审计师社会网络关系与企业风险承担——基于A股上市公司的经验分析

Auditors'Social Network Relationship and Enterprise Risk-taking:An Empirical Analysis of A-share Listed Companies

以2010—2018年A股上市公司为研究样本,分析并检验审计师社会网络关系对企业风险承担的影响。研究发现:审计师社会网络关系能够提升企业风险承担水平;机制检验表明,审计师社会网络关系能够通过缓解融资约束、降低信息不对称、缓和代理问题进而提高企业风险承担水平。进一步检验还发现,当审计任期较短、客户面临的投资机会较多、客户外部融资需求较高、客户所在地区营商环境较差时,审计师社会网络关系对企业风险承担的正向影响更显著;相较于政治型社会网络,审计师的商业型社会网络更有助于提高企业风险承担水平。经济后果研究表明,由审计师社会网络关系导致的企业风险承担水平的提高,最终有利于提升企业价值。研究结论可以为审计师事务所积累人力资本和社会资本、独立审计发挥监督职能以及微观企业拓宽资源获取渠道等提供思路。

Taking A-share listed companies from 2010 to 2018 as research samples,this paper analyzes and examines the impact of auditors'social network relationships on corporate risk-taking.The result shows that that auditors'social network relationships can enhance corporate risk-taking.The mechanism test indicates that auditors'social networks can enhance the level of corporate risk-taking by alleviating financing constraints,reducing information asymmetry,and alleviating agency problems.Furthermore,Further tests show that when the audit tenure is shorter,the clients face more investment opportunities,the higher the customers'external financing demand,and the worse the business environment in the area where the customers are located,the auditor social network relationship has a more significant positive impact on corporate risk-taking.Compared with the political social network,the commercial social network of auditors is more helpful to improve the risk-taking level of enterprises.The study of economic consequences shows that the improvement of the level of enterprise risk taking caused by the auditors'social network relationship is ultimately conducive to the promotion of enterprise value.The above research conclusions can provide ideas for firms to accumulate human capital and social capital,independent audit to play a supervisory role,and micro-enterprises to expand access to resources.