內部控制對於採用國際會計準則公司的盈餘之影響

Abstract

本論文係在說明與財務報導有關的內部控制之品質是否係影響國際會計準則採行有效性的一個重要因子。因為內部控制的設計係對財務資訊可靠的這個目標提供合理確信，因此我預期相較於內部控制薄弱的公司，國際會計準則的採行可以幫助內部控制較有效的公司提升其盈餘品質。我使用2003至2008年在美國發行存託憑證的公司來當作我的樣本，我發現與財務報導有關之內部控制優良的公司，他們在採行國際會計準則後，可以幫助其改善盈餘品質。這樣的結果既使控制了會影響盈餘品質的國家層級或公司層級之因子後仍然是不變的。這樣的結果建議：內部控制係一個可以幫助提升盈餘品質的重要內部治理。本篇論文也對於正在採行國際會計準則的公司或即將採行國際會計準則的公司(譬如：在台灣的公司)提供了一個重要的見解：雖然國際會計準則是一個具有高品質的財務報導準則，但是除非與財務報導有關之有效的內部控制被執行，否則公司想要藉由採用國際會計準則來改善其盈餘品質係有困難的。

The thesis addresses whether the quality of internal control over financial reporting is an important factor that can affect the effectiveness of IFRS adoption. As internal control is designed to provide reasonable assurance for reliability of financial information, I expect that IFRS adoption can help firms with effective internal control improve earnings quality more than firms with weak internal control. Using 2003-2008 ADR firms, I find that firms with good internal control over financial reporting can improve their earnings quality after they adopt IFRS. This results remain the same when I control for country-level and firm-level factors that can affect earnings quality. The results suggest that internal control is an important internal governance that can help increase earnings quality. This thesis also offers an important insight to firms that are currently adopting IFRS or will adopt IFRS (e.g. firms in Taiwan). Although IFRS is a financial reporting standard with high quality, it is difficult for firms to improve earnings quality by adopting IFRS, unless effective internal control over financial reporting can be enforced.