감사인 일치화가 종속기업 감사품질에 미치는 영향 (The Effect of Auditor Conformity on Subsidiaries’ Audit Quality)

서지정보

· 발행기관 : 한국회계학회
· 수록지 정보 : 회계학연구 / 39권 / 5호 / 217 ~ 250페이지
· 저자명 : 신혜정, 한종수

초록

K-IFRS가 도입되면서 연결재무제표가 주재무제표로서 그 중요성이 강조되고 있으며 2013년 도입된 신 국제감사기준 600에서는 연결재무제표의 주감사인이 그룹재무제표에 대하여 전적인 책임을 지도록 하고 있다. 이에 따라 지배기업과 종속기업간의 감사인 일치화에 대한 필요성이 논의되고 있다.
그러나 감사인 일치화가 감사품질을 향상시키는지에 대해서는 선행연구가 일관된 결과를 보여주지 않는 등 여전히 연구 과제로 남아 있다. 그 가장 큰 이유는 선행연구가 주로 지배기업의 재무제표를 대상으로 이루어짐으로써 감사인의 일치화로 인한 감사품질의 향상 또는 저하가 감사인이 일치된 종속기업에 기인한 것인지, 타감사인이 감사한 종속기업에 기인한 것인지 구별하기 어려운 한계가 있기 때문이다.
본 연구는 종속기업의 감사품질을 분석함으로써 감사인 일치화 효과를 직접적으로 검증하였다. 또한 종속기업의 자산이 연결실체에서 차지하는 비중이 감사인 일치화와 감사품질의 관계에 영향을 미치는지를 분석하였다.
분석 결과, 첫째, 감사인 일치화와 감사품질의 관계는 전체 표본과 비상장 종속기업 표본에서 유의한 양의 관계로 나타났다. 상장 종속기업에서도 감사인 일치화와 감사품질은 양의 관계를 가지고 있었으나 통계적으로 유의하지 않았다. 둘째, 연결실체에서 차지하는 자산의 비중이 높은 종속기업에서는 감사인 일치화가 감사품질 향상에 미치는 영향에 차이가 있었다. 그러나 이 효과는 상장여부에 따라서 동일하지 않았다. 상장 종속기업을 대상으로 한 분석에서는 연결실체에서 자산이 차지하는 비중이 높을수록 감사인 일치화가 감사품질을 향상시키는 효과가 감소되는 것으로 나타났다. 반면 비상장 종속기업에서는 이러한 결과가 나타나지 않았다. 추가분석의 결과도 본분석의 결과와 질적으로 동일하였다. 상장 종속기업 표본을 비롯한 모든 표본에서 유의하게 감사품질 향상 효과가 나타났다. 또한 연결실체 내 중요성이 높은 상장 종속기업의 감사품질 향상 정도는 저하되었다.

영어초록

Since the adoption of K-IFRS in 2011, the importance of the consolidated financial statements as primary financial statements has been grown. Additionally, the New International Standards on Auditing 600 introduced in 2013 requires the principal auditor to take a full responsibility for the consolidated financial statements. In order to avoid the additional engagement risk resulted from these changes in the audit environment, the principal auditors increasingly demand auditor conformity, i.e., financial statements of the parent company and its subsidiaries being audited by the same auditor.
However, the results of the prior studies on the effect of auditor conformity on audit quality are rather conflicting and contradictory and thus, it is not yet known whether auditor conformity leads to enhancement in audit quality. Some prior studies showed that auditor conformity enhances audit quality because it helps auditors develop more experience and better understand the client, resulting in enhanced auditor expertise (the auditor expertise hypothesis). Other studies showed that auditor conformity adversely affects audit quality because it creates greater economic bonding with the clients (the economic dependency hypothesis). The major reason for the contradictory results of the prior studies is that, by analyzing parent company’s financial statements, they were not able to separate the change in the auditor-conformed subsidiaries’ audit quality from the change in the auditor-disconformed subsidiaries’ audit quality. A few studies overcome this limitation by analyzing subsidiaries’ financial statements. By using only a few restricted types of subsidiaries, however, they have their own limitations in the generalization of their findings. Moreover, prior studies fail to consider that the distinctive subsidiaries’ characteristics could moderate the effect of auditor conformity on audit quality.
This paper analyzes and examines all available subsidiaries subject to the Act on External Audit of Stock Companies in Korea in order to find more general results on the effect of auditor conformity. This paper also examines whether the proportion of subsidiary’s total assets (i.e., the importance of subsidiaries) has differential influence on the relationship between auditor conformity and audit quality. Importance of subsidiaries is one of the key elements that affect auditors’ independence according to previous studies.
Using all available data on subsidiaries from 2005-2010, we conduct analyses on whether auditor conformity affects discretionary current accruals of subsidiaries by using both modified Jones model (1991) and Kothari et al. model (2005). We also analyze whether the importance of subsidiaries measured by the proportion of subsidiaries’ total assets to consolidated total assets moderates the relations between auditor conformity and discretionary current accruals.
The findings are as follows. First, auditor conformity enhances audit quality. The result holds even when public and non-public subsidiaries are analyzed separately. These results support the auditor expertise hypothesis in that auditors obtain additional knowledge of the clients, e.g., internal transactions, through auditor conformity. However, the significance level of the public subsidiaries is lower than that of the non-public subsidiaries, implying that the listing status is an element which affects the relationship between auditor conformity and audit quality.
Second, overall, the moderating effect of the proportion of subsidiaries’ total assets on the enhancement effect of auditor conformity on audit quality was not found significant. This result implies that auditor’s independence is not impaired by the client’s importance. However, we find the marginal adverse moderating effect for public subsidiaries, implying that audit quality impairment could possibly exist for important subsidiaries.
This paper expands the previous studies on auditor conformity in several aspects. First, this paper analyses the relationship between auditor conformity and audit quality from the subsidiary’s perspective by using all available data on subsidiaries. Second, this paper shows evidence that the aforementioned relationship can vary depending on the characteristics of subsidiaries. Furthermore, this paper provides practical and institutional implications in time of high demand for auditor conformity in response to the New International Standards of Auditing 600 enforcement since 2013.

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