This study investigates whether the current lack of structure of internal control weakness disclosures (a narrative about the reliability of the financial reporting system) leads nonprofessional investors to make differential investment decisions. Using the non-accelerated filer (smaller public company) setting, where nonprofessional investors are likely to consume unaudited internal control reports in their investing judgments and decisions, I examine two facets of internal control disclosure formats: presentation salience and disaggregation of material weaknesses. A 2 x 2 between-participants behavioral experiment was conducted with internal control presentation salience (bulleted vs. in-text) and disaggregation level (a single material weakness vs. a combination of multiple control deficiencies that is a material weakness). I find that nonprofessional investors reward companies that disclose internal control weaknesses more saliently. The results also indicate that disaggregation interacts with salience in that it increases the effect of salience on investing judgments such that salient (stealth) disclosure of a combination of control deficiencies is viewed more positively (negatively) than salient (stealth) disclosure of a material weakness. These findings are contrary to Rennekamp (2012) who finds that processing fluency in bad news leads to more negative investment judgements. Additional analyses indicated that the results related to management trust and credibility are consistent with prior literature. The findings contribute to academia and practice by shedding light on the importance that needs to be placed on the presentation format of internal control disclosures.

本研究以2004至2010年國內之上市公司為研究樣本，探討內部控制缺失對公司經營績效之影響。對於內部控制缺失之判斷，不同於以往，僅限以公司自行揭露或遭主管機關裁罰之資訊為對象，本研究廣泛蒐集公司負面新聞，將內部控制缺失依事件發生原因分類，並依照COSO報告架構將內部控制缺失依五大要素及五大目標予以分類。 實證研究結果顯示，內部控制缺失與企業經營績效間呈顯著負相關，重大之內部控制缺失對經營績效影響之程度較大。依發生原因分類內部控制缺失之分析結果顯示，違反金管會規定、管理階層操守與價值觀有偏差及發生會計錯誤而重編財報之公司，其經營績效較差。至於內部控制缺失涉及內部控制要素及控制目標者，分析顯示，各項缺失要素及目標皆與經營績效呈顯著負向關係，且缺失要素及缺失目標較多之公司，其經營績效較差。其中，控制環境、風險評估與監督三項控制要素缺失，以及財務報導目標缺失對經營績效有較顯著之負向影響。 / Based on a sample of 724 Taiwanese companies listed in Taiwan Securities Exchange over the period of 2004-2010, this research investigates the impact of internal control weaknesses on firm performance. Different from prior studies that identified internal control weaknesses only from voluntary disclosures made by the firm and releases regarding firm’s violation of regulations issued by the Finanical Supervisory Commission, Executive Yuan, ROC (FSC). This study extensively collects news related to events resulting from internal control weaknesses as an additional data source. A further classification of internal control weaknesses is performed based on the nature of the events and the internal control framework proposed in the COSO report. The empirical results indicate that firms with internal control weaknesses are significantly underperformed. It is also found that material weaknesses have greater impact on firm performance. The results show that firms associated with FSC regulation violation releases, the integrity and ethical values of management is biased, and had restated financial statements accounting errors have significantly lower performance. The internal control weaknesses classified by the elements and objectives of internal control based on the COSO framework, are found to be significantly and negatively related to the firm performance respectively and collectively. In specific, the weaknesses associated with control environment, risk assessment, monitoring, and financial reporting objective have greater impact on firm performance.

本研究主要係在探討經過會計師查核的內部控制報告書是否會影響到分析師的公私有資訊精確度以及市場流動性。實證結果發現，當公司被視為具有重大內控缺失者，會造成分析師公有及私有資訊精確度下降，進而使得整體資訊環境的不確定性增加。本研究亦發現，當公司揭露內部控制缺失時，該公司在宣告期間會有較差的市場流動性以及較嚴重的資訊不對稱性。本研究更進一步將內控缺失區分成公司及會計層級內控缺失，結果發現有公司層級內控缺失的公司，相較於會計層級缺失者，會有較差的公有資訊精確度及市場流動性。最後，本研究發現，若公司下一年度有進行內部控制缺失修正時，會產生較高的公私有資訊精確度及較高的市場流動性。 / This dissertation extends prior research on internal control weaknesses (hereafter ICW) by examining the impact of internal control weakness and their remediation on information precision and market liquidity for firms filed Section 404 reports with the SEC. First, I find that the presence of ICW is associated with lower precisions of public and private information contained in analysts’ earnings forecasts, which in turn increase overall information uncertainty. Second, I find that market liquidity is significantly lower for ICW firms. Moreover, this dissertation provides evidence that firm-level control weaknesses have stronger impact on public information precision and market liquidity than account-specific control weaknesses. Finally, this dissertation suggests that ICW remediation firms have higher information precision and market liquidity, compared to non-remediation firms. My results are robust after controlling for the endogeneity problem and other sensitivity tests.