信息发布者会计背景有助于提高信息可读性吗?--基于董秘个人特征的证据

Do Information Provider’s Accounting Background Improve Information Readability?Evidence from the Board Secretaries’Characteristics

可读性是理论界评判会计文本信息质量的重要标尺,而从公司治理的视角探究如何提高年度报告的可读性,则是现阶段国际学术界关注的前沿问题。本文紧密结合可读性"本体说"理论有关会计背景的最新论断开展后续深入研究,采用手工方式整理信息发布者--董秘个人特征与背景经历,并借助文本挖掘与灰色关联度提炼年度报告可读性,创新性地揭示了会计背景有助于信息发布者披露更可读的年度报告,这一结论在一系列稳健性检验后依旧成立。横截面分析发现,上述关系在信息发布者拥有法律背景、海外经历、其他管理职位兼职与持股时,以及诉讼风险较高、机构持股较多、持续负面盈余消息或暂时正面盈余消息的公司中更显著,但是信息发布者的政治关联会削弱上述作用的效果。进一步,本文发现信息发布者对可读性的贡献不仅可以提升自身薪酬水平,降低离职的可能性,而且还可以有效减弱信息不对称程度,最终提高公司价值。本文不仅是对会计信息可读性"本体说"理论的进一步延展及有效支撑,而且深化了高管团队披露会计文本信息的治理效应,为我国政府加强会计文本信息披露监管提供理论依据。

Prior studies have confirmed that readability is an important guarantee for the quality of information disclosure,which helps to reduce uncertainty and maintain the stability of the capital market.On the contrary,if the company discloses the annual report with less readability,it would not only seriously damage the information environment,but also further increase the risk of financial misstatement.Consequently,the company and its managers have strong motivation to seek the readability of the annual report,so as to reduce the negative impact.On the basis of the latest findings of the theory of Ontology about the significant role of accounting background,it applies hand-collected information providers’(i.e.,board secretaries)characteristics and experience information with the help of text mining and GRD to measure annual report readability.Additionally,we innovatively find that their accounting background can help to improve annual report readability.In cross-sectional analyses,we find that the association between information providers’accounting background and annual report readability is stronger when they also have legal background,international experience,duality,and equity holdings,and more pronounced for firms with high litigation risk,institutional ownership and persistent bad earnings news or transitory good earnings news,but weaker when they have political connection.Furthermore,we also find that information providers who issue high readability annual report tend to receive higher compensation and have more stable job retention.Finally,annual report readability appears to be negatively related to information asymmetry,and positively related to firm performance under the effort of information providers.The research conclusion of this paper has certain theoretical value and practical significance,which is not only a further vertical extension of the research results of Chychyla et al.(2019),but also an effective support for the theory of Ontology of readability,and enriches the relevant research results of information provider on the influence of information readability.Furthermore,it also has some enlightenment on how to ensure the quality of accounting text information from the level of corporate governance in management practice.Overall,these findings contribute to the theory of Ontology and have significant implications for the government to strengthen the supervision of narrative accounting information.This paper suggests that:on the one hand,the company should actively improve the ideological understanding,clarify the key role of accounting related professional knowledge in the selection of information providers,and properly prefer the information providers with excellent personal characteristics,such as accounting background,legal background and overseas background,or strengthen the training of accounting professional knowledge and legal professional knowledge of information providers in daily management,so as to gradually improve the performance efficiency of information providers and improve the annual report readability.On the other hand,the relevant regulatory agencies can further focus on the individual characteristics such as the professional technology or background experience of the actors,formulate various policies and regulations for information providers,and strengthen the governance of information disclosure readability from the institutional level,so as to effectively improve the quality of information disclosure and alleviate the internal and external information asymmetry,also promote the healthy and orderly development of the capital market.The limitations of this paper are as follows:Although this paper verifies that accounting background is helpful for information provider to disclose readable annual reports,how it affects various text elements of annual reports remains to be further explored.What’s more,as mentioned by Chychyla et al.(2019),the annual reports readability may be affected by complex accounting standards.Although this paper controls the fixed effect of industries,the in-depth analysis of special industries will be another focus of follow-up research.