concerns about financial information quality and financial statement audit quality after they faced a series of great enterprises fraudulent events, such as Enron scandal, etc. Several prior researches tried to investigate the relationship between auditor’s characteristics and audit quality, but achieved totally different conclusions. This thesis tries to use auditor brand name, industry specialization, and auditor tenure to explore the determinant factors for audit quality. Because industry specialization is inherently unobservable and might be multidimensional, the author also tries to apply multiple definitions as proxies for it.

In addition, Watkins, Hillison and Morecroft(2004) showed that audit quality should be composed of two important attributes, information quality and information credibility. However, previous literature presented that either discretionary accruals(DAC) or earnings response coefficients(ERC), not both, was used to evaluate the enterprises' earnings quality, and thus the empirical results were unable to characterize the whole attributes of audit quality. Following these studies, this paper applies discretionary accruals and earnings response coefficients as proxies for earnings quality at the same time in order to examine the effect of auditor types on restrictions of management’s deliberate intervention in the process of measuring earnings.

Main empirical results of this study are summarized as follows.

First, clients of brand name auditors had higher discretionary accruals and earnings response coefficients, which meant brand name auditors provided higher information credibility but lower information quality.

Second, clients of industry specialist auditors had lower discretionary accruals but higher earnings response coefficients, indicating industry specialist auditors provided higher information quality but lower information credibility.

Third, clients of short auditor tenure(1 to 2 years) have higher discretionary accruals but lower earnings response coefficients, indicating that auditors with short tenure provided lower information credibility and information quality；On the Contrary, clients of long auditor tenure(3 to 5 years) had lower discretionary accruals but higher earnings response coefficients, which meant auditors with long tenure provided higher information credibility and information quality.

並列關鍵字

brand name ； industry specialization ； auditor tenure ； earnings quality ； discretionary accruals ； earnings response coefficients

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