忙碌會計師與盈餘管理之關聯性

The Association between Busy Auditors and Earnings Management

研究旨在探討在會計師事務所資源有限下，其事務所內查核會計師平均之 查核家數對於其審計品質之影響。當會計師查核愈多之公司數時，在查核經驗及知 識技巧之累積下，應能提高審計品質；惟較多之查核家數也代表會計師無法對於所 有細節皆詳細查核，則是否可能反而降低了審計品質。本文欲從會計師事務所資源 有限之角度切入，以會計師事務所之查核家數除以事務所之合夥會計師數，以捕捉 會計師之查核效率，並以裁決性應計數及實質盈餘管理作為審計品質的代理變數。 實證結果顯示，審計產業專家會計師在查核較多客戶數時，能抑制受查公司之應計 項目盈餘管理，使公司需透過成本較高之實質盈餘管理來管理盈餘。透過本文之實 證發現，除建議會計師事務所應專精於特定產業之了解，除能加強該產業之查核技 巧與經驗外，也能因應可能之資源受限影響。也希冀提供主管機關應關注當會計師 事務所承接委任時，需考量所內之合夥會計師人數，以維持平均查核品質之穩定。

The objective of this study was to investigate the effect of the average number of companies audited per auditor in an audit firm on audit quality while taking into account that the audit firm's resources are limited. When an auditor audits more companies, he or she will gain more experience, knowledge, and skills in auditing, which should improve his or her audit quality. However, auditing more companies also means that the audit will be unable to carefully audit every detail, which may instead affect audit quality. Considering the limited resources at audit firms, this study divided the number of companies audited by audit firms by the number of auditors at the audit firms to capture the audit efficiency of auditors, with discretionary accruals and real earnings management as proxy variables for audit quality. The empirical results show that industry specialist auditors can constrain accrual earnings management when they audit more companies and therefore the company is likely to resort to more economically costly real earnings management. The empirical findings of this study will redound to the benefit of audit firms gathering specialized knowledge in a specific industry, which can enhance audit skills and experience and help respond to the effect of the limited resources. Moreover, it is hoped that the findings will prompt authorities to take into account the number of partners that an audit firm has when taking engagements to prevent an adverse impact on audit quality.