產業專精會計師對GAAP盈餘與Non-GAAP盈餘可比較性之影響

Abstract

本研究旨在探討產業專精會計師對GAAP盈餘可比較性以及Non-GAAP盈餘可比較性的影響。針對Non-GAAP財務資訊，監管單位並不是要規範每家公司有相同的調整項目，而是要求公司公開透明地揭露Non-GAAP財務資訊是如何從GAAP盈餘調整而來。而會計師對於財務報表的品質以及透明度扮演相當重要的角色，受會計師查核簽證之公司，通常能提供較可靠且更具可比較性的資訊供利害關係人做決策。本文選取2003年至2020年美國公司作為資料樣本，觀察目前產業專精會計師對於盈餘可比較性的影響。 本研究結果顯示，產業專精會計師對於GAAP盈餘之可比較性具有正向影響，而對於Non-GAAP盈餘之可比較性僅具有間接影響力。本篇的研究結果提供監管單位在未來制訂準則可以參考的方向，關於未來會計師在做查核簽證時，需更嚴格地審視Non-GAAP財務資訊的揭露是否嚴謹且公開透明，以提升財務資訊的品質。

This study aims is to investigate the impact of audit firm’s industry specialization on the comparability of GAAP and non-GAAP Earnings. Regarding Non-GAAP financial information, regulatory agencies are not trying to standardize the same adjustment items for each company, but rather require companies to disclose transparently how non-GAAP financial information is derived from GAAP earnings. Accountants play an important role in ensuring the quality and transparency of financial statements, allowing listed companies to provide more reliable and comparable information for stakeholders to make decisions. This study selects US companies with fiscal period starting in 2003 and ending in 2020 as the data sample to observe the current impact of industry specialist accountants on earnings comparability. The results of our study show that industry specialist accountants positively impact the comparability of GAAP earnings, while they only have an indirect impact on the comparability of non-GAAP earnings. Our results provide a reference for regulatory agencies to formulate future standards, regarding whether accountants need to scrutinize the disclosure of non-GAAP financial information more strictly when conducting assurance services, in order to improve the quality of financial information.