非審計服務與異常應計數之關聯性研究

Abstract

本研究旨在探討會計師事務所同時提供審計與非審計服務是否會影響會計師的審計品質。藉由向大型事務所蒐集是否提供非審計服務及提供非審計服務種類之資料，檢視提供非審計服務，是否會使會計師允許管理當局有較大的盈餘操縱空間。實證結果顯示，當管理當局在操縱盈餘增加時，有提供非審計服務的會計師的確會允許管理當局有較大的空間。但當管理當局在操縱盈餘減少時，是否提供非審計服務，對會計師之審計決策並沒有明顯的影響。這現象可能是反映過去研究發現，由於會計師允許管理當局操縱盈餘增加的成本大於減少盈餘的操縱，使得會計師的查核重點主要在高估盈餘及淨資產，而較不注重低估盈餘及淨資產的交易事項，甚至對低估盈餘之情況，抱持樂觀其成的態度所造成。這些實證結論，在進行許多敏感性測試後並未改變，實證結果相當具有穩定性。

This study investigates whether auditors compromise their audit quality when they provide audit and non-audit services simultaneously to their clients. By using the non-audit services data from the big four CPA firms in Taiwan; we examine the relationship between the provision of non-audit services and abnormal accruals. The results indicate that, for companies with positive abnormal accruals, there is a significant positive association between the provision of non-audit services and earning management. However, we didn’t find similar results for companies with negative abnormal accruals. These results are consistent with prior research findings that, because the cost is larger for auditors failing to discover overstated assets and income than failing to discover understated assets and income in financial statements, auditors tend to less care about managers` downward manipulation of earnings. Therefore, when management manipulates to decrease earnings, auditors are not affected by the provision of non-audit service. These results are robust to several sensitivity analyses.