中国本土会计师事务所的市场地位与经济回报

Market Position of Chinese Local Audit Firms and Associated Economic Return

区域规模化和行业专长化是会计师事务所通常采取的两种发展战略。本文分析和比较了具有区域市场领先地位以及具有行业市场领先地位的中国本土会计师事务所伴随的经济回报(以审计定价度量)。基于全样本的证据显示:本土会计师事务所仅仅通过在各省际市场取得领先地位并不足以获取明显的经济回报;具备行业市场领先地位则伴随着显著更高的经济回报;同时具备行业市场领先地位和区域市场领先地位则伴随着更大的经济回报。进一步的分析显示,不同本土会计师事务所可能需要考虑在发展战略及其实现途径上的差异化。本文的发现对本土会计师事务所制定符合自身特征的发展战略具有启示意义。

Regional expansion and industry specialization are two strategies that audit firms commonly adopt for organizational development. This study investigates the economic return (proxied by audit fees) associated with Chinese local audit firms who are a provincial audit market leader or an industry leader. The evidence based on the full sample indicates that: (1) local audit firms who are only a provincial market leader but not an industry leader do not earn a significant audit fee premium, (2) local audit firms who are an industry leader earn a significant fee premium, and (3) local audit firms who are both a provincial market leader and an industry leader earn even a greater fee premium. Additional analysis shows that, for different local audit firms (in terms of their national-level size), regional expansion and industry specialization have differential effects on the audit fee premium. Our findings have implications for Chinese local audit firms to establish strategies that help to increase economic returns.