共享审计师与“执业网络”的“传染效应”:基于关键审计事项的证据

Contagion Effect of Shared Auditors and Practice Network:Evidence Based on Key Audit Matters

本文锁定2016-2019年为上市公司出具关键审计事项的会计师事务所,以这些事务所承接的上市公司为样本,将被出具关键审计事项的公司定义为"被联结公司",将与之共享至少一位签字注册会计师的公司定义为"联结公司",研究因共享审计师形成的"执业网络"在关键审计事项出具时的效应。结果表明:共享审计师可以在向"被联结公司"出具关键审计事项时获取经验和信息,增强自身的沟通能力和执业质量,并将之运用于"联结公司",提升"联结公司"的审计质量和审计效率。这种效应类似于网络研究中的"传染"现象,故将其命名为"传染效应"。进一步研究表明,"联结公司"业务集中度越高、自身规模和所聘事务所规模越大,则"执业网络"内注册会计师沉淀的经验和累积的能力越多,"传染效应"越明显。

This paper focuses on the accounting firms issuing key audit matters for public companies from 2016 to 2019.Taking these companies as samples,we define the companies issued key audit matters as Connected Company and the companies sharing at least one CPA as Connecting Company.Then we study the effect of the Practice Network formed by shared auditors on the issuance of key audit matters.The results show that shared auditors can obtain experience and information in the process of issuing key audit matters to the Connected Company,enhance their communication ability and practice quality and apply it to the Connecting Company,so as to improve the audit quality and efficiency of the Connecting Company.This effect is similar to the contagion phenomenon in network research,so we name it as Contagion Effect.Further research shows that the effect is moderated by the factors affecingt the difficulty of audit work,which is the concentration of the business of the Connecting Company formed by shared auditors,the scale of the company itself and the accounting firm it employs.These factors can enhance the experience and ability accumulated in the Practice Network and reduce the difficulty of work of CPA at the connecting point,so as to make the Contagion Effect more obvious.