摘要
基于中国上市公司2007—2017年相关样本数据,本文从外部审计的公司治理与信息传递功能出发,构建实证回归模型,研究了外部审计质量对企业创新活动的影响及其作用机制。实证结果表明:高质量外部审计有助于营造企业创新氛围,推动企业创新活动;并且,外部审计质量的提高可分别通过缓解企业内部代理冲突和降低企业外部融资约束两条作用机制推动企业创新活动。该结论不仅丰富现阶段资本市场审计有关外部治理及信号传递的理论,并且对监管部门、审计师事务所、企业治理层、金融部门以及社会投资者在推动创新实践方面具有一定启示意义。
Based on historical research, the external audit function plays a critical role in corporate external governance. When the quality of external audit of an enterprise is improved, high-quality accounting information will be delivered to enterprises both internally and externally. Therefore, high-quality accounting information will alleviate internal agency problems of enterprises, reduce short-sighted behaviors of managers, and improve the attention of managers to innovation activities. Furthermore, such information will reduce the cost of investors obtaining enterprises′ information, provide more credible and accurate information regarding enterprise operations to parties that finance enterprises, and ease the financing constraints faced by enterprises, thereby enabling enterprises to have sufficient funds to support innovation activities. Therefore, we hypothesize that better-quality external audit potentially promotes innovation investment and the long-term stable growth of enterprise value.Based on data of Chinese listed companies in 2007—2017, we construct an empirical analysis model to verify the aforementioned hypothesis. In our model, the dependent variable(enterprise innovation) is measured using the ratio of an enterprise′s research and development(R&D) investment to its total assets. Subsequently, the main explanatory variable(audit quality) is measured using audit fees. Simultaneously, we control for other variables, such as enterprise scale, asset liability ratio, net cash flow, asset return ratio, the proportion of major shareholders, whether the chairman and general manager are the same person, scale of enterprise plant asset, and listed period. The empirical results reveal that high-quality external audit can effectively promotes enterprise innovation activities, thus supporting the aforementioned hypothesis and verifying the effect of audit quality on enterprise innovation activities.We seek to confirm that the effect of external audit quality on enterprise innovation occurs through two channels: the reduction of agency costs and the easing of financing constraints. We construct two intermediary variables—agency cost and financing constraints—to test the transmission mechanisms. We find that high-quality external audit has a significantly positive effect on enterprise innovation activities through the two intermediary variables of agency cost and financing constraints. Therefore, high-quality external audit can promote the innovation activities of enterprises by reducing agency costs and alleviating the financing constraints of enterprises.Our research theoretically enriches our understanding of the mechanism through which external corporate governance influences enterprise innovation;it also prescribes practical measures such as the optimization of corporate governance and the financing environment, creating a general climate conducive to enterprise innovation, and improving the innovation ability of enterprises.
作者
许建伟
陈彦斌
刘琨
Xu Jianwei;Chen Yanbin;Liu Kun(School of Internet Economics and Business,Fujian University of Technology,Fuzhou 350014,Fujian,China;School of Economics,Renmin University of China,Beijing 100872,China;School of Economics and Management,Fuzhou University,Fuzhou 350116,Fujian,China)
出处
《科研管理》
CSSCI
CSCD
北大核心
2020年第10期11-20,共10页
Science Research Management
基金
国家自然科学基金面上项目:“环境规制、企业创新与产业转型升级:基于节能减排监管的理论与实证研究”(71872046,2019—2021)
国家自然科学基金面上项目:“中国上市公司绿色治理问题研究:观测指标、外部驱动因素与经济后果”(71972041,2020—2022)。
关键词
外部审计质量
企业创新
代理成本
融资约束
external audit quality
enterprise innovation
agency cost
financial constraint
