LLP转型、法律风险与审计行为研究

The effect of litigation risk on auditing behaviors is an important topic in both audit theory and policy studies. The extant studies mainly research into this issue from the perspectives of legal institutions and of client risk, however, few studies investigate the issue in the setting of reform of audit firm structure. To achieve the strategy of making Chinese audit firms bigger and stronger, regulators promote Chinese audit firms to change from a limited liability company(LLC) to a limited liability partnership(LLP) in recent years, and auditors' legal responsibility increases. Under this circumstance, our project aims to examine how individual auditors and audit firms cope with the increased litigation risk. Specifically, we investigate how auditors use the following three strategies: charging higher audit fees, improving audit quality and adjusting clients, to deal with the litigation risk stemming from organizational shift of audit firms. However,these three strategies may not be used isolated by auditors. We further examine whether auditors use these strategies together( portfolio of strategies) or not, the effects of each strategy respectively, and auditors' preference for the three strategies. Finally, we study the stock market's response to the organizational shift. This project potentially contributes the literature in the following ways. First, we examine the effect of litigation risk on auditing behaviors in a special setting in China-audit partners' personal assets under threat from litigation increase. Second, it is the first one to study the influence of organizational reform on individual auditors' behaviors and how to make strategies porfolio. This project can explore the relation between legal liability and auditing behaviors more directly. Third, this study can overcome the endogenous problem. Finally, this study can provide theory and empirical evidence for the government policy on Chinese audit industry.

法律风险对审计行为的影响是审计理论与政策研究的重要课题。现有文献主要从法律制度和客户风险角度研究，而较少从事务所组织形式转型视角分析。我国为了贯彻会计师事务所做大做强战略，近几年积极推进事务所向特殊普通合伙事务所（LLP）转型，加重了审计师法律责任。本项目将基于该背景，从事务所和审计师个人两个层次研究审计师如何应对转型产生的法律风险，分别考察审计师如何应用增加审计收费、提高审计质量和调整客户三种风险管理策略。然而，这三种策略并非孤立，由此进一步分析多种策略组合，分离各种策略的净影响，并考察策略选择次序。最后研究外界对LLP转型的反应。本项目具有以下意义和创新：研究视角独特，研究了合伙人资产内化产生的法律风险；首次研究组织转型对审计师个人行为影响，并且分析审计师策略组合，更准确地揭示了法律责任与审计行为的关系；有效克服现有研究存在的内生性问题；为我国审计行业的战略政策提供理论依据和经验反馈。

本项目从法律风险/审计风险视角，研究了转型背景下的会计师事务所和个人注册会计师风险识别和风险管理行为。具体来讲，本项目从审计定价策略、审计质量、资本市场对审计质量的感知以及重大错报风险四个方面来考察审计师的风险管理策略及风险识别。在审计定价策略方面，我们主要关注影响审计定价的风险因素以及风险因素影响审计定价行为的途径。研究结果发现，审计风险受到公司管理层的哲学理念以及财务信息可比性的影响，从而影响其审计定价行为；路径分析表明这些因素通过影响财务报告质量和公司经营风险来影响审计师行为，除此之外，还存在未知的影响途径。在审计质量方面，我们研究了个人审计师的工作强度对审计质量的影响，我们发现，审计师的工作强度与审计质量负相关，而此关系受到审计师个人行业专长、任期和类型等因素影响。在资本市场对审计质量感知方面，我们重点考察了审计质量在股票价格形成机制中扮演的角色。研究结果表明，审计师有助于提高股票价格对价值相关信息的反应速度。在重大错报风险方面，我主要从内部控制视角考察了控制风险，我们建立了一套综合的内部控制评价体系，并将审计师面临的控制风险研究推进到内部控制的五要素层次，并为内部环境对审计风险的影响提供了丰富经验证据。本项目研究成果不仅具有重要理论贡献，而且得到资本市场及社会的广泛关注和实际应用。