2001年底安隆(Enron)案爆發後,陸續多家知名企業類似假帳風波的事件接踵而至。反觀國內,2004年爆發的博達科技涉嫌以公司資金不當為他人擔保,或透過不正常的交易,套取公司資金63億元,引發國內投資人對企業治理與會計誠信的信心危機。 Schwartz and Soo(1995)發現財務困難公司,財務報表會出現較多錯誤,因而會計師所面臨的審計風險將提高。故本研究將同時探討當會計師面臨有財務危機的受查者時,其審計決策為何,以及對股東而言,財富是否因而受到影響。此外,本研究將財務危機定義分為三階段,第一階段為營收大幅衰退或連續兩年虧損,第二階段為股利減少,第三階段為債務到期違約未付。會計師審計決策分為出具非無保留意見與更換簽證會計師。而對於股東財富的影響,則是捕捉當財務危機發生時,股價是否有異常反應來探討。 實證結果發現會計師傾向對財務困難公司出具非無保留意見,也傾向終止受任。且終止受任之市場反應與客戶是否為財務困難公司有薄弱關聯,暗示市場預期繼任會計師較能調整財務報告。
From the Enron scandal of 2001, to the continual occurrence of financial affairs crises of Taiwan’s Procomp Informatics Ltd entering the market during the first half of 2004, the development of financial crises outbreaks have influenced the movements of global capital markets. Even more, this event has harmed the world’s corporate governance and authenticity of financial statement. Schwartz and Soo(1995) has demonstrated the failing firms' Form 8-Ks disclose significantly more negative information and auditor resignations than those of non-failing firms. The purpose of this study is to investigate the auditor’s responses and shareholder’s wealth effects of financial distress. In addition, this study instead of the conventional failing and nonfailing dichotomy, 3 financial states are used to approximate the continuum of corporate financial health: 1. heavy revenue decline or two consecutive losses, 2. reducing dividend payments, 3. default on loan payments. The auditor’s responses are mainly divided into two parts: qualified financial statement and auditor switching. Accordingly, we adopt abnormal returns to find out the shareholder’s wealth effects. Both audit opinion and auditor resignation decisions are found significantly related to financial difficulties. There is weak evidence that market reactions to the auditor resignations depend on the health of the clients.