党组织嵌入、公司治理改善与审计师决策

CPC Organization Embedding,Corporate Governance Improvement and Auditor Decision-Making

党组织通过双向进入和交叉任职有机嵌入公司治理体系是我国特有的制度安排,也是新一轮企业改革的重要抓手。现有文献研究表明党组织嵌入有效改善了企业的公司治理和经营绩效,然而对于党组织嵌入能否改善企业与其他经济主体之间关系的研究不足,尤其缺乏相关经验证据。本文认为,党组织嵌入可以通过改善公司治理有效降低企业的经营风险和重大错报风险,而被审计单位的经营风险和重大错报风险是决定审计师决策的重要因素,因而被审计企业的党组织嵌入与审计师决策之间会表现出明显的相关性,而且这种相关性的强弱与党组织嵌入的公司治理改善效应大小有关。当企业初始的公司治理水平较低(如内部控制质量较差)时,党组织嵌入的公司治理改善效应较大,因而党组织嵌入与审计师决策的相关性也较强;当企业基层党组织的党建工作加强时,党组织嵌入的公司治理改善效应会增大,因而党组织嵌入与审计师决策的相关性也会增强。本文以2010—2019年沪深两市A股上市公司为样本,考察党组织嵌入(双向进入和交叉任职)与审计师决策(审计意见和审计收费)之间的关系,研究发现:被审计企业的党组织嵌入程度与审计师出具非标准审计意见的概率和审计收费显著负相关,被审计企业内部控制质量负向调节这种负相关性(内部控制质量的提高会弱化负相关性),且在党的十八大后这种负相关性比之前更显著。可见,党组织嵌入必须有效改善公司治理并降低企业的经营风险和重大错报风险,才能提高审计师出具标准审计意见的概率和降低审计收费;党组织嵌入不仅会带来企业自身的效率提升,还可以改善企业与其他经济主体之间的关系,降低市场运行的交易成本,进而促进整个社会的福利增加和效率提升。相比现有文献,本文尝试从企业与其他经济主体的关系角度探究党组织嵌入带来的积极影响,拓展了关于党组织嵌入的经济效应研究,也深化了关于审计师决策影响因素和机制的研究。本文通过对被审计企业党组织嵌入与审计师决策之间关系的分析,揭示了党组织嵌入可以通过改善公司治理以及传递积极信号降低企业与会计师事务所之间的交易费用,有助于深化对党组织嵌入的整体效应认识,进而为进一步完善企业党组织嵌入机制和加强企业基层党组织建设提供经验借鉴和政策启示。

The organic embedding of CPC organization in the corporate governance system through two-way entry and cross-appointment is a unique institutional arrangement in China,and it is also an important starting point for a new round of enterprise reform.The existing literature shows that the embedding of CPC organizations has effectively improved the corporate governance and business performance of enterprises,but there is insufficient research on whether the embedding of CPC organization can improve the relationship between enterprises and other economic entities,especially the lack of relevant empirical evidence.This paper argues that the embedding of CPC organizations can effectively reduce the operational risks and major misstatement risks of enterprises by improving corporate governance.The operational risk and major misstatement risk of the audited unit are important factors that determine the auditor′s decision-making,so there will be a clear correlation between the embedding of CPC organization in the audited enterprise and the decision-making of the auditor,and the strength of this correlation is related to the degree of the improvement effect of the corporate governance brought by the embedding of CPC organization.When the initial corporate governance level of the enterprise is low(such as poor internal control quality),the corporate governance improvement effect of CPC organization embeddedness is greater,so the correlation between CPC organization embeddedness and auditors′decision-making is also strong.When the Party building work of the grassroots Party organization of the enterprise is strengthened,the improvement effect of corporate governance brought by the embedding of CPC organization will increase,so the correlation between CPC organization embeddedness and auditor decision-making will also be enhanced.This paper takes A-share listed companies in Shanghai and Shenzhen stock exchanges from 2010 to 2019 as samples to examine the relationship between CPC organization embeddedness(two-way entry and cross-appointment)and auditor decision-making(audit opinion and audit fees).The study found that the embeddedness of CPC organization in the audited enterprises is significantly negatively correlated with the probability of the auditors issuing non-standard audit opinions and audit fees,and the internal control quality of the audited enterprises negatively regulates this negative correlation(the improvement of the internal control quality will weaken the negative correlation),and this negative correlation is more significant after the 18 th National Congress of the Communist Party of China than before.It can be seen that the embedding of CPC organizations must effectively improve corporate governance and reduce the operational risks and major misstatement risks of enterprises,so as to increase the probability of auditors issuing standard audit opinions,and reduce audit fees.The embedding of CPC organizations will not only improve the efficiency of enterprises,but also improve the relationship between enterprises and other economic entities,reduce the transaction cost of market operation,thus promoting the welfare and efficiency of the whole society.Compared with the existing literature,this paper attempts to explore the positive impact of CPC organization embedding from the perspective of the relationship between enterprises and other economic entities,expands the research on the economic effects of CPC organization embedding,and also deepens the research on the influencing factors and mechanisms of auditor decision-making.Through the analysis of the relationship between the embedding of CPC organization in audited enterprises and the decision-making of auditors,this paper reveals that CPC organization embedding can reduce transaction costs between enterprises and accounting firms by improving corporate governance and transmitting positive signals,which is conducive to deepening the understanding of the overall effect of CPC organization embedding,and providing experience reference and policy enlightenment for further improving the embedding mechanism of CPC organization in enterprises and strengthening the construction of grass-roots party organizations in enterprises.