审计师关注媒体对高管的负面评价吗——基于差异性审计应对视角

Do Auditors Pay Attention to Negative Media Comments about Executives:Based on Differential Audit Response

审计报告改革后新增的关键审计事项内容可视为审计师对外披露的“工作底稿”,提供了沟通精细化审计流程的窗口。文章基于2016—2020年我国上市公司新型审计报告中关键审计事项部分的内容,考察上市公司高管负面新闻对审计师差异性应对的影响。研究发现,媒体对公司高管的负面报道越多,审计师在关键审计事项部分披露的差异化应对措施越丰富,表现为审计应对段文本的余弦相似度越低。横截面异质性检验发现,对于审计师“免责”动机较强的公司,高管负面新闻对审计应对差异化程度的影响更显著。机制检验表明,存在负面新闻越多的高管,其所在公司财务报告存在重大错报的控制风险和固有风险以及审计师的连带监察风险越高,进而导致审计应对的差异化程度越高。经济后果检验发现,审计师对媒体负面新闻的差异性应对增强了资本市场定价效率,降低了存在负面新闻公司的股价同步性水平。本文从差异性审计应对视角探讨了新型审计报告模式下外部媒体监督对审计师决策的影响,为推进审计报告改革提供了证据。

Key audit matters added after the reform of audit reports can be considered as the "working papers" disclosed by the auditors, providing a window for communicating the refined audit process.Based on the contents of key audit matters in the new audit report of listed companies in China from 2016 to 2020,this paper examines the impact of negative media coverage against executives of listed companies on auditors’ differential responses.The results suggest that the more negative media coverage of executives, the more diverse response measures auditors disclosed in its key audit matter section, with less similarity in the audit response paragraph.The cross-sectional heterogeneity test finds that the impact of negative executive news on the degree of differentiation in audit response is more pronounced for firms with a more substantial "disclaimer" motivation of their auditors.The mechanism analysis shows that negative executive news affect differential audit response in the following ways: the more negative news executives have, the higher the control and inherent risk of material misstatement in its companies’ financial reports and the higher auditor’s associated monitoring risk, leading to a higher degree of differentiation in the audit response.The economic consequences test reveals that auditors’ differential response to negative media news improves capital market pricing efficiency and lowers the level of stock price synchronization of companies with negative news.This paper explores the impact of external media oversight on auditor decision-making from the perspective of differential audit response, provides evidence to advance audit reporting reform.