战略变革会引起审计师变更吗？——基于中国上市公司的经验数据

Will Strategic Change Affect Auditor Switch? Empirical Evidence from Chinese Listed Firms

以2007—2016年我国A股上市公司为研究样本,探讨战略变革如何影响审计师变更。研究发现:战略变革程度越高,公司越可能发生审计师变更,表明公司内部战略的改变可能导致与第三方监督者的关系重构;相比非国有企业,国有企业的战略变革导致审计师变更的可能性更低。进一步地,从客户选择和审计师辞聘两个视角挖掘审计师变更的深层次原因,发现战略变革更易导致不具备行业专长或声誉较低的审计师发生变更;另外,风险较小公司的审计师更可能因为战略变革而辞聘客户;此外,研究还发现更换审计师加剧了战略变革对企业财务报告质量的负向影响。

Based on the A-share listed companies from 2007 to 2016,we examine how strategic change affects auditor switch.First,we find a positive relation between strategic change and auditor switch,indicating that changes in the company's internal strategy may lead to re-establishment of relationships with third-party supervisors;second,compared with non-state enterprises,state-owned enterprise strategic changes would lead to a lower likelihood of auditors changing.Additionally,this paper analyzes the deeper reasons for auditor switch from two perspectives of customer choice and auditor resignation,finding that strategic changes are more likely to cause auditor switch when former auditors are non-industry-experts or from less reputable audit firms;on the other hand,strategic changes are also more likely to cause auditor switch in lower-risk companies;third,the replacement of auditors aggravates the negative impact of strategic changes on the financial reporting quality.