行业专家型独立董事、业务复杂度和审计费用

Independent Directors with Industrial Expertise, Audit Complexity, and Audit Fee

本研究检验行业专家型的独立董事是否会影响客户公司的业务复杂度和审计费用的关联度。统计结果表明，相对于其他公司，聘请行业专家的公司的审计费用和业务复杂度的关联性更强，统计结果在多种复杂度的度量环境下保持稳定，也在交互项模型和分组模型中保持一致。此外，行业专家的调节效应在国际四大的客户中更为明显。说明行业专家提升了审计师在复杂环境下的费用收取，这有助于维持复杂经营环境下的机会主义行为侦测概率。结果有助于我们理解独立监督人员如何根据自身的专业优势改变信息指标的影响力，从而在客户压力和执业风险并存的情况下联合履职。

This paper aims to investigate the impact of independent directors with industrial expertise on the association between audit complexity and audit fee. About 50 per cent of China＇s listed companies hire industry experts as independent directors. We find that the association between audit complexity and audit fee is stronger in firms that have independent directors with industrial expertise than in firms that do not, Furthermore, the impact of independent directors with industrial expertise is more pronounced for firms audited by the Big Four audit firms. The results suggest that the existence of independent directors with industrial expertise stimulates auditors＇ awareness of the business risk of their clients, which may help auditors detect clients＇ opportunistic behaviour in a complex business environment.