Mémoire présenté en cotutelle : Université Laval, Québec, Canada, Maître en droit (LL. M.) et Université Paris-Saclay, Cachan, France, Master (M.). / La présente étude met en lumière le développement d'une nouvelle sorte d'institution à caractère judiciaire : le Facebook Oversight Board (ci-après « FOB »). Cet organe a pour fonction de trancher les litiges découlant de la modération de contenu des plateformes appartenant à l'entreprise multinationale Meta, Facebook et Instagram. Comme le FOB est une nouvelle initiative, l'inconnu persiste autour de son fonctionnement et du champ de sa compétence. Cet organe répond à certains besoins des utilisateurs des deux plateformes et de la population en général, mais en même temps il sert à Meta d'instrument de légitimation. D'ailleurs, il commence à y avoir un intérêt des gouvernements et des législateurs à l'égard de ce type d'instrument. La Commission européenne a récemment adopté une loi comprenant des dispositions inspirées de celles instituant le FOB. En plus d'examiner les caractéristiques de cet organe par l'étude des documents encadrant son organisation et son fonctionnement, ce mémoire analyse de manière critique son statut à la lumière des qualités essentielles d'un tribunal : l'indépendance et l'impartialité. / This study puts light on a new form of judicial institution: the Facebook Oversight Board (FOB). This institution's function is to solve disputes arising from content moderation on social media websites belonging to the multinational company Meta, Facebook and Instagram. Considering the FOB is a new initiative, mystery lingers around its operation and its scope. This institution meets some of the users' needs on both social media platforms as well as the general population's needs, but it also serves as a legitimization tool for Meta. Moreover, governments and legislators are starting to show interest towards this type of instrument. The European commission has recently passed legislation containing provisions resembling the FOBs. In addition to analyzing this institution's characteristics by studying the documents governing its structure and its operations, this thesis critically analyzes its status according to the essential qualities of a tribunal: independence and fairness.

The purpose of this study is to examine the impact of management altering its tone in communications on participants' perceptions of management credibility. Management's tone in communicating with participants was manipulated using communications from management under two treatment conditions. In period one of the study management's tone was manipulated within the management statement on internal controls as required by the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board's (PCAOB) Auditing Standards No. 2. In period one, participants had no knowledge of management's prior forecasting accuracy. Consistent with predicted hypotheses, the findings reveal that management can increase its credibility with participants by communicating its empathy, responsiveness, and understanding. Management's increased credibility was measured using both a validated credibility scale and by examining participants' reliance on management's forecasts. In period two of the study all participants had knowledge of management's forecast failure in period one. The results from period two found that tone could impact the rating of management's credibility when management had previously failed to meet a forecast but that tone had no impact on participant's changes in their earnings per share estimates after management had previously failed to meet a forecast.

The Big 4 global networks (Deloitte, Ernst & Young [E&Y], KPMG, and PricewaterhouseCoopers [PwC]) market themselves as providers of worldwide seamless services and consistent audit quality through their members. Under the current environment in which these auditors operate, there are three types of global network members: inspected non-U.S. affiliates (inspected affiliates, hereafter), non-inspected non-U.S. affiliates (non-inspected affiliates, hereafter), and inspected U.S. offices (U.S. offices, hereafter). The recent suspension of the China-based Big 4 affiliates from auditing U.S.-listed companies calls into question whether these global networks can deliver the same level of audit quality across all their members and whether those located in jurisdictions denying access to the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB or Board, hereafter) to conduct inspections may benefit from such inspections. This study examines the effect of being an affiliate and the effect of PCAOB inspections on perceived audit quality. I use earnings response coefficients (ERCs) as a proxy for perceived audit quality. / Includes bibliography. / Dissertation (Ph.D.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2015. / FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection

Muito em função da dificuldade de se observar o dia-a-dia dos conselheiros nas empresas, acadêmicos e profissionais se questionam sobre a importância dessas estruturas de governança corporativa (GC) quando o assunto é propriedade dos números contábeis. Nesse sentido, esta tese, além de discutir extensivamente e traçar um panorama geral acerca da configuração desses conselhos no Brasil ao longo dos últimos cinco anos, estuda de que forma essas e outras estruturas de GC se associam com medidas de qualidade da informação contábil das firmas brasileiras. Diferentemente do que se encontra na literatura existente, a pesquisa em tela buscou compreender o ambiente dos conselhos de administração (CAs) e Fiscais (CFs) de modo mais amplo, avaliando de forma agregada 35 características estruturais, de remuneração e de composição desses órgãos, considerando suas inter-relações e implicações quando da associação destas com variáveis que medem as propriedades informacionais contidas no lucro. Para tanto, analisou-se, em média, cerca de 325 empresas por ano, compreendendo análise de 19.487 currículos de conselheiros de administração e fiscais efetivos no país, além da análise das outras variáveis de governança, tais como avaliação formal de conselheiros, frequência de reuniões, tipos de contrato de remuneração e outras. Posteriormente, utilizou-se a técnica de Análise Fatorial para estabelecer constructos subjacentes e não correlacionados entre si, de modo que os coeficientes estimados nas regressões posteriores fossem reportados de forma mais consistente do que se construídos com um número limitado de variáveis individuais. Cinco fatores representam mais de 80% da variância dos dados, sinalizando que características como idade, formação básica em administração, contabilidade e/ou economia, remuneração, board interlocking e tamanho do conselho formam um agregado parcimonioso de características que representam a maior parte da diversidade subjacente dos conselhos brasileiros. Destarte, após análise de simultaneidade dos modelos, testou-se as associações existentes entre as propriedades dos números contábeis e os fatores de GC por intermédio de modelos de regressão múltipla estimados pelo método OLS, e de modelos de regressão logística, controlados por setor, tamanho das empresas, adesão aos níveis diferenciados de governança, emissão de ADR, presença de CF permanente instalado, estrutura de propriedade e outros. Os resultados indicam uma associação inversa e significante entre a proporção dos membros que participam de outros CAs e os níveis de persistência, sinalizando que empresas com CAs formados por membros dedicados tendem a reportar, na média, lucros mais persistentes. A remuneração variável é positivamente relacionada com a persistência dos lucros reportados sugerindo que a remuneração dos conselheiros é influenciada pela substância econômica dos resultados divulgados e com o conservadorismo contido no lucro sinalizando para redução do conservadorismo contábil na medida em que a remuneração variável dos conselheiros aumenta. A idade também mostrou ser fator relevante para explicar os níveis de conservadorismo e de gerenciamento de resultados das firmas, sinalizando tendência de maior grau de conservadorismo e menor grau de gerenciamento de resultados por parte dos conselheiros mais velhos. Adicionalmente, não foi possível afirmar que o conselho fiscal afeta de forma positiva o monitoramento da qualidade dos lucros reportados no mercado de capitais brasileiro / In view of the difficulty of observing the day-to-day activities of members of oversight board and board of directors, academics and professionals wonder about the importance of corporate governance (CG) structures when the subject is the propiety of accounting numbers. In this sense, besides discussing extensively and tracing an overview of the configuration of these boards in Brazil over the past five years, I also study how these and other CG structures are associated with proxies of accounting information of Brazilian firms. Contrary to what has been found in the existing literature, I seek to understand the environment of the board of directors (BoD) and oversight board (OB) more broadly, evaluating in an aggregate way 35 variables of structural, remuneration and composition characteristics of these boards, considering their interrelations and implications when associated with variables that measure the informational properties contained in earnings. For that, I analyze, on average, 325 companies per year and 19,487 résumés of the members of these boards, in addition to analyzing other variables such as their attendance at meetings, compensation contracts, board interlocking and others. Later, I use factor analysis to establish underlying constructs not correlated with each other, so that the estimated coefficients in subsequent regressions are reported more consistently than if built with a limited number of individual variables. Five factors represent more than 80% of the variance of the data, signaling that characteristics such as age, basic training in business administration, accounting and/or economics, board compensation, board size and interlocking form a thrifty aggregate of characteristics that represent most of the underlying diversity of Brazilian boards. Thus, after analysis of simultaneity, I test the existing associations between the earnings quality and factors of CG through multiple regression models estimated by OLS and logistic regression models, controlled by sector, firm size, adherence to the different levels of corporate governance, issuance of ADRs, presence of a permanent OB, ownership structure and others. The results indicate a significant inverse association between the proportion of members who participate in other BoDs and persistence levels of earnings, signaling that companies with BoDs formed by dedicated members tend to report, on average, more persistent earnings. The variable pay for board members is positively related to earnings persistense suggesting that the board members compensation is influenced by the economic substance of the disclosed results and with accounting conservatism signaling a decrease in accounting conservatism when the remuneration of these members increases. The age of members also proved to be a relevant factor to explain the levels of conservatism and earnings management of firms, signaling a trend toward greater levels of conservatism and a lesser levels of earnings management of when these boards are formed of older members. Additionally, it was not possible to affirm that the oversight board has a positive effect on the quality of monitoring accounting information reported in the Brazilian capital market.

Many external parties such as investors, creditors, and regulatory agencies, use a company’s financial statements in their decision-making. In doing so, they rely on audit opinions on whether financial statements are fairly stated. However, evidence suggests that there are factors in the audit environment that influence auditor judgments. For example, nondiagnostic client information dilutes auditor judgments when compared to judgments based on diagnostic information alone, especially for less experienced auditors (Hackenbrack 1992; Hoffman and Patton 1997; Glover 1994; Shelton 1999). High time pressure conditions mitigate this effect by refocusing auditor attention toward relevant client information, therefore reducing the impact of nondiagnostic information (Glover 1994, 1997). This research study examines other common audit environment factors to determine if they too influence audit judgment results. An online questionnaire of 149 auditors, CPAs and other accounting professionals indicate that the inclusion of nondiagnostic client information results in a significant change in auditor judgments. The direction of this change follows a theorized pattern; risk assessments that were initially high are reduced, while those that were initially low are increased. Significance was not consistently found for a workload and PCAOB effect on auditor judgment. However, a comparison of the absolute value of dilution effect means across conditions reveals some trending for the proposed unwanted effect of high workload, and the beneficial effect of PCAOB guidance. These results have important implications for auditing research and practice. It extends previous archival research on workload effects and uses a unique questionnaire design to reexamine workload pressures in a behavioral setting. The results of hypothesis testing on workload pressure and PCAOB guidance, although lacking consistent statistical significance; exhibit trends that agree with proposed theoretical relationships. Tests on the effects of nondiagnostic information show strong statistical support for previous studies in the area of psychology and audit. This study’s greatest contribution suggests that audit pressures do not produce equivalent effects on auditor judgment; time pressure improves audit judgment, while workload pressure does not (Glover 1994, 1997). These results can be explained by examining the relationship between stress and audit judgment performance (Choo 1995, Yerkes and Dodson 1908). Different types and different degrees of audit pressures may correspond to different levels of audit pressure. Low to moderate levels of audit pressure, such as the level of time pressure used in Glover’s (1994, 1997) study improve audit performance. Higher audit pressures, such as high workload during an auditor’s busy season, may lower audit performance.

Muito em função da dificuldade de se observar o dia-a-dia dos conselheiros nas empresas, acadêmicos e profissionais se questionam sobre a importância dessas estruturas de governança corporativa (GC) quando o assunto é propriedade dos números contábeis. Nesse sentido, esta tese, além de discutir extensivamente e traçar um panorama geral acerca da configuração desses conselhos no Brasil ao longo dos últimos cinco anos, estuda de que forma essas e outras estruturas de GC se associam com medidas de qualidade da informação contábil das firmas brasileiras. Diferentemente do que se encontra na literatura existente, a pesquisa em tela buscou compreender o ambiente dos conselhos de administração (CAs) e Fiscais (CFs) de modo mais amplo, avaliando de forma agregada 35 características estruturais, de remuneração e de composição desses órgãos, considerando suas inter-relações e implicações quando da associação destas com variáveis que medem as propriedades informacionais contidas no lucro. Para tanto, analisou-se, em média, cerca de 325 empresas por ano, compreendendo análise de 19.487 currículos de conselheiros de administração e fiscais efetivos no país, além da análise das outras variáveis de governança, tais como avaliação formal de conselheiros, frequência de reuniões, tipos de contrato de remuneração e outras. Posteriormente, utilizou-se a técnica de Análise Fatorial para estabelecer constructos subjacentes e não correlacionados entre si, de modo que os coeficientes estimados nas regressões posteriores fossem reportados de forma mais consistente do que se construídos com um número limitado de variáveis individuais. Cinco fatores representam mais de 80% da variância dos dados, sinalizando que características como idade, formação básica em administração, contabilidade e/ou economia, remuneração, board interlocking e tamanho do conselho formam um agregado parcimonioso de características que representam a maior parte da diversidade subjacente dos conselhos brasileiros. Destarte, após análise de simultaneidade dos modelos, testou-se as associações existentes entre as propriedades dos números contábeis e os fatores de GC por intermédio de modelos de regressão múltipla estimados pelo método OLS, e de modelos de regressão logística, controlados por setor, tamanho das empresas, adesão aos níveis diferenciados de governança, emissão de ADR, presença de CF permanente instalado, estrutura de propriedade e outros. Os resultados indicam uma associação inversa e significante entre a proporção dos membros que participam de outros CAs e os níveis de persistência, sinalizando que empresas com CAs formados por membros dedicados tendem a reportar, na média, lucros mais persistentes. A remuneração variável é positivamente relacionada com a persistência dos lucros reportados sugerindo que a remuneração dos conselheiros é influenciada pela substância econômica dos resultados divulgados e com o conservadorismo contido no lucro sinalizando para redução do conservadorismo contábil na medida em que a remuneração variável dos conselheiros aumenta. A idade também mostrou ser fator relevante para explicar os níveis de conservadorismo e de gerenciamento de resultados das firmas, sinalizando tendência de maior grau de conservadorismo e menor grau de gerenciamento de resultados por parte dos conselheiros mais velhos. Adicionalmente, não foi possível afirmar que o conselho fiscal afeta de forma positiva o monitoramento da qualidade dos lucros reportados no mercado de capitais brasileiro / In view of the difficulty of observing the day-to-day activities of members of oversight board and board of directors, academics and professionals wonder about the importance of corporate governance (CG) structures when the subject is the propiety of accounting numbers. In this sense, besides discussing extensively and tracing an overview of the configuration of these boards in Brazil over the past five years, I also study how these and other CG structures are associated with proxies of accounting information of Brazilian firms. Contrary to what has been found in the existing literature, I seek to understand the environment of the board of directors (BoD) and oversight board (OB) more broadly, evaluating in an aggregate way 35 variables of structural, remuneration and composition characteristics of these boards, considering their interrelations and implications when associated with variables that measure the informational properties contained in earnings. For that, I analyze, on average, 325 companies per year and 19,487 résumés of the members of these boards, in addition to analyzing other variables such as their attendance at meetings, compensation contracts, board interlocking and others. Later, I use factor analysis to establish underlying constructs not correlated with each other, so that the estimated coefficients in subsequent regressions are reported more consistently than if built with a limited number of individual variables. Five factors represent more than 80% of the variance of the data, signaling that characteristics such as age, basic training in business administration, accounting and/or economics, board compensation, board size and interlocking form a thrifty aggregate of characteristics that represent most of the underlying diversity of Brazilian boards. Thus, after analysis of simultaneity, I test the existing associations between the earnings quality and factors of CG through multiple regression models estimated by OLS and logistic regression models, controlled by sector, firm size, adherence to the different levels of corporate governance, issuance of ADRs, presence of a permanent OB, ownership structure and others. The results indicate a significant inverse association between the proportion of members who participate in other BoDs and persistence levels of earnings, signaling that companies with BoDs formed by dedicated members tend to report, on average, more persistent earnings. The variable pay for board members is positively related to earnings persistense suggesting that the board members compensation is influenced by the economic substance of the disclosed results and with accounting conservatism signaling a decrease in accounting conservatism when the remuneration of these members increases. The age of members also proved to be a relevant factor to explain the levels of conservatism and earnings management of firms, signaling a trend toward greater levels of conservatism and a lesser levels of earnings management of when these boards are formed of older members. Additionally, it was not possible to affirm that the oversight board has a positive effect on the quality of monitoring accounting information reported in the Brazilian capital market.

I investigate the effects of requiring the audit engagement partner (EP) signature and individual EP’s quality on information asymmetry, analysts’ forecast errors and forecast dispersion. I predict and find that, ceteris paribus, there is a significant decline in information asymmetry, analysts’ forecast errors and forecast dispersion from the pre- to post-EP signature period in the UK over both of short-term (e.g., 2008-2010) and long-term (e.g., 2004-2014). These findings hold when using a control sample approach and a different proxy for the information asymmetry, which indicate that my results are not likely due to the effect of concurrent events and correlated omitted variables. These findings provide timely and important empirical evidence to the ongoing debate about whether the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board should pass a similar requirement in the U.S. / Includes bibliography. / Dissertation (Ph.D.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2016. / FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection

沙氏法是美國在經歷一連串包括安隆、世界通訊等知名企業在內的財報不實醜聞後，為重建投資大眾對公開發行公司財報及美國證券市場的信心，迅速於2002年7月30日頒佈之一項企業革新法。綜觀其中66項條款，引發最多爭議、且對所有公司影響最大的首推404條款。該條款要求管理階層與簽證會計師評估公司與財務報導有關之內部控制制度其有效性，而爭議的重點主要在其實施方式和高遵循成本。 本研究透過個案研究，以深度訪談與問卷調查的方式，瞭解個案公司為遵循沙氏法404條款而推動之專案其組織架構與施行程序，同時蒐集公司主管及員工之意見，以分析實施效益並提出建議。 研究發現，33.34%的受訪者認同公司遵循沙氏法404條款所獲得的效益大於成本，17.34%反對，49.33%持中性看法。受訪者除認為實施沙氏法專案有助於強化同仁的風險意識、引導公司重新檢視與財務報導有關之內部控制制度，並將作業程序標準化、提升內控品質與財報可信度、遵循集團政策外，同時認為沙氏法專案有改善的空間，尤其在整合公司現有的風險控管機制、簡化測試流程及對測試文件的要求等方面。 誠如個案公司財務長所重視的“塑造企業文化”，沙氏法404條款強調的是“由上到下、以風險為基礎”，因此，樹立正確的在上位者之語調與表態極為重要，尤其是董事會、執行長和財務長，必須全力支持，建構具成本效益且符合沙氏法404條款的測試架構，以評估與財務報導有關之內部控制，進而確保財務報導之可靠性。 / After a whole series of financial scandals, such as Enron and WorldCom frauds, the US government swiftly declared the Corporate Reform Law on July 30, 2002, i.e. the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 (“SOX”), aiming to restore investors’ confidence in financial statements of the public companies and the US security market, as well. Among 66 sections in total in SOX, the most contentious aspect, which has also made significant impacts on companies, is Section 404 (“SOX 404”) requiring management and the external auditors to assess the effectiveness of Internal Control over Financial Reporting (“ICFR”). The key point of contention is its stringent implementation and high compliance cost. In-depth interview and questionnaire survey methods were adopted in this case study to explore how the researched company (“the Company”) implemented its project in response to SOX 404 and then to have a detailed analysis based upon the answers and comments obtained from the interviewees and the questionnaire respondents. Suggestions are made at the end of the study. The study finds that 33.34% of the respondents agreed with the view that compliance with SOX 404 generates greater benefit than cost to the Company, while 17.34% were against it, and 49.33% remained neutral. Despite the fact that abiding by SOX may enhance the employees’ risk awareness, guide the company to reexamine its ICFR, add more credibility of financial reports, and conform to Group policy etc., both the interviewees and the respondents consider that there is room for improvement as far as SOX 404 project is concerned. For example, a full integration of the existing risk management mechanisms and also a great simplification of testing procedures and documentation requirements. Just as the CFO of the Company highlights the importance of molding enterprise culture, SOX 404 is also top-down, risk-based oriented. As a result, it is essential to set the right tone at the top. The Board of Directors, CEO, and CFO must give their full support for building a testing framework, which is cost-effective and keeps to SOX 404. By doing so, ICFR can be accurately assessed, and the reliability of financial reports can be virtually assured.

The Sarbanes-Oxley Act made audit committees directly responsible for the appointment, compensation, and supervision of companies' auditors. Limited research in the auditor selection process and PCAOB inspections suggest that managers, not audit committees, may still be selecting the auditors, and that inspection reports are not useful. This study addresses both of these areas. This paper considers two theories of governance, Agency Theory and Institution Theory, to analyze the audit committee members' auditor selection process. The study examines whether Audit Committee Members use two specific types of audit quality indicators, other than managers' recommendation, in evaluating auditors. In a setting where the manager recommends the auditor, the auditors' inspection results (favorable/unfavorable) and a prior manager/auditor affiliation (absent/present) are manipulated in a between-subject research design, using financially literate professionals as a proxy for audit committee members. The study finds that audit quality perception and auditor selection are jointly determined. Inspection results are positively associated with audit quality perception and auditor selection. The nature of a manager-auditor affiliation is directly associated with audit quality perception and inversely related to auditor selection. Further, controlling for perception, audit committee members are more likely to recommend auditors with unfavorable inspection results, if a prior affiliation with management is present than if an affiliation is absent. Overall, the results indicate that audit committee members are diligent in evaluating auditors, and PCAOB inspection results are useful. The results of this study contribute to the audit committee effectiveness and PCAOB literature. / by Veena Looknanan-Brown. / Thesis (Ph.D.)-Florida Atlantic University, 2011. / Includes bibliography. / Electronic reproduction. Boca Raton, Fla., 2011. Mode of access: World Wide Web.

In this thesis I deal with the analysis of current problems on the market of auditing services in the Czech Republic, with suggestions for their solution. The theoretical part contents analysis of the historical context of the audit, the legal regulation, e. g. International Standards on Auditing (ISAs), Czech Act on Auditors and link to other laws. This part also contents analysis of the market of auditing services focusing on small auditing companies and also description on problems connected with entering the audit profession and consequently the problems related to market regulation, evaluation and quality control of the provided auditing services. Case studies in the practical part reflects the most important problems of small auditing companies. This will be complemented by a questionnaire survey that should reveal the different points of view of the audited company, accountant and auditor on key audit issues.