會計師產業之社會網絡分析

Abstract

本研究以我國法令規定，財務報表需由兩位會計師共同查核簽證之雙簽制度建立的關係為基礎進行分析社會網絡分析，本研究推定雙簽的合作關係讓會計師間產生正式和非正式的相互影響，透過社會網絡分析結合會計師和他們之間的關係，探討台灣地區四大會計師事務所的凝聚力、居中性和領導者的角色三大議題。 台灣四大會計師事務所為勤業眾信會計師事務所、安永會計師事務所、安侯建業會計師事務所和資誠會計師事務所。 資誠之網絡凝聚力最強，其次為安永和安侯建業，勤業眾信之網絡凝聚力最差；以凝聚力觀點，勤業和眾信自2003年合併後尚未完全融合。 勤業眾信和安永歷年的網絡，地位最居中的會計師大部分也是重要的管理階層。安永和安侯建業的網絡中可以讓多位會計師同時享有居中性地位。由資誠和勤業眾信2007年的網絡中發現，越接近網路中心的小組，平均客戶營收總額越大，而安侯建業和安永則沒有此種現象。 在2007年的網絡中，勤業眾信會計師事務所總裁和安永會計師事務所所長能以整體的角度發揮影響力，資誠會計師事務所所長則扮演在不同組別之間的重要聯絡角色。 本研究藉由社會網絡分析的使用與議題的探討，得以進一步瞭解會計師產業之結構，也開創後續研究該產業之先河。

This study performs a social network analysis（SNA） to investigate the cohesion, power structure, and the role of leaders in Taiwan’s audit industry. The analysis is based on the dual-signer system for annual reports. Under this system, a company’s annual report must be co-signed by two auditors. We posit that this work relationship demonstrates that the two auditors influence each other formally and informally. Therefore, by analyzing the social network consisted of the auditors and their co-signing relationship, we can understand the cohesion and power structure of the big four accounting firms and identify the leaders of the audit industry. We find that the networks of PWC have the strongest cohesion, while DTT has the weakest cohesion. In addition, Deloitte and Touche seems not be able to consolidate the CPAs from the previous two firms since their merger in 2003. CPAs in the most central position of the networks are also high-level managers in D&T and EY. In the 2007 network of DTT and PWC, the groups who locate at the center of have clients with higher average sales revenues. However, KPMG and EY don’t have this phenomenon. The presidents of DTT and EY influence the organizations in an overall way in 2007. On the other hand, the president of PWC acts an important liaison between different groups. This study explores the structure of Taiwan’s audit industry and paves a path for further empirical study about the industry.