Design of Governance of Accounting Firms: A Literature Review
The historical mission of the accountancy profession requires that accounting firms need dual transformations in external organizational forms and internal governance. This article focuses on the institutional underpinnings of internal governance of accounting firms and the objectives of governance, and points out in the research commentary that for accounting firms, the values hold, changes of organizational forms and formulation of development strategies can determine the evolution of objectives of governance and governance mechanisms. The article is of practical significance in directing accounting firms to establish sound internal governance and also provides new thoughts on supervision and policy guidance for regulators and institute of CPAs.
A Research on Relations between Regulatory Penalties and Audit Quality – an Analysis of Penalty Notices of CSRC
The penalty on auditors by regulators reveals that audit quality needs to be improved. The article analyses the penalty notices of China Securities Regulatory Commission on auditors in 2001-2015, and discovers that companies inflating revenue may be more likely to provoke penalties on auditors; agricultural listed companies may be more likely to provoke penalties on auditors; patterns exist in the penalties on auditors by CSRC; the penalty method has gradually shifted from “imposing heavier penalties on auditors and lighter penalties on accounting firms” to “imposing heavy penalties on both auditors and accounting firms”. This paper puts forward several suggestions on improving audit quality.
Board Governance, Earning Management and Expense Stickiness
Based on the annual financial data of A-share listed companies in 2007-2012, this article systematically studies the influence of board governance and earning management on expense stickiness. The empirical evidence shows that the accruals earning management significantly weakens the expense stickiness; while sound board governance mechanisms are conducive to curbing the cost management behaviors of the management for the purpose of earnings management and accordingly, improving expense stickiness. Further research shows that, expense stickiness only occurs in SOEs; moreover, compared to private owned enterprises, SOEs has stronger willingness to manipulate their expenditure because of their growth targets and political targets, and have a prominent influence on expense stickiness. With the pressure of earning growth from their competitors in the same industry, enterprises strengthen their expense stickiness under accruals earnings management behaviors