会计师事务所特殊普通合伙转制的影响研究——合伙人层面的分析

Study on the Effect of Accounting Firms' Transformation to Special General Partner——Auditor partner's perspective

会计师事务所的特殊普通合伙转制改变了合伙人所承担的法律责任,是注册会计师行业发展的重要举措。现有研究直接关注转制的影响,本研究从审计合伙人执业质量变化的视角来评价转制的效果,有利于解释转制的影响路径。研究发现:在转制产生影响之前,项目负责合伙人具有较低的审计质量;在转制产生影响之后,项目负责合伙人的审计质量有显著改善;转制对项目负责合伙人的影响仅体现在小所中。这表明,转制后,有过错合伙人的法律责任增加,从而负责项目执行的项目负责合伙人的审计质量有改善;转制对大所合伙人的影响较小,支持声誉理论,即大所合伙人基于声誉的考虑已经保持了较高的审计质量。

Transformation to special general partner is vital to accounting profession, and it will greatly change the legal responsibility of its partners. Current research directly tests the outcomes of special general partner transformation. This study further evaluates the effects of transformation by studying the changes of auditor partner＇ s audit quality, and explains the influencing channels of special general partner transformation. We find the following resuits. Firstly, before transformation takes effect, products of audit managers in partner＇ s role are of relatively low audit quality. Secondly, after transformation takes effect, audit quality of the products of audit mangers in partner＇ s role is significantly improved. Thirdly, the above - mentioned effects exit mainly in small accounting firms. We can draw two conclusions. Firstly, after transformation, the legal liabilities of partners increase, and partners in charge of audit projects improve the audit quality of their products. Secondly, the influence of transformation on audit quali- ty is smaller in large accounting firms, in line with the ＂Reputation Theory＂. Taking reputation into consideration, partners in large accounting firms have already maintained a high quality of their products.