公司高管与签字注册会计师的校友关系对审计意见的影响——来自中国证券市场的经验证据

The Impact of Alumni Relation between Senior Managers and CPAs on Audit Opinions:Evidences from China's Securities Market

选取2005—2014年沪深两市A股上市公司为样本,研究上市公司高管与签字注册会计师之间的校友关系对审计意见的影响。研究发现:高管与签字注册会计师之间存在校友关系的上市公司,当年获得标准审计意见的可能性更大。进一步分析显示:当会计师事务所发生变更,高管与签字注册会计师由不存在校友关系变为存在校友关系时,变更当年上市公司很可能实现审计意见购买;高管与签字注册会计师存在校友关系的上市公司支付的审计费用相对较高。这些结果为校友关系影响外部独立审计提供了经验证据,投资者和监管部门应该关注裙带关系等软性因素对审计质量的影响。

By selecting the A-share listed companies from 2005 to 2014 in Shanghai and Shen- zhen stock markets as samples, this paper studies the impact of alumni relation between the execu- tives of listed companies and the CPAs on audit opinions. The result shows that the companies hav- ing alumni relation between the executives and the CPAs are more likely to obtain the standard audit opinion for that year. Further analysis shows that when the accounting finn is changed, and the alum- ni relation between the executives and the CPAs also changes from non-existence into existence, the listed company is likely to realize the purchase of audit opinion in the year of changing. And the listed company with such alumni relation between the executives and the CPAs may pay higher audit fee. These findings provide empirical evidences for the influence of alumni relation on external inde- pendent audit; therefore, the investors and the supervision departments should pay more attention to the impact of soft factors, such as nepotism and so on, on audit quality.