中国上市公司审计委员会治理效率的实证研究

国外机构以及相关学者的研究认为,审计委员会应在监督财务报告、管理内部审计、审核内部控制制度等方面发挥作用,中国证监会还特别强调除此以外的对公司重大关联交易事项的审计。本文以对中国上市公司审计委员会的调查为依据,对审计委员会的治理效率进行了系统的实证观察。结果显示,我国上市公司审计委员会在维护信息披露的质量方面起到了一定的积极作用;但在防止上市公司财务舞弊、维护关联交易的规范性以及确保上市公司财务安全性等方面没有发挥显著作用。目前上市公司审计委员会的设置是外部制度约束的结果。     

上市公司审计委员会治理有效性的实证研究——来自沪深两市的经验证据

本文基于2002～2004年我国沪深两市A股上市公司审计委员会设立及其正常运转的基本数据,并立足于《上市公司治理准则》所赋予审计委员会的基本治理职能,以审计意见和事务所变更为反应变量,对审计委员会治理有效性进行了实证研究。研究发现,设立审计委员会的公司更不易被出具非标准审计意见,这一结果证实审计委员有效履行了财务信息质量控制和沟通协调的职能,并从审计质量的层面反映了监管层推进上市公司治理制度改革的政策效应。研究没有发现是否设立审计委员会和会计师事务所变更之间存在相关性,因而本文没有获得审计委员会实现有效监督职能的证据。本文还认为,现行的年度报告对审计委员会等董事会下设专业委员会活动和履职情况的信息披露尚不规范,由此可能影响投资者对公司治理结构有效性的判断。     

公司治理与上市公司信息披露违规的实证研究

本文以2002-2007年的公司数据为研究样本,用二分类logistic回归检验公司治理机制对上市公司信息披露违规的影响,发现:提高公司高管人员的持股比例、增加第一大股东持股比例、适当的董事会会议强度可以减少信息披露违规行为;上市公司所在地区的市场化程度越高、政府干预程度越低、法治及中介组织发育水平越高,上市公司信息披露越合规;审计意见为标准无保留的公司有更高的信息披露质量;两职兼任、独立董事比例、委员会数量对公司透明度均为无显著影响;会计绩效越好、资产负债率越低,公司的信息披露行为越规范。     

审计委员会制度与盈余质量的改善

本文采用2002年至2004年上市公司的数据.以盈余质量视角研究审计委员会制度的有效性.研究发现,基于各年截面数据,设有审计委员的上市公司均具有较高的盈余质量,同时也发现这种盈余质量上的差异已经存在于上市公司成立审计委员会的上一年.当控制这种成立前的盈余质量差异之后,本文发现,设立审计委员会前后,上市公司盈余质量没有显著变化.因此,本文结论并没有发现审计委员会在提高会计盈余质量方面已发挥了应有的作用.     

当前我国上市公司审计委员会制度存在的主要问题分析

审计委员会制度是英美等国家公司治理结构中的一项重要的制度安排。作为公司治理结构的一个组成部分,审计委员会在英美等西方发达国家的公司监管实践中对健全公司治理结构发挥了举足轻重的作用。理论上讲,审计委员会作为董事会下属的专门委员会,在财务信息披露、防止和发现财务报告欺诈、提高审计独立性及上市公司质量等方面能够发挥重要的监督作用,但当前审计委员会制度在我国的实践并没有发挥预期的效用。对此,笔者进行了深入的原因剖析。     

财务状况、新会计准则的实施与信息披露质量的实证研究——基于深交所制造业上市公司的经验证据

本文从财务状况,新会计准则的实施角度分析、讨论了它们与信息披露质量间的内在关系.本文以深圳证券交易所2006-2007年信息披露质量评级报告结果及281家制造业上市公司的面板数据为研究样本进行分析,实证结果表明,上市公司信息披露质量:(1)与资产负债率负相关;(2)与财务收益能力正相关;(3)与资产规模没有明显的相关性;(4)与新会计准则的实施正相关.     

基于Hotelling模型的上市公司信息披露在竞争中的溢出效应研究

本文利用Hotelling线性市场模型研究了上市公司信息披露对于市场竞争的影响。研究表明上市公司和竞争企业的定价策略与上市公司披露的信息质量密切相关：当披露高质量信息时,博弈双方的最优决策均为降低价格：当披露的是低质量信息时．博弈双方的最优决策均为提高价格。在市场分额方面．当上市公司披露高质量信息时,其市场份额会下降;而披露低质量信息时．其市场分额上升。披露高质量信息并不利于上市公司的竞争能力。同时．实证也表明在价格竞争条件下．信息披露质量与市场份额存在显著的负相关关系。     

上市公司信息披露质量的对策分析

上市公司盈余管理行为使其披露的会计信息在一定程度上存在着不准确、不充分等问题.本文从信息披露的动因出发,从博弈角度进行成本效益分析,最后提出提高上市公司信息披露质量的对策.     

上市公司自愿性信息披露的研究

随着中国资本市场的快速发展,投资者对上市公司信息披露的水平与质量要求越来越高,仅仅依靠强制性信息披露已不能满足投资者对信息多样化的需求,这就需要更多的自愿性信息披露。但我国自愿性信息披露发展还不够完善,因此,对上市公司自愿性信息披露研究很有必要。本文通过分析自愿性信息披露的动因以及我国上市公司自愿性信息披露存在的问题,提出我国实行自愿性信息披露的构想,对提高上市公司信息披露的透明度有指导性作用。     

投资者利益保护探讨:基于信息披露的视角

信息披露是投资者了解上市公司、证券监管机构监管上市公司的主要途径,上市公司披露的信息必须准确、真实,不得虚假记载、误导或欺诈。本文在分析信息披露对投资者的影响的基础上,揭示了我国上市公司信息披露存在的问题,并对提高上市公司信息披露质量、加强投资者利益保护提出了建议。     

Effective working relationships between audit committees and internal audit—the cornerstone of corporate governance in local authorities, a Welsh perspective

This research looks at the working relationship between audit committees and the internal audit function within Welsh local government. The focus is primarily on the working relationship from the perspective of the head of internal audit, also known as the Chief Audit Executive or Chief Internal Auditor [Head of internal audit will be used synonymously with that of Chief Audit Executive and Chief Internal Auditor]. Is it a marriage of convenience or a working relationship where the two can capitalise on what they both bring to the corporate governance arena? Reluctance by local government in Wales to embrace the merits of audit committees in the late 1990s means that local government is playing catch up with other public sector organisations. This in turn affects the recognition of the benefits of an effective audit committee capable of working with the internal audit function to promote sound corporate governance. Published guidelines by the UK public sector accountancy body in 2005 on the implementation of audit committees within local government made those organisations yet to establish an audit committee to rethink the situation, and were encouraged by the seemingly positive benefits of audit committees. Wales was no exception, and the 22 local authorities considered embracing the concept of audit committees. Consequently, this placed the internal audit function and head of internal audit under the spotlight in terms of the expectations of the audit committee members. Audit committees roles and responsibilities mean that they should assist councils and officers to ensure they undertake their responsibilities with probity and effectiveness, especially in respect of financial control. It is imperative that committee chairs and internal audit can function as a working team in order to be effective. Audit Committees have a role to assess the performance of the internal audit function, appoint heads of internal audit, support and promote the audit function within the organisation. It is therefore important that the heads of internal audit have confidence and respect for the audit committee and its chair in terms of the skill and knowledge it has of the audit role in relation to the financial and non-financial aspects of the organisation. Laura Spira (2003) comments on how very little research has been undertaken in relation to the audit committee activities, within the private sector, consequently very little is known about what they actually do, let alone how effective they are in undertaking their role. In a similar vein, the same is true of the public sector audit committee activities, especially when they have tended to adopt the private sector audit committee as a blue print to their own audit committee development.     

Does social exchange relationship impair audit committee effectiveness?

This research applies the three-tier agency theory and social exchange theory to study the role of audit committees in improving financial reporting quality and reducing the likelihood of earnings restatements. Utilizing a matched sample of restated and non-restated U.S. listed firms between 2002 and 2005, this paper finds that firms with a larger proportion of audit committee members appointed after the CEO are associated with higher incidences of restatements, while the presence of an all-independent nomination committee is associated with a lower likelihood of restatements. The paper also shows that firms whose audit committee members have longer average tenure and receive higher director compensation are associated with a smaller likelihood of restatements. Finally, the paper documents changes in the impact of audit committee characteristics on financial restatements after the enactment of the Sarbanes–Oxley Act. Overall, our results suggest that audit committees’ effectiveness in supervising financial reporting quality is affected by social exchange processes and the broad social context.     

The Governance Role of Audit Committees: Reviewing a Decade of Evidence

Even though audit committees have traditionally been a key component of corporate governance regulation, the last decade has witnessed a greater emphasis on audit committee regulation and a parallel intensification of academic research on the subject. This review synthesizes recent empirical research seeking to investigate various aspects of audit committees’ governance role. The review is structured around current regulatory expectations of audit committees seeking to document the extent to which specific characteristics of good practice influence various components of audit committee effectiveness. It is found that larger and more independent audit committees as well as those with financial expertise are more likely to seek a higher level of external audit coverage and assurance. There is also evidence that more independent audit committees are associated with the purchase of lower levels of non‐audit services from auditors, thereby seeking to preserve the independence of the external audit process. There seems a consensus that more independent audit committees and those with greater accounting/financial expertise have a positive impact on the quality of financial statements. Evidence on the stock market reaction to audit committee issues suggests that investors both welcome the presence of audit committees and react positively when members are appointed with relevant expertise. It is also found that internal auditors view certain audit committee characteristics, specifically independence, expertise and frequency of meetings, as leading to more effective audit committee performance. In summary, therefore, this review documents a significant amount of evidence offering support to current regulations concerning the desired characteristics of audit committees.     

Audit committee and internal audit and the quality of earnings: empirical evidence from Spanish companies

Corporate scandals and failures such as Enron, WorldCom, etc. were highly catastrophic and had a terrible effect on stakeholders. The pressure of globalisation and the intense competition have lead to organisations encouraging good corporate governance. Organisations have to promote transparency and accountability of financial information. As Gramling et al. (J Account Lit 23:194–244, 2004) argued there are four important mechanisms of corporate governance include boards of directors, audit committees (among others) and internal and external audit functions. However, this paper will focus on the relationship between two corporate governance mechanisms (audit committee and internal audit function). Thus, our purpose is to analyse the relation between characteristics of the audit committee and internal audit function and earnings management measured as abnormal accruals to test the quality of financial statements. We hypothesise that the association between the effectiveness of the audit committee and the presence of an internal audit function and its relationship with this committee would indicate less opportunity for management to manipulate earnings. Using a sample of 108 non-financial Spanish companies that traded on the Madrid Stock Exchange between 2003 and 2006 (432 observations), we have found that the size and number of meetings of the audit committee had a significant negative association with earnings manipulations. Also, our results suggest that a negative relation between having an internal audit function and earnings management.     

On the relationship between compliance with recommendations on the audit committee of codes of good practices and financial reporting quality

Codes of good practices provide a soft alternative to the hard legislation approach to corporate governance. These codes include a set of recommendations that companies are expected to follow in order to enhance governance structures and practices. Some of these recommendations specifically aim to improve the effectiveness of the audit committee. We investigate the relationship between the level of compliance with recommendations on the audit committee of the Spanish Unified Code and financial reporting quality, as measured by discretionary accruals and by the opinion of the audit report. We use a sample of companies listed in the Spanish stock market for the years between 2007 and 2013. Results show a strong and positive relationship between the level of compliance with recommendations and the quality of financial reporting. We also report significant results for some specific recommendations. These results are robust to various checks. Therefore, the level of compliance with recommendations on the audit committee might provide a feasible and reliable indicator of the quality of financial reports released by the company.     

How to manage corporate reputation? The effect of enterprise risk management systems and audit committees on corporate reputation

Research on corporate reputation has generally argued that reputational risk, or risk of reputation loss, stems from all company risks. As companies use enterprise risk management (ERM) systems to manage all their risks, we analyse the effect of ERM system quality on corporate reputation. Furthermore, as audit committees are in charge of supervising ERM systems, we analyse the effect of audit committee characteristics (i.e. independence and independent members' knowledge and diligence) on corporate reputation through their effect on ERM system quality. Our results for a sample of listed Spanish firms support consultants’ arguments that ERM system is a useful tool for managing corporate reputation. Our results also show that audit committee independence improves corporate reputation through the ERM system. Finally, our findings also reveal a positive relationship between the average educational level of independent directors of the audit committee and ERM system quality. These results provide evidence that ERM systems are platforms to manage corporate reputations and suggest the importance of the audit committee as a supervisor of ERM system and as guarantor of corporate reputation.     

Corporate governance and social norms during financial crisis: evidence from France and Saudi Arabia

The resistance to financial crisis and compliance with social norms and effectiveness of corporate governance mechanisms is considered recently as a good matter of concern. Focusing on differences between French and Saudi firms, we examine the effect of (1) board of directors, (2) audit committee, (3) compliance with Corporate Social Responsibility activities, (4) compliance with Shariah principles on financial volatility during subprime crisis of 2007. We find that larger boards, larger audit committees, independent members on boards and audit committees are related negatively to financial volatility. The result supports corporate governance theory which suggests that corporate governance variables outlined provide effective of monitoring of the management thereby enhancing firm’s resistance to financial crisis. In addition, we find that compliance with CSR alone does not explain the financial volatility. Its concert with corporate governance variables is necessary. This result supports stakeholder theory which argues that companies compliant with CSR activities in their business strategy and have larger boards and audit committees, and independent directors on boards and audit committees resist more financial downturns and any economic shock. Furthermore, we find that compliance with Shariah norms plays a significant role in protecting shareholder interests, improving functioning of corporate governance mechanisms and affect positively the resistance of Saudi firms to financial crisis.     

The Corporate Governance Effects of Audit Committees

Arguments associated with the promotion of audit committees in many countries are premised on their potential for alleviating weaknesses in corporate governance. This paper provides a synthesis and evaluation of empirical research on the governance effects associated with audit committees. Given recent policy recommendations in several countries aimed at strengthening these committees, it is important to establish what research evidence demonstrates about their existing governance contribution.A framework for analyzing the impact of audit committees is described, identifying potential perceived effects which may have led to their adoption and documented effects on aspects of the audit function, on financial reporting quality and on corporate performance. It is argued that there is only limited and mixed evidence of effects to support claims and perceptions about the value of audit committees for these elements of governance. It is also shown that most of the existing research has focused on factors associated with audit committee existence, characteristics and measures of activity and there is very little evidence on the processes associated with the operation of audit committees and the manner in which they influence organizational behaviour.It is clear that there is no automatic relationship between the adoption of audit committee structures or characteristics and the achievement of particular governance effects, and caution may be needed over expectations that greater codification around factors such as audit committee members' independence and expertise as the means of correcting past weaknesses in the arrangements for audit committees. The most fundamental question concerning what difference audit committees make in practice continues to be an important area for research development. For future research we suggest (i) greater consideration of the organizational and institutional contexts in which audit committees operate; (ii) explicit theorization of the processes associated with audit committee operation; (iii) complementing extant research methods with field studies; and (iv) investigation of unintended (behavioural) as well as expected consequences of audit committees.