Examining the extent of and determinants for sustainability assurance quality: The role of audit committees

This study examines the extent of and determinants for sustainability assurance quality. Data comprise sustainability assurance statements published by the top 100 listed companies in Australia and New Zealand from 2017 to 2019. The findings indicate that Australian companies lead their New Zealand counterparts in sustainability assurance. Although sustainability reporting has risen, assurance rates remain significantly low. Accountants dominate the market, and companies prefer to use their own auditors for sustainability assurance work. Sustainability assurance quality is poor and does not vary significantly among Australian and New Zealand companies. Low-quality sustainability assurance plays a limited role in mitigating potential stakeholder–agency conflicts. The regression analysis indicates that audit committee characteristics such as members' independence, industry/market expertise, and attending meetings enhance sustainability assurance quality, whereas audit committee size has no affect. These findings suggest that audit committee characteristics such as independence, industry expertise, and regular meeting attendance have the potential to reduce stakeholder–agency conflicts by improving the quality of sustainability statement assurance. Our findings build on the sustainability assurance literature by exploring current trends in sustainability assurance practices in Australia and New Zealand where corporate governance codes have been recently revised. Further, these findings are timely given recent changes in standards (International Standard on Assurance Engagements [ISAE] 3000 and Global Reporting Initiative [GRI]). Our study contributes to the audit committee literature and sheds light on the role played by audit committee characteristics on sustainability assurance statement quality. The study findings potentially offer useful insights for practitioners, standard setters, and regulators.     

利用Cisco Packet Tracer6.0模拟软件实现交换机VLAN的配置

本文简要介绍了职业院校对非计算机相关专业学生对《计算机网络及应用》实训课程的要求,以交换机VLAN的配置为例,介绍了VLAN的概念和交换机,同时阐述了操作平台Cisco Packet Tracer6.0。     

强化责任意识提升审计执行力

本文结合工作实践,从提升科级干部履职能力,有效执行能力,务实创新三个角度分别阐述审计干部强化责任意识的重要意义及有效途径。     

家族企业究竟是促进创新还是阻碍创新?——争论与整合

在学术界一直存在一个争论:家族涉入是促进了企业创新还是阻碍了企业创新?厘清上述争论的产生原因和影响因素,有助于解释家族企业创新研究的争论和拓展家族企业创新研究的视野。本文对近年来相关文献进行了系统地梳理,归纳出家族企业创新三个领域的研究成果:家族企业创新投入、家族企业创新产出、家族企业创新的影响因素(内部家族因素和外部环境因素),分析家族企业创新争论产生的原因,并针对现有研究存在的不足,对未来的研究提出展望。本文提出通过构建权变理论整合家族企业创新争论的研究方向,有助于丰富家族企业创新的理论研究。     

An empirical investigation of analytical procedures using mixture distributions

Analytical procedures are evaluations of account and transaction flow information made by a study of plausible relationships between both accounting and non‐accounting data. This study investigates the performance of Tweedie distributions (which have Gaussian distributions as members) in improving fit of zero‐inflated, non‐negative, kurtotic and multimodal analytical review data. The study found that account valuations are more informative than marginal data in analytical review, that mixture Poisson–Gamma distributions offer better fit than Gaussian distributions, even under assumptions of central limit theorem convergence, and that mixture Poisson–Gamma distributions provide better predictions of future account and transaction volumes and values. Model performance improvement with price versus returns data in this empirical study was substantial: from less than one‐quarter of variance, to almost two‐thirds. Tweedie generalized linear model risk assessments were found to be a magnitude smaller than traditional risk assessments, lending support to market inefficiency and increased risk from idiosyncratic factors. An example with several differing distributions shows that use of mixture distributions instead of point estimation can reduce sample size while retaining the power of the audit tests. The results of this study are increasingly important as accounting datasets are growing exponentially larger over time, requiring well‐defined roles for models, algorithms, data and narrative which can only be achieved with statistical protocols and algorithmic languages.     

Explaining municipal audit costs in Sweden: Reconsidering the political environment,the municipal organisation and the audit market

With the purpose of explaining professional audit costs in Swedish municipalities, we hypothesised that audit costs are partly driven by various signalling and monitoring incentives in order to manage stakeholder relationships. Our model of the determinants of audit costs was tested on data from Swedish municipalities, thus extending the study of audit costs to political organisations in a Scandinavian institutional context. The test supported to some extent the traditional propositions of organisational complexity, risk and market determinants, as well as the proposition of the political environment. Our results indicate that audit costs are used to signal accountability, thereby suggesting that audit as a signal could be managed without managing professional auditors.     

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。     

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。