The Applicability of a Contingent Factors Model to Accounting Ethics Research

This paper discusses the relevancy of a contingent factors model posited by Jones for conducting accounting ethics research. Using a sample of 37 experienced Australian auditing managers and partners of all of the ‘Big Four’ multinational accounting firms, we find that the contextual model developed by Jones can help guide accounting ethics research by isolating the contingent factors that affect ethical decision making. Moreover, we examine how the factors differ across different accounting settings. Implications for accounting ethics research and accounting practice are then discussed.Jeffrey R. Cohen, PhD is an Associate Professor at the Carroll School of management at Boston College. His research focuses primarily on behavioral ethics issues as well as investigating governance from a behavioral perspective.Nonna Martinov Bennie is a Senior Lecturer at Sydney University. Her research focuses on ethical issues in auditing as well as issues surrounding materiality judgments.     

Can professional skepticism be learned? Evidence from China

The purpose of the present study was to explore whether professional skepticism can be learned in a classroom setting, an issue that has received scant attention in the prior literature. A questionnaire was administered to students enrolled either in the accounting program or in the business administration program of a large college in China. The author finds that participation in ethics education is positively related to students’ professional skepticism, whereas participation in auditing education is not related to accounting students’ professional skepticism. The author also finds that accounting and nonaccounting business students exhibit no significant difference in their scores of professional skepticism.     

To Sue or Not to Sue: An Experimental Study of Factors Affecting Hong Kong Liquidators Audit Litigation Decisions

We report an experiment examining the effect of three factors on professional Hong Kong liquidators' decisions to bring legal action in negligence against auditors. Factors were (a) the strength (merit) of the supporting evidence (arguable vs. overwhelming), (b) the type of alleged audit failure (failure to report financial statement errors vs. management fraud) and (c) audit firm type (Big 6 vs. non-Big 6). We find evidence that liquidators' litigation decisions are influenced by case merit. We also find that liquidators were marginally more likely to institute legal action against a Big 6 than against a non-Big 6 auditor. However, we find no evidence that the type of alleged audit failure influences litigation decisions.     

电子商务对会计和审计的影响

作为一种全新的商业运作模式,电子商务对传统经济的会计和审计领域将产生重大冲击。分析电子商务对会计和审计所产生的影响,面对电子商务浪潮,传统的会计和审计应抓住机遇,迎接挑战。     

Could Auditing Standards Be Based on Society's Values?

One of the criticisms directed at the accounting profession is that auditing and accounting standards are subjective in nature and do not represent the society's widespread interests and values. This paper examines whether a general consensus exists regarding the significance of incorporating society's values into auditing standards. The examination revealed the lack of such general agreement and further indicated that the perceptual differences are subjective in nature and not influenced by the participant's qualifications, income, experience, gender or marital status.     

论财务报告舞弊的审计责任

近年来 ,上市公司财务报告舞弊案不断冲击着我国的证券市场 ,给广大投资者带来了巨大损失 ,也引起了社会对财务报告舞弊审计责任的极大关注。注册会计师是否应对财务报告舞弊承担审计责任 ,无论是审计理论界还是实务界争议都很大。根据现行的审计专业标准 ,论述了注册会计师应对财务报告有直接重大影响的舞弊承担审计责任 ,同时指出不遵守专业标准是审计失败的主要原因。     

我国注册会计师审计独立性缺失分析及优化

独立性是审计的最本质特征,也是注册会计师保证社会审计工作顺利进行的必要因素。假如注册会计师具备了独立性的特质,其对于审计工作才有可能做出正确的审计结论。为保持并进一步提高CPA审计的独立性,应当加强会计师事务所和注册会计师自身的独立性建设,完善CPA审计的内外部环境,除此之外,我国还应强化监督机制,提升对违规的惩处力度,改进审计收费规定,重建审计委托模式,对会计师事务所实施有效的轮换机制等。     

信息理论与自愿审计动机探究

自愿审计动机主要有三个理论假说：代理理论、保险理论和信息理论假说。其中的信息假说利用市场中的信息不对称问题,解释了我国上市公司自愿审计行为产生的原因。结合我国中期财务报告审计制度,分析上市公司的自愿审计动机主要是试图通过自愿购买审计服务,对会计信息进行鉴证,以提高信息的可靠性,与信息假说相符,使审计真正成为会计信息质量的有效保证。     

Corporate social responsibility and public accountability

The development of legislation determining corporate behaviour is a fascinating topic, offering insight into the societal problems of corporate enterprise as they are related to their accounting, their administration, and their external reporting. In this paper the following specific implications for accounting are examined:

-Should accountants get involved in social auditing and are they the ‘core’ persons in corporate social accounting systems?

-Should corporate social performance measurement and reporting become obligatory and to what extent?

-A general framework for the implementation of corporate social accounting systems is suggested and quidelines for its auditing are proposed.

-A tentative set of social auditing standard is outlined together with its methodological accompaniments.

     

内部审计服务外包的国际化与创新——基于交易成本理论与中国实践的解释

基于交易成本理论,文章考察了内部审计服务外包业务发展背后的经济学机理,然后结合国际四大和国内会计师事务所在中国的业务发展历程,指出通过创新在激烈的国际竞争中降低交易成本是内部审计服务外包呈现国际化与创新相结合趋势的主要成因。文章进一步分析了内部审计服务外包创新所需要经历的三个阶段,并通过案例分析说明了:中国内部审计服务外包仍处于第一与第二阶段;业务国际化是引致中国内部审计外包创新的重要因素,同时内部审计外包创新反过来又促进了中国内部审计外包业的国际化进程。     

事务所转制、法律风险与审计质量

文章以我国财政部、工商总局联合推动的会计师事务所向“特殊普通合伙组织形式”转制这一特色事件为契机,基于审计师法律责任的视角,选取2008-2013年我国A股上市公司及其主审会计师事务所为样本,动态实证分析事务所转制对审计质量的影响。研究结果表明：具备证券资格的事务所全部完成特殊普通合伙转制之后,审计质量的整体水平显著提升;而且有限责任制转换为特殊普通合伙制增加了审计师的法律责任,同时也提高了其法律风险意识。具体表现为：转制之后,审计师对高法律风险客户的盈余管理容忍度下降,也更倾向于对高风险客户出具非标审计意见。由此可见,我国会计师事务所特殊普通合伙转制方案取得了显著成效,这将有利于我国注册会计师行业的持续发展和做强做大。     

Joint audits and mutual ties of audit firm networks

There has been a lively debate following the 2007 financial crisis regarding the role of joint audits. Prior research argues that joint audits may improve audit quality because of shared audit efforts. However, empirical evidence has been inconclusive. To gain insight into how Big 4 audit firm imprimaturs have become a source of legitimacy in the audit industry, this article investigates how audit networks drive the audit industry in Saudi Arabia. Based on the application of quantitative and qualitative research methods, we conclude that the Big 4 audit firms have strong mutual ties, but ties with other local and international audit firms are weak. We also find the oligopolistic nature of the Big 4 audit firms and international audit firms. Specifically, Ernst & Young, KPMG, PwC, and PKF are controlling over 68% of the audit market. Interviews with accounting professionals suggest that several benefits of joint audits exist, but certain additional costs are also implicated. Our findings are particularly relevant for regulators and local and international policymakers in rethinking and evaluating the appropriateness of either the mandatory or voluntary nature of joint audits in developing countries.     

Ethics in Tax Practice: A Study of the Effect of Practitioner Firm Size

While much of the empirical accounting literature suggests that, if differences do exist, Big Four employees are more ethical than non-Big Four employees, this trend has not been evident in the recent media coverage of Big Four tax practitioners acting for multinationals accused of aggressive tax avoidance behaviour. However, there has been little exploration in the literature to date specifically of the relationship between firm size and ethics in tax practice. We aim here to address this gap, initially exploring tax practitioners’ perceptions of the impact of firm size on ethics in tax practice using interview data in order to identify the salient issues involved. We then proceed to assess quantitatively whether employer firm size has an impact on the ethical reasoning of tax practitioners, using a tax context-specific adaptation of a well-known and validated psychometric instrument, the Defining Issues Test.     

基于经济风险的高校内部会计监控制度建设

由于高校大量合并、自筹经费,引发了高校会计信息失真,个别高校甚至存在严重的会计造假行为,追踪其缘由,大部分是因为高校内部会计监控存在着问题。目前,高校应进一步明确会计事项相关人员的职责权限;会计基础工作必须要严谨,手续要齐全;尽快进行财产清查;建立符合高校的控制标准;引入外部审计;提高内控人员素质;充分发挥内部审计的监控手段;建立现代高校管理体制和监控体制相结合的模式;做到实施内部会计监控制度与贯彻实施《会计法》,并以《内部控制配套指引》相结合;积极开展事前事中审计。     

缩短上市公司年报披露法定期限的可行性分析

国外研究显示,以公司规模作为编制和审计年报工作量的替代变量,则公司规模大小与年报披露迟早正相关。本文发现中国大陆上市公司的规模大小与年报披露迟早不相关,三、四月份披露年报的上市公司在规模上并无显著差异。为提高会计信息披露的及时性,加快股票市场与国际接轨,适当缩短现行上市公司年报披露的法定期限（如90天）,是必要的也是可行的。     

国际“四大”会计师事务所合伙制文化探索

合伙制会计师事务所的价值需通过合伙人个体共同创造和维持,合伙人应当如何选择也是目前一个难题。从国际“四大”合伙人变迁探讨国际会计师事务所合伙人文化的不同对其发展的影响,对我国会计师事务所的发展将有所启示。     

试析独立董事制度在提高会计信息质量中的作用

如何提高上市公司会计信息质量问题成为当前会计审计界的热点问题。从分析会计信息产生的过程中导致会计信息失真的因素入手 ,论证独立董事制度从会计人员素质、内部控制制度和公司治理结构三个方面对会计信息的提高产生的积极作用。     

Influencing Ethical Development: Exposing Students to the AICPA Code of Conduct

Although the AICPA Code of Professional Conduct emphasizes the importance of education in ethics, very little is known about how and when the Code and the topic of ethics can be presented to enhance the effectiveness of ethics-oriented education. The purpose of this research was to provide preliminary evidence about the ethical development of students prior to, and immediately following, such courses. We found that: (1) accounting students, after taking an auditing course which emphasized the AICPA Code, reasoned at higher levels than students who had not taken the course; (2) there were no differences in moral reasoning levels when accounting and non-accounting majors were compared prior to an auditing course; and (3) there was a significant relationship between the Seniors' levels of ethical development and the choice of an ethical versus unethical action. It was concluded that an auditing course emphasizing the 'spirit' of the Code can have a positive impact on the ethical behaviour of some of the future members of the accounting profession.     

Auditor independence deficiencies & alleged audit failures

Some critics of the accounting/auditing profession in the United States claim that independence-related quality control problems are the cause of an increased number of alleged audit failures. Certified public accountants (CPAs) were queried regarding independence impairment in their profession. Questionnaire results indicate a number of CPAs believe independence deficiencies exist, and some CPAs admit to personal independence impairment. Michael A. Pearson is Associate Professor of Accounting at the Graduate School of Management and College of Business Administration, Kent State University. Additionally, he is the Editor of The Ohio CPA Journal. Professor Pearson is a Certified Public Accountant (CPA) and a Certified Management Accountant (CMA). He has written numerous articles including, Enhancing Perceptions of Auditor Independence, Journal of Business Ethics 4 (1985), 53–56.     

提高会计中介机构监管成效的研究

会计中介机构的监管包括行业监管、政府监管、市场监管和立法监管等几个方面。针对当前会计中介机构监管中存在的问题,要提高会计中介机构的监管成效,应从行业监管模式、审计业务委托模式、公司治理模式、审计技术模式和民事法律惩罚机制等多方面入手,进行系统整治。会计中介机构监管的重心是独立性,监管过程应具有层次性和协调性,监管的思路是系统性。