上市公司高管——事务所关联、审计意见与高管离职:来自美国的实证分析

Association of Listed Company Senior Executive with Office,Audit Opinion and Senior Executive Turnover: An Empirical Analysis of USA Listed Companies

目前我国对于关联关系的研究主要集中于关联方交易以及政治关联,较少触及审计关联。上市公司高管—事务所关联主要有三种类型:工作关联、母体关联以及偶然关联。本文通过对美国上市公司的实证分析,得出以下结论:拥有关联高管的公司更经常得到"干净"的审计意见;审计意见对于高管离职实际上扮演着调节效应的角色,且随着不利审计意见的公布,关联高管的离职率更高。鉴于关联关系损害审计质量,我国的监管机构应该在此方面有所行动:出台禁止工作关联的法案,从而设置屏障防止上市公司聘任自己曾经工作过的会计师事务所或审计人员;会计师事务所应改变审计测试方法、变更审计小组成员以防止审计人员的审计意见受到个人友谊或信任的影响。

At present the study of association relationship in China mainly focuses on associated party transactions and political association and seldom touches audit association. There are three types of association between listed company senior executive and the office： work association,maternal association and accidental association.Through empirically analyzing American listed companies,this paper has drawn the following conclusions： the companies with associated senior executives often get ＂ clean＂ audit opinions; audit opinions play a moderating role in the turnover of senior executives,and with the announcement of unfavorable audit opinions,the turnover rate of associated senior executives is even higher. In view of the fact that the association relationship is harmful to audit quality,China regulatory authorities should take the following governance measures： a work-association prohibition law should be introduced to set up a barrier to prevent listed companies from hiring accountants or auditors who once worked for them; and accounting firms should change their auditing test method and the members of the audit team to prevent the auditor＇s opinion from being influenced by personal friendship or trust.