民营企业“反向混改”与审计意见

Reverse Mixed Ownership Reform of Private Enterprises and Audit Opinion

文章利用2008—2020年A股非金融类民营上市公司数据,同时以前十大股东中国有股东的持股比例及其是否超过10%度量反向混改,进而检验反向混改对审计师出具非标意见的倾向的影响。结果表明,反向混改可以显著降低公司收到非标审计意见的可能。机制性检验表明,反向混改部分地通过提高会计信息质量、降低经营风险来降低审计师出具非标意见的倾向。异质性检验表明,反向混改对审计意见的负向影响仅存在于公司信息不对称程度高、所在地区法治环境差及事务所的客户重要性低情况下。此外,反向混改对审计意见的影响主要来自非金融国有机构持股。这一研究不仅可以从审计意见的角度拓展反向混改经济后果的文献,而且可以加深对所有权结构与审计师决策之间关系的理解。

Using the data of A-share non-financial private listed companies from 2008 to 2020,this paper explores the impact of the reverse mixed ownership reform on the tendency of auditors to issue modified audit opinions.The reverse mixed ownership reform is measured by the shareholding ratio of the state-owned capital among the top ten shareholders and the 10% exceeding ratio of the state-owned shareholders.The results show that the reverse mixed ownership reform is significantly negatively related with modified audit opinion.The results of mechanism tests demonstrate that the reverse mixed ownership reform partially reduces the tendency of auditors to issue modified opinions by improving accounting information quality and decreasing business risk.The heterogeneity tests show that the impact of reverse mixed ownership reform on audit opinion only exists in the companies with higher information asymmetry and weaker regional legal environments and when the client importance at accounting firm level is lower.Besides,the negative effect of reverse mixed ownership reform on audit opinion mainly comes from the shareholding of nonfinancial state-owned entities institutions.This study can not only enrich the research on the economic consequences of reverse mixed ownership reform from the perspective of audit opinion,but also deepen the understanding of the relationship between ownership structure and auditor's decision behavior.