摘要
注册会计师提供非审计服务已有一百多年的历史,国际上的某些大型会计师事务所,非审计服务的产生也早于审计服务。但研究非审计服务对审计独立性的影响,却始于20世纪中叶。在当时,美国著名的Cohen报告就曾经研究过这一问题,得出的结论是非审计服务没有损害审计独立性。20世纪90年代,非审计服务的发展达到了巅峰时期,非审计服务的收费也以飞快的速度在增长,非审计服务费用已经远远地超过了审计服务费用。非审计服务的这种发展势头似乎使一些业内组织闻到了一丝丝“威胁”的味道,所以,SEC在2000年开展的以全面禁止非审计服务为目的的独立性规则修订运动也就变得顺理成章。虽然这场运动声势浩大,但遭到了AICPA和“五大”会计师事务所的强烈反对,SEC对非审计服务的态度因此由“全面禁止”变成了“个别限制”。而2001年安然事件的爆发,又使得业内“旧事重提”,开始了新一轮非审计服务到底会不会损害审计独立性的研究,但时至今日,也没有明确的论断。
在我国,虽然非审计服务的发展没有国际上那么强势,但为了适应国际化的要求,也为了使我国的会计师事务所具有国际竞争力,我国的非审计服务逐渐进入了人们的视野,受到了人们的重视。需要非审计服务的上市公司越来越多,非审计服务费用也逐渐增长,甚至已经超过了审计费用。我国的非审计服务是否会降低审计的独立性这个问题,也就成为了业内学者倍受关注的话题。本文以非审计服务中对审计独立性的威胁最受争议的部分----非鉴证服务为研究对象,以2006-2008年我国出具新准则之后的数据为样本,研究非鉴证服务在我国是否会有损审计独立性。笔者在搜集资料整理数据之后也发现,我国的非鉴证服务在形式上确实已经威胁了审计的独立性,那么在实质上是否也是如此呢?本文将会对这一问题进行深入的探讨,通过这种研究希望人们能够对非鉴证服务有一个基本的认识,也希望能够为我国制定相关政策和措施提供一些小小的帮助。
本文共分为六章,各章内容简要介绍如下:
第一章:引言
引言部分主要介绍了本文的研究背景和意义、研究方法和内容以及研究特色。本文通过理论研究与实证分析相结合的方法从实质上深入探析非鉴证服务是否会对审计独立性造成负面影响,从而对我国开展这方面的工作提供政策性建议,并通过简单的结构图阐述了本文的研究框架。
第二章:文献回顾
对于国外关于非审计服务对审计独立性影响的研究,本文分为规范研究和实证研究两个方面分别阐述。其中规范研究分为四种观点,即:非审计服务会损害审计独立性、非审计服务不会损害审计独立性、非审计服务不但不会损害独立性反而会对独立性有所帮助、非审计服务对审计独立性既有正面影响又有负面影响;实证研究从审计意见、盈余管理和审计师变更三个角度分别介绍了非审计服务对审计独立性的影响。对于国内的研究,笔者通过总结发现我国的学者对于这方面的研究大多都是规范研究,并且认为非审计服务对审计独立性既有正面影响又有负面影响。
第三章:非鉴证服务与审计独立性相关理论研究
在理论研究这章中,本文介绍了美国注册会计师协会(AICPA)对注册会计师业务的划分和我国注册会计师协会对注册会计师业务的划分,简单阐述了两者划分的特点,并通过比较得出本文非鉴证服务的定义以及范围;同时介绍了非鉴证服务的经济学理论基础----寻租理论,并从注册会计师和被审计单位两方面介绍了非鉴证服务的寻租行为。
在审计独立性的相关理论研究中,本文主要介绍了有关审计独立性的概念,审计独立性的潜在威胁,并介绍了非鉴证服务可能从哪些方面会对审计独立性造成威胁,最后阐述了非鉴证服务与审计独立性的关系。
第四章:非鉴证服务与审计独立性之相关性的研究设计
研究设计包括四个方面:假设的提出,变量的设置,样本的选择,模型的设立。
鉴于学者们对非审计服务对审计独立性影响的研究与本文分析的两者的关系,本文提出的假设为:非鉴证服务与审计独立性正相关,即:非鉴证服务不会降低审计独立性,可能会对审计独立性有积极的影响。
由于审计独立性无法量化,在实证研究中无法直接采用,所以本文选用审计意见作为审计独立性的替代变量。审计意见是审计师的审计结果,它是对审计师独立性的直接反应,所以本文将其设为因变量,由于审计意见为虚拟变量,所以非标审计意见设为1,标准审计意见设为0。非鉴证服务费用及其占非鉴证服务费用和鉴证服务费用两者总和的比值作为自变量,通过绝对指标和相对指标两个方面分别分析非鉴证服务对审计独立性的影响。控制变量中,本文分别通过审计意见的变更、公司规模、经营业绩、盈余管理和事务所规模等几个角度选取变量,以减小其他因素对审计意见的影响,从而增强模型的可靠性。
本文选择2006-2008年三年的数据作为样本,剔除了金融行业的数据、信息披露不完整的数据、没有由同一会计师事务所同时提供鉴证服务与非鉴证服务的上市公司数据。
本文选用二项Logistic回归模型作为分析非鉴证服务与审计独立性相关性的分析模型。建立分析模型如下:
LN(p/1-p)=β0+β1nafee+β2nafeeratio+β31nasset+β4chanopin+β5r-ecerio+β6noncenrev+β7netrio+β8percf+β9topl0+ε
其中,p是上市公司取得非标准审计意见的概率,1-p是上市公司取得标准审计意见的概率。各变量的含义依次为:非鉴证服务费用、非鉴证服务费用占比、上市公司期末总资产的自然对数、审计意见变更、期末存货/期末总资产、非核心收益、资产净利率、每股经营现金流量和会计师事务所是否是十大。
第五章:非鉴证服务与审计独立性之相关性的研究结果分析
本部分首先简单介绍了鉴证服务费用与非鉴证服务费用的披露情况,指出了我国的信息披露情况不是很乐观。然后对样本进行了描述性统计,包括行业的描述性统计、审计意见的描述性统计和样本实证分析的描述性统计。在样本实证分析的描述性统计中本文用到了K-S检验、非参数检验和T检验,通过对样本进行检验初步得到的结论是非鉴证服务费用及其比值对审计意见的影响并不显著。然后本文又通过多重共线性分析检验了模型的可靠程度。
在回归分析中,本文首先进行了模型的合理性分析、拟合优度分析和错判矩阵分析,通过这些分析得出本文模型是具有可信性的。回归的结果得出的结论是:非鉴证服务与审计意见正相关,但没有通过显著性检验,这说明非鉴证服务不会损害审计独立性,与本文的假设相一致。其他的控制变量的回归结果也基本与本文预计的一致,其中公司资产规模、总资产净利润率和审计意见的变更在5%的水平下显著,期末存货与期末总资产的比和非核心收益在10%的水平下显著。
第六章:发展非鉴证服务的政策建议
在本章中,本文通过前文介绍的国内外非鉴证服务的发展现状及比较,阐述了我国开展非鉴证服务的必要性、存在的问题和政策建议。政策建议主要包括:(1)规范鉴证服务费用和非鉴证服务费用的信息披露;(2)以信息披露为前提,辩证地对待非鉴证服务;(3)加强注册会计师的行业自律;(4)加强政府和行业组织对本土非鉴证服务市场的推动作用;(5)加强监管力度,对非鉴证服务进行适当的干预。
本文的研究贡献主要有:(1)进一步明确了非审计服务与非鉴证服务的定义,并将本文的研究范围固定在非鉴证服务上;(2)本文选用了最近三年的数据,研究了非鉴证服务最近在我国的发展情况对审计独立性的影响,具有时效性;(3)本文立足于我国的审计市场,通过理论与实证相结合的方式验证了在我国目前发展非鉴证服务的可行性,并结合国内外非鉴证服务发展的情况,对我国关于非鉴证服务的发展提出了政策性的建议。
本文的局限性主要表现在:(1)由于信息披露的有限,本文选择的样本量有限,并且有可能遗漏了某些发生了非鉴证服务但是没有进行披露的公司,从而可能导致实证的结果有一定的误差;(2)由于本阶段我国开展非鉴证服务的项目有限,目前可能做不到对非鉴证服务的各个项目再进行细分和进一步的研究;(3)由于一些影响因素的信息无法获得,难免遗漏可能存在而未被识别的潜在影响因素,导致研究未针对这些因素展开。
CPA providing non-audit services has a history of more than one hundred years, in some of the major international accounting firms, the production of non-audit services was earlier than audit services'.But the study of the influence of non-audit services on the audit independence started in the middle of 20th century. At that time, the famous American Cohen report once studied the problem, but did not draw the conclusion that non-audit services would damage the independence of audit. In the 1990s, non-audit services development reached a peak period, non-audit services charging also increased fast, non-audit services fee has been far more than the audit services fee. This development momentum of non-audit services seems to make some industry organization smell the trace of "threat", therefore, for the purpose of banning the non-audit services, the movement of the independence rules revision which was started by the SEC in 2000 also became reasonable. Although this movement was powerful, the SEC got the strong opposition of AICPA and the "top five".The attitude of the SEC to non-audit services from "ban" into "individual".The outbreak of Enron event in 2001,made the industry "bring up the past",began a new study that non-audit services will damage the audit independence or not, but until today, there is no clear judgment.
In China, although the development of non-audit services is less strong than which is in the world. But in order to meet the requirements of internationalization and make our certified public accountants offices have international competitiveness, the non-audit services in our country has entered the industry gradually, and caused people's attention. More and more companies need non-audit services, the non-audit services fees are also increasing, even has exceeded the audit fee. The problem of our non-audit services would reduce audit independence or not, therefore became the attention of scholars.This paper with the most controversial parts in non-audit services----the non-attestation services as the research object, with the data between the year of 2006 to 2008 when our country issued the new standards as the samples, study that non-attestation services in China is beneath the audit independence or not. Through sorting data, the author found that non-attestation services have threatened the audit independence formally, so also are in essence? Based on this issue this paper will discuss the problem further, through which can make people have a basic understanding about non-attestation; also can provide some little help to formulate relevant policies and measures in China.
This paper is divided into six chapters, the content of chapters are introduced as follows:
Chapter 1:Introduction
Preface part of this paper mainly introduces the background and significance, research methods and research contents and features. Through the method of combining theoretical research and empirical analysis, the author deeply analyze that non-attestation services will adversely affect the independence of audit in China or not in essence, and provide policy suggestions for starting relevant work, and through simple chart describes the research framework.
Chapter 2:Literature reviewing
This paper will into two aspects which are normative research and empirical research respectively to interpret the studies of non-audit services on audit independence overseas.Among the normative research, there are four views, namely:non-audit services will damage the audit independence, non-audit services won't harm the audit independence, non-audit services will not only damage independence and help, the influence on audit independence both positive and negative; Empirical studies from the auditing opinions and earnings management and the auditor change three perspectives respectively introduces non-audit services to the influence of audit independence. For domestic research, the author found that the Chinese scholars about the study most of which are on the attitude of neutral, and think that non-audit services have positive effects on audit independence and negative effects.
Chapter 3:The related theory research of non-attestation services and audit independence
In this chapter of theory studies, this paper introduces the American institute of certified public accountants (AICPA) to provide professional services of certified public accountants and Chinese CPA association of professional services of certified public accountants, simple describes division characteristic between the above two, and through comparing the characteristic to verification that the definition and scope of services; introduces the economics theory of non-attestation services----rent-seeking theories, and introduce the rent-seeking behavior of non-attestation in the two aspects of certified public accountings and the auditees.
In the research of related theory of audit independence, this paper introduces the concept of audit independence, the potential threats of audit independence, and introduces that in what aspect can non-attestation services threat to audit independence, finally describes the relationship of non-attestation services and audit independence.
Chapter 4:The study design of the correlation between non-attestation services and audit independence
Study design includes four aspects:the assumption, variable settings, samples, the establishment of the choice model.
Since the studies of scholars to the influence of non-audit services on audit independence and analyzing about the relationship between the two, this paper puts forward assumption:non-attestation services positively related to the audit independence, namely:non-attestation services will not. reduce the audit independence, may have a positive impact.
Since audit independence cannot be quantified, and it cannot adopt directly in the empirical study, so this paper apply the audit opinion as alternative variable of audit independence. The audit opinion is the auditor's audit result, it is the direct reaction of audit independence, so this paper set it as the dependent variable, due to the auditing opinions for virtual variable, so the non-standard audit opinion set to 1,standard audit opinion set to 0.The non-attestation services fees and the ratio of non-attestation services fees take the sum of non-attestation services fees and attestation services fees as independent variables, through the absolute index and relative index respectively to analysis the influence of non-attestation services on the audit independence. Among the control variables, this paper through the aspects such as audit opinion changes, the companies' scale, the operating performance and earnings management and accounting offices'scale, in order to decrease the other factors affect on the auditing opinions, thereby enhancing the reliability of the models.
This paper chooses the data of the three years of 2006-2008 as the sample, out of the financial industry data, incomplete information disclosure data, and the data of not provide attestation services and non-attestation services by the same firms.
This paper selects binomial Logistic regression model as the analysis model of the correction between non-attestation services and audit independence. Establish analysis model are as follows:
LN(p/1-p)=β0+β1nafee+β2nafeeratio+β3lnasset+β4chanopin+β5recerio+β6nonc enrev+β7netrio+β8percf+β9top10+e
Among them, p is listed the probability of company to obtain non-standard audit opinions,1-p is listed the probability of company to obtain the standard audit opinions. The meaning of each variable is as follows:non-attestation services fees, the ratio of non-attestation service fees, the natural logarithm of the total assets of the listed companies, audit opinion changes, the ending inventory/final total assets, non-core business, net profit to total assets ratio, cash flow rate per share and accountants offices are or not top ten.
Chapter 5:The results analysis of study of the correlation between non-attestation and audit independence
This paper briefly introduces the disclosure of attestation services fees and non-attestation services fees, point out that the situation of disclosure in China is not very optimistic. Then do the descriptive statistics for sample, including descriptive statistics of industries, the descriptive statistics of audit opinions and the descriptive statistics of analysis of the sample. In the descriptive statistics of empirical analysis of the sample, this paper has used Kolmogorov-Smirnov test, non-parameter test and T-test, through the test to the sample the author preliminary gets the conclusion that the influence of non-attestation services fees and the ratio on the audit opinion is not significant. Then, this paper analyzes the reliability of the model through multiple linear.
In the regression analysis, this paper analyzes the rationality of the model, goodness-of-fit analysis and victimized matrix, analysis, and gets that the model is credibility. The regression results concluded:non-attestation services positively relate to the auditing opinions, but not through the significant test, this explains that non-attestation services won't harm the audit independence,and this is the same with the hypothesis. Other control variables'regression results are in the gross consistent with the predict, of which the asset scale, total assets net-profit margins and audit opinion changes in the level of 5% significant, in the ratio of ending inventory to final total assets and non-core profit in the level of 10% significant.
Chapter 6:The policy suggestions of development of non-attestation services
In this chapter, this paper introduces the development status of non-attestation services at home and abroad, and through comparison interprets the necessity, the existing problems and suggestions. Policy advice mainly include:(1)standardize the disclosure of attestation services fees and non-attestation services fees;(2)with information disclosure as the premise, to treat the non-attestation services dialectically;(3) strengthen the self-discipline of certified public accountants;(4) strengthen the non-attestation services market role of the government and industry organizations;(5) strengthen supervision and proper intervention to non-attestation services.
This research contributions include:(1)make a further definition of non-audit services and non-attestation services, and the research scope is fixed on non-attestation services;(2) this paper selects the recent three years'data, research the development of non-attestation services in our country recently on the influence of audit independence, timeliness;(3) based on our audit market, through the combination of theoretical and empirical verify the feasibility of developing the non-attestation services in China now, and combines the development situation at home and abroad, propose policy suggestions for the development of non-attestation services.
The limitations of this paper mainly are:(1) for the limited information disclosure, the sample is limited, and may have missed something happened to the non-attestation services but not disclose the company, which may lead to the results have certain error;(2)for the limitation of the non-attestation services,we cannot subdivide the items of non-attestation services to do the further research;(3) due to some factors of information, unavoidably omissions the potential factors which may exist and are not identified, to lead to not research for these factors.
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