審計市場供需因素影響會計師事務所支配程度之研究

Abstract

本研究主要目的，在於檢視會計師事務所於客戶產業中之支配程度，是否和會計師產業專家與客戶產業競爭強度存有關聯。睽諸文獻得知，客戶產業的競爭越激烈，任用和競爭對手不同的會計師事務所之動機越強，事務所於產業的支配程度越低。 由於先前相關研究間，結果存有差異，本研究進一步加入「各產業的上市櫃公司數量」變數。以2002年至2012年台灣之上市、上櫃公司為樣本，主要測試審計市場的供給面因素(會計師事務所對客戶產業的專業化程度、會計師事務所集中程度)與需求面因素(客戶產業集中程度)對於事務所在產業中支配程度之影響。 本研究結果發現，在國內上市、上櫃公的委任會計師事務所，有五分之四集中於四大會計師事務所，與美國情況相同。此外，亦發現會計師事務所與客戶產業的集中程度，的確分別對會計師事務所之支配程度產生正向及負向影響。然而，在會計師事務所於產業之專業化程度方面，結果雖與預期方向一致，但卻不顯著。此議題待日後研究加以澄清。

This paper investigates the audit dominance within each client industry. It examines whether audit market’s demand-side factors (client’s demand for audit firms different from competitors’ audit firms) and supply-side factors (audit firms’ intention towards industry specialization, and the degree of auditor concentration) would affect the degree of audit dominancy in each industry. Prior studies examining the association between auditor concentration and client’s intra-industry competition yielded opposite results. I reconcile these findings by examining the effect of industry size (number of clients in each industry), and expect a result that would be consistent with studies of Kwon (1996), Hogan, and Jeter (1999). The study reported a negative relation between competition within client industry and the auditor dominancy in each industry. Also, the industry size would affect the relation between auditor dominancy and the level of auditor concentration. While some results are consistent in direction, they are not statistically significant. Implications of these finding are discussed in the concluding section.