董事會是公司治理之核心，設置審計委員會為其職能，確保盈餘品質與財務報導。因此，為了解審計委員會的專業性對盈餘品質與聯合貸款之影響，本研究選取2000年至2012年美國上市非金融業公司作為研究樣本，以聯貸利差作為衡量聯合貸款契約特性之變數。首先探討盈餘品質對貸款利差的影響，再進一步考量審計委員會的會計專業對於盈餘品質與聯合貸款有何影響。研究結果發現，企業的盈餘品質與貸款利差呈負向關係，顯示當公司的盈餘品質好的時候好，能取得較低的聯貸利差，且當審計委員會成員具有會計專業時，其現象會更加明顯。 / Board of directors is the core of corporate governance, and one of the main functions of board of directors is to establish audit committee to ensure the company’s earnings quality and financial reporting. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to examine the effect of audit committee with accounting experts on the loan spread in the syndication loan market. This study is based on a sample of US companies during 2000-2012. The results show that earnings quality is negatively associated with loan spread, and this is more pronounced when the proportion of accounting experts on the audit committee is higher. Keyword: Audit

Business Management / D. B. L.

Fin 2001, début 2002, les États-Unis ont été frappés par un nombre élevé de scandales financiers. Plusieurs affaires ont été révélées par les médias, singulièrement le cas Enron. La reformulation de la profession d'audit en matière d'indépendance des auditeurs et des comités d'audit après le scandale Enron a cherché à garantir la crédibilité des états financiers. L'objectif de ce travail est de tester l'effet de la nouvelle formulation de la profession d'audit, notamment en matière d'indépendance des auditeurs et des comités d'audit, précisément sur la question de la crédibilité des états financiers. Trois objectifs opérationnels ont été traités dans le cadre de cette étude. Premièrement, nous avons analysé les effets de l’affaire Enron sur la réaction des marchés financiers, le choix des commissaires aux comptes et l’affermissement du conservatisme des auditeurs, dans le contexte français. Deuxièmement, nous avons étudié l’impact de l’institution du Haut Conseil du Commissariat aux Comptes sur l’indépendance des auditeurs. Finalement, nous avons étudié l’influence du Comité d’audit sur la crédibilité des états financiers après le rapport Bouton de 2002. Les résultats empiriques s’attachent à montrer que la présence d’un co-commissaire aux comptes Non-Big a minimisé l’effet négatif de la réaction du marché financier français lors de l’annonce du scandale Enron. Par contre, le scandale Enron n’a pas influencé significativement la perception des investisseurs institutionnels étrangers envers les services des grands cabinets d’audit. Ces derniers n’ont pas justifié la production d’une bonne qualité d’audit par rapport aux Non-Big. Pour rétablir la confiance sur les marchés financiers, le législateur français est intervenu via la création d’un organisme de supervision publique de la profession comptable intitulé le H3C. Les résultats empiriques montrent que la création du H3C a renforcé l’indépendance des auditeurs. Par contre, l’annonce du lancement des activités disciplinaires de ce nouvel organisme après 2005 n’a pas d’effet significatif sur l’indépendance des auditeurs. Par contre l’apparition du rapport Bouton en 2002, et la nouvelle dimension accordée au contrôle interne, montre que ce dernier dépendant des caractéristiques des comités d’audit notamment l’expertise et l’indépendance de leurs membres. / At the end of 2001, the scandal series was announced in the US context. Several scandals, especially the Eron failure, were revealed in the first stage by the media. The main purpose of this research is to study the impact of the new reform, in audit after Enron scandal, on auditor independence, audit comity and financial statement credibility. Three operational objectives have been treated in this study. First, we have analyzed the effects of Enron scandal on financial market reaction, auditor choice and auditor conservatism in the French context. Second, we have investigated the impact of the new reform on the auditor independence. Finally, we have examined the effect of audit committee on financial statement credibility after the adoption of the Bouton Report in 2002.The empirical results have shown that the presence of the Non-Big4 members in the legal audit process have minimized the negative effect of the reaction of the SBF 250. However, the perception of the foreign institutional investors has not changed significantly for the Big4 audit services. This auditor group (Big4) does not justify the production of the audit quality compared to other auditors in France. To restore confidence in the financial market, the French legislative authority has created the H3C. The empirical results have revealed that the establishment of the H3C has ameliorated the auditor independence. Hence, the announcement of the launch of H3C disciplinary activity after 2005 has not had a significant effect on auditor independence. In contrast, the appearance of the Bouton Report in 2002 and the reform related to the internal control depend on the audit committee characteristics (expertise and independence audit committee members).

Em virtude de sucessivas crises e fraudes envolvendo grandes empresas ocorridas nos últimos anos, a sociedade e os governos passaram a buscar novas formas de controle, além de revitalizar antigas formas que haviam sido deixadas de lado. Sendo o Comitê de Auditoria (CA) uma das fontes mais importantes de controle dentro das atuais necessidades das organizações, o presente trabalho tem como objetivo identificar e analisar os aspectos mais relevantes que o caracterizam. Diversos regulamentos e orientações para regular este órgão (CA), tal como a lei Sarbanes-Oxley, foram criados tanto no Brasil como no exterior e uma comparação entre os normativos e orientações das autoridades e organismos brasileiros com os normativos internacionais foi efetuada. Como contribuição ao conhecimento sobre o tema, uma pesquisa documental foi desenvolvida em 112 empresas de grande porte no Brasil, identificando as principais informações sobre o comitê de auditoria, evidenciadas por essas organizações, utilizando o canal de comunicação da internet. Um índice para efetuar comparações entre as empresas foi criado: o Índice de Disclosure do Comitê de Auditoria (IDCA). Os resultados mostraram que a maioria das empresas componentes da amostra não apresentou um grau de evidenciação sobre o Comitê de Auditoria que permita uma visualização efetiva sobre esse organismo nas organizações pesquisadas. / Successive crises and frauds involving large companies in recent years have driven the society and the governments to seek new forms of control and to revive old forms previously set aside. Since the Audit Committee (AC) is one of the most important sources of control within present needs of the organizations, this research aims to identify and analyze the most relevant aspects that characterize audit committees. Various regulations and guidelines, such as Sarbanes-Oxley Act, were created to regulate AC in Brazil and other countries as well, so a comparison was performed between the Brazilian regulations and guidelines produced by Brazilian and international authorities and regulatory bodies. As a contribution to the knowledge on the subject, a documental research was performed in 112 large companies in Brazil to identify the main information on audit committees disclosed by these organizations using the Internet communication channel. An index to compare companies disclosure on audit committees was created (IDCA). The findings show that most companies of the sample did not present a level of disclosure on the IDCA index to allow an effective view of the audit committee in these organizations.

No description available.

Sammanfattning Titel: Är revisions-och CSR-kommittéer komplement eller substitut hos företag som tillämpar extern granskning och GRI:s ramverk? Nivå: Examensarbete på grundnivå (kandidatexamen) i ämnet företagsekonomi. Författare: Susanna Malmkjell och Carolin Olsson Handledare: Jan Svanberg Datum: 2023-januari  Syfte: Studien syftar till att undersöka om revisionskommitténs oberoende och expertis påverkar benägenheten att få hållbarhetsredovisningen externt granskad av en tredje part. Studien undersöker även om de två faktorerna påverkar benägenheten att redovisa enligt hållbarhetsstandarden GRI. Studien undersöker slutligen om förekomst av CSR-kommitté modererar dessa samband.  Metod: En kvantitativ studie med en tvärsnittsdesign där fyra hypoteser prövas. Urvalet består av 1954 företag från 71 länder under året 2021. Studien baseras på sekundära data inhämtad från databasen Refinitiv Eikon.  Resultat och slutsats: Utifrån studiens resultat har revisionskommitténs oberoende en positiv koppling till extern granskning, medan CSR-kommittén modererar sambandet mellan revisionskommitténs oberoende och företagets antagande av GRI:s ramverk.  Examensarbetets bidrag: Studien bidrar med empirisk forskning inom CSR. Då tidigare forskning visar motstridiga resultat utifrån olika teorier, fyller denna studie en del av det forskningsgap som råder kring studiens syfte.  Förslag till fortsatt forskning: Tillämpning av en longitudinell design samt studera om det finns skillnader mellan olika branscher och geografiska områden.  Nyckelord: CSR-rapportering, CSR-kommitté, revisionskommitté, GRI och extern granskning. / Abstract Title: Are audit and CSR committees complements or substitutes in companies that apply external audit and the GRI framework? Level: Student thesis, final assignment for Bachelor Degree in Business Administration.  Author: Susanna Malmkjell and Carolin Olsson Supervisor: Jan Svanberg Date: 2023-January  Aim: The study aims to investigate whether the audit committee's independence and expertise affect the propensity to have the sustainability report externally reviewed by a third party. The study also examines whether the two factors affect the propensity to report according to the sustainability standard GRI. Finally, the study examines whether the existence of a CSR committee moderates these relationships.  Method: A quantitative study with a cross-sectional design where four hypotheses are tested. The sample consists of 1954 companies from 71 countries in the year 2021. The study is based on secondary data obtained from the Refinitiv Eikon database.  Results and conclusions: Based on the results of the study, audit committee independence has a positive association with external audit, while CSR committee moderates the relationship between audit committee independence and the firm's adoption of the GRI framework.  Contribution of the thesis: The study contributes empirical research within CSR. As previous research shows conflicting results based on different theories, this study fills part of the research gap that exists around the purpose of the study.  Suggestions for future research: Applying a longitudinal design and studying whether there are differences between different industries and geographical areas.  Key words: CSR reporting, CSR committee, audit committee, GRI and external review

本文以2005年至2014年間中華人民共和國上海及深圳上市公司為研究對象，參照Beck and Mauldin (2014)衡量審計委員會與財務長之間相對影響力之模式，從公司治理觀點分析選任個人層級及事務所層級之產業專家會計師，是否與審計委員會相較於財務主管較具有影響力有關聯性，並參考過去發展的文獻，以多種衡量產業專家之方法執行敏感性分析。本研究結果顯示，當企業之審計委員會相較於財務主管之相對影響力較大時，與個人層級之產業專家及同時為個人層級及事務所層級之產業專家會計師具有顯著正相關、與會計師事務所層級之產業專家呈現不顯著相關，故可推論，審計委員會相對較有影響力時會傾向選擇會計師個人產業專家。 / The primary objective of this thesis is to examine whether and how the relative power of the CFOs to audit committee affects the choice of auditor’s industry specialization, measured as firm level and partner level. We focus my analyses on a sample of listed firms in China during 2005-2014. We follow the measure of the relative power of CFO and audit committee by Beck and Mauldin (2014) to test my predictions. My main findings can be summarized as follows. First, the thesis finds evidence that firms are more likely to choice firm-level audit experts when its CFO is less powerful than audit committee. Second, it also finds that firms are more likely to hire partner-level audit experts when audit committee is relatively powerful than the CFO. The results are robust to other proxies for audit experts.

本研究探討審計委員會、企業社會責任及企業價值間之關聯性。將研究分為兩部分：針對審計委員會及企業社會責任之關聯性，實證結果顯示，設置審計委員會之企業對於企業社會責任之影響為顯著正相關，表示審計委員會能夠監督企業之運作，使得企業投入較多的心力在企業社會責任中。另外，針對審計委員會、企業社會責任及企業價值之關聯性，實證結果顯示，企業社會責任與企業價值間為顯著正相關，然而審計委員會與企業價值間無顯著關係，表示企業投入較多心力在社會活動中，其企業價值也會相對地提高。 / The purpose of the study is to examine the connection between audit committee , corporate social responsibility (CSR) and firm’s value.The conclusions of this study are divided into two parts. First part is that audit committee has a positive impact on corporate social responsibility. It means that audit committee oversee the operations of the companies, allowing companies to invest more effort in corporate social responsibility. Second part is that corporate social responsibility has a positive impact on firm’s value, however audit committee has no impact on it. It means when companies put much more effort on social activities, therefore firm’s value will relatively increased.

本研究欲探討我國公司治理相關法規文字及其運作之解讀可能產生之問題，從95 年度證券交易法之修正條文中，辨認以下釋例來檢視問題： 1.「會計主管」與「主辦會計」之意義是否相同？ 2.審計委員會之組成究應包括全部或部分之獨立董事？ 3.獨立董事究應參加一個或多個委員會？ 4.審計委員會及其成員行使職權之方式是否不同？ 5.獨立董事針對證交法第十四之三條之事項所表示之保留意見是否為反對意見？ 此外，本研究另外探討法規閱讀者對以上問題的認知是否因其學業背景而有不同？ 本研究以政治大學法律系、會計系、法律所、會計所、EMBA 學生為受測者，發放問卷，結果發現法規閱讀者對於這些法規用字認知很分歧。立法者在起草這些法規時，應考慮到法規適用者，將法規文字訂定得更加明確，且合理，自然可讀性可提高。 / This research is to discuss about some possible problems in perceiving the law wording in the articles in the Securities and Exchange Act revised in 2006. It examines problems by identifying the following examples: 1. Do ”accounting officer” and “in-charge accountant” mean the same? 2. Shall the audit committees be composed of the entire number of independent directors or just some independent directors? 3. Shall independent directors attend only one or more than one committees? 4. Is there any difference between audit committees and independent directors in the modes of exercise? 5. Does the qualified opinion of independent directors on the Article 14-3 in the Securities and Exchange Act mean dissenting opinion? This research will study if the perceptions of readers differ because of their academic backgrounds. This research uses questionnaires to obtain opinions of students from the Departments of Accounting, Law, and EMBA. The analysis in this research shows that readers have large differences in the perceptions of the laws and regulations. When drafting the laws and regulations, legislators should think about the users. They should make the laws and regulations more definite and reasonable, which will enhance the readability.

Magister Legum - LLM