审计师对上市公司商誉减值的风险应对

Auditors’ response to goodwill impairment:Evidence from China

文章利用中国A股上市公司2007-2017年数据,考察了审计师对客户商誉减值行为的反应,结果发现,商誉减值损失与审计努力程度、审计费用以及审计师出具非标审计意见的倾向之间均呈显著正向关系,这表明,审计师会将商誉减值视为风险提高的标志,从而通过提高审计努力程度、收取更高的审计费用、提高出具非标准审计意见的倾向等手段来应对相关风险.进一步研究发现:1)商誉减值会导致公司经营风险和财务报表重大错报风险提高,这可能是审计师相关反应的重要原因.2)就审计投入决策和审计意见决策而言,审计师仅对客户过度计提商誉减值的行为敏感;但就审计定价决策而言,审计师对客户商誉减值计提不足的行为更敏感.3)与国有企业相比,在非国有企业中审计师对商誉减值的反应更明显;4)与非"四大"相比,"四大"对商誉减值的反应更为明显.此外,在商誉减值密集行业及密集年份,审计师对客户的商誉减值行为更敏感.这一研究不仅有助于了解审计师对商誉减值相关风险的感知和应对,而且可以为商誉及其减值的监管提供参考.

Based on a sample of A-share listed companies in China from 2007 through 2017,this paper investigates auditors’ response to goodwill impairment.The results show that goodwill impairment loss has a significant and positive effect on audit effort(measured by audit delay),audit fees,and auditors’ propensity to issue modified audit opinions.The results indicate that auditors regard goodwill impairment as the sign of high risk,and consequently,they respond to the risk by improving audit effort,charging higher audit fees and issuing more modified audit opinions.Further test shows that:1) Goodwill impairment can increase the companies’ business risk and the risk of misstatement of financial statements,which may be the crucial reason for the auditors’ relevant reaction;2) auditors are only sensitive to positive unexpected goodwill impairment when they are making audit effort decisions and audit opinion decisions,as to audit pricing decisions,however,they are more sensitive to negative unexpected impairment goodwill.3) auditors pay more attention to the goodwill impairment of non-state-owned enterprises than state-owned enterprises;4) compared to the non-Big 4,Big 4 auditors fixate more attention on the risk related to the impairment of goodwill.Additionally,auditors are more sensitive to clients’ goodwill impairment in the industries and in the years with high goodwill impairment.This paper contributes to understand Chinese auditors’ perception and response to the risk associated with goodwill impairment,and provides practical reference for regulators.