The Influence of Board Composition on Sustainable Development Disclosure

Despite knowing the potential effect of social reporting on firms' continuity, there is limited research into the influence of the composition of boards of directors on CSR disclosure. This paper adds to the emerging CSR literature empirical evidence by examining how board composition relates to a firm's social and environmental disclosure as well as the implementation of social policies. Using a sample of FTSE 350 firms for the period 2007–2012, the results show that higher board independence facilitates the conveying of firms' good citizenship image through enhancing societal conscience. The results also show that female participation on boards is favorably affecting CSR engagement and reporting as well as the establishment of ethical policies. Hence, the research suggests that boards with higher female participation and independence boost the legitimacy of CSR reporting. Board gender diversity and independence facilitates directing part of the firm's scarce resources toward value maximizing social projects and subsequent reporting on these. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment     

Auditing Goodwill in the Post‐Amortization Era: Challenges for Auditors

The elimination of goodwill amortization in 2001 brought about significant change in how companies are required to account for goodwill. This change in accounting also brought with it new challenges for auditors, namely evaluating the reasonableness of management's assumptions related to goodwill valuation. In addition to introducing technical challenges, this task is particularly difficult given the misalignment in incentives it creates between managers who likely prefer to avoid recording an impairment and auditors who seek to minimize the bias in management's impairment testing. This study focuses on the consequences of the misaligned incentives that auditors face under the current goodwill assessment process. We find that the decision to record a goodwill impairment is associated with an increase in the probability of auditor dismissal. Consistent with the presence of significant friction with clients, our results also indicate that the likelihood of auditor dismissals is negatively related to the favorability of the impairment decision. Furthermore, we find that companies impairing goodwill prior to dismissing auditors subsequently employ auditors that are, on average, more favorable to clients in their impairment decisions.     

成品油内贸销售业务内部审计关注点分析与实践

作为大宗商品的代表,成品油贸易销售业务独具特点。文章结合内部审计实践,通过专项审计案例,对成品油内贸销售业务的内部审计关注点进行分析探讨,从风险导向出发,阐述了审计实施要点、主要审计方法、审计发现的问题及审计成果运用,总结了专项审计中的经验和感悟。     

论内部审计的地位与功能

内部审计是组织内部高层次的管理与监督,具有反馈咨询、监督控制等功能。单位领导的重视和支持、审计人员素质的提高以及同外部审计的结合是强化内审功能的重要因素。     

审计费用的事前确定、异常审计费用与审计质量

实务中,我国部分上市公司年报审计费用采取事前确定方式,也就是在审计工作开展之前的董事会上确定。事前确定审计费用的动机何在,会产生什么样的审计后果?已有国内外文献尚缺乏这方面的研究。本文以2008~2017年全部A股上市公司为样本,通过实证考察审计费用事前确定方式对异常审计费用以及审计质量的影响发现:基于低价揽客或折价维持客户的经济动因,事前确定的审计费用显著偏低。进一步研究表明,在事前确定审计费用方式下,客户的审计质量更低。本文研究丰富和拓展了审计费用及审计质量决定因素的相关文献,同时也为监管机构规范审计费用确定方式提供了经验证据。     

关系型交易对审计费用的影响——基于经营风险理论视角

关系型交易模式可能会在议价能力、关系专用性投资成本转换等方面加剧上市公司的经营风险,进而影响审计费用。已有研究主要集中于关系型交易对审计行为的影响,鲜有文献关注其中的作用机制。本文基于经营风险理论视角,选取2008~2017年沪深A股制造业上市公司的相关数据,实证分析了关系型交易对审计费用的影响,结果表明:关系型交易显著加剧了企业经营风险的集聚,进而提升审计费用,即经营风险在关系型交易对审计费用的影响中起到了中介作用。进一步研究,在区分了产权性质以及耐用品特征后,实证结果显示关系型交易与审计费用的正相关关系在非国有企业以及耐用品行业的企业中较为显著,为审计师进行合理审计定价提供了经验证据支持。     

CEO控制权、成长性与审计定价

文章运用中国上市公司2007-2009年的数据,研究了CEO控制权、成长性因素对审计定价的影响。研究发现,由于中国上市公司的代理成本较高,所以CEO控制权与成长性因素分别对审计定价有显著的正向影响,但是由于处于成长初期的中国上市公司较多,CEO控制权对审计定价的影响并不依赖于成长性因素。     

股权激励下经理人机会主义行为的经济学分析

从理论上探讨股权激励下经理人机会主义的动机与实现途径。在薪酬委员会不独立时,具有信息优势地位的经理人可以通过在实施激励前尽可能地将股权激励授予时的获取成本压低以及实施激励后通过盈余管理的行为将公司的股价抬高等机会主义行为实现其股权基础薪酬最大化。为了保证股权激励的有效性,应从委员构成以及议事程序等方面进一步提高薪酬委员会的独立性。     

深化上市公司内部审计 保障投资者资本安全 促进证券市场健康发展

上市公司为投资者创造利润,使投资者获得回报,是资本市场铁的定律。因此,完善上市公司的结构治理,深化发展上市公司内部审计,保障中小投资者资本安全,已成为上市公司内部审计的重要内容。针对上市公司目前存在的状况,阐述了如何应用现代审计技术以保证中小投资者的合法权益。