独立性与行业专长对客户会计稳健性的影响

The Influence of Accounting Firm's Independence and Industry Expertise on Accounting Conservatism

稳健性是会计信息质量的基本要求和重要盈余质量特征。独立性和行业专长分别代表着事务所有意愿披露和有能力发现错报的概率,从而影响审计质量。会计师事务所通过提高独立性和行业专长来保证客户会计稳健性,是其应对风险和提高审计质量的重要举措。以2008—2013年沪深两市A股上市公司为样本,实证检验发现独立性和行业专长在影响客户会计稳健性方面具有互补作用。即当独立性较强时,事务所行业专长有利于提高客户会计稳健性;但随着独立性的降低,该作用也减弱。显示在进行客户选择时,事务所保证更高的独立性相比发挥行业专长可能更重要,事务所不应因发挥行业专长而降低或忽略独立性的要求。

Conservatism is a basic requirement of accounting information quality, and also one of the important char-acteristics of earnings quality. Independence and industry expertise represent respectively the possibility of the ac- counting firm＇ s willingness to disclose and the ability to identify misstatements, and thus have an impact on audit quality. Accounting firms, to control risk and enhance audit quality, ensure clients＇ accounting conservatism by improving independence and industry expertise. Using all A share companies listed in Shenzhen and Shanghai stock exchanges from 2008 to 2013 as examples, our empirical research discloses that accounting firms＇ independence and industry expertise have a complementary effect on clients＇ accounting information conservatism. That is to say, industry expertise could improve the client＇ s accounting information conservatism when independence is strong; but weaker independence, less improvement. The results suggest that in the selection of clients, the assurance of higher independence might be more important than industry expertise. The accounting firms should not reduce or ignore the independence requirements for the sake of industry expertise.