签字会计师社会资本与审计行为：基于社会网络视角的研究

Signatory auditors are responsible for decision-making on significant matters and the final audit opinion in the audit process, so scholars and regulators pay more and more attention on their auditing behavior. The interactive nature of audit verification and negotiation process makes signatory auditors communicate with the top executives of their clients frequently. The social networks between them determine signatory auditors’ ability to obtain information and social influence, namely the signatory auditors’ social capital. Using ‘Degree centrality’, ‘Closeness centrality’, ‘Betweenness centrality’, and ‘Eigenvector centrality’ respectively, which are frequently used in social network research, to measure signatory auditors’ ability to obtain social capital, this project investigates whether signatory auditors’ social capital can provide them with information advantage and enhance their social influence, thereby influencing the level of independence and auditors’ professional competence, and hence affecting signatory auditors’ auditing behaviors. The main contents of this project include: analyzing the mechanism of how signatory auditors’ social capital influences their auditing behaviors from the perspective of social network; exploring how signatory auditors’ social capital affects the audit quality, audit style, audit fees, and customer choice and also providing empirical evidence based on the large sample from Chinese capital market. This project will enrich and expand the contents and directions of the researches on signatory auditors’ auditing behaviors, advance the understanding of signatory auditors’ auditing behaviors in several ways, and provide some reference for improving regulatory mechanisms and investor protection mechanisms.

签字会计师对审计过程中出现的重大问题和最终审计意见负责，其审计行为日益受到学术界和监管部门的重视。审计验证与审计谈判过程的互动性使签字会计师与客户高管频繁接触。所以，他们之间的社会网络关系决定签字会计师的信息获取能力和社会影响力，即签字会计师的社会资本。本项目利用程度中心度、接近中心度、中介中心度和特征向量中心度等在社会网络研究中广泛采用的指标测量签字会计师社会资本的获取能力，研究社会资本能否为签字会计师提供信息优势并强化其社会影响力，从而影响其专业胜任能力和独立性，进而影响其审计行为。主要研究内容包括：基于社会网络视角解析签字会计师社会资本影响审计行为的机理；剖析并检验签字会计师社会资本对审计质量、审计风格、审计收费和客户选择的影响。本项目将丰富和拓展对签字会计师审计行为研究的内容和方向，提升监管部门和学术界对签字会计师行为的理解，为完善审计监管机制和投资者保护机制提供政策支持。

签字会计师对审计过程中出现的重大问题和最终审计意见负责，其审计行为日益受到学术界和监管部门的重视。审计验证与审计谈判过程的互动性使签字会计师与客户高管频繁接触。所以，他们之间的社会网络关系决定签字会计师的信息获取能力和社会影响力，即签字会计师的社会资本。本项目利用程度中心度、接近中心度、中介中心度和特征向量中心度等在社会网络研究中广泛采用的指标测量签字会计师社会资本的获取能力，研究社会资本能否为签字会计师提供信息优势并强化其社会影响力，从而影响其专业胜任能力和独立性，进而影响其审计行为。本项目收集和梳理了国内外相关文献；通过对相关理论的归纳和分析，构建了签字注册会计师社会资本与审计行为的关系模型；科学界定并测度签字注册会计师社会资本，研究其对审计行为的影响；以审计质量、审计风格、审计收费、客户获取等为切入点，研究了签字注册会计师社会资本对审计行为的影响，从社会网络视角揭示了社会资本影响签字注册会计师行为的机理。在本项目的资助下，主持人和团队成员在The Accounting Review，Accounting Horizons，Accounting & Finance，Asia-Pacific Journal of Accounting and Economics，《管理工程学报》、《系统工程理论与实践》、《管理评论》、《管理科学》等国内外著名期刊发表论文15篇。项目的研究成果丰富和拓展了对签字会计师审计行为研究的内容和方向，提升监管部门和学术界对签字会计师行为的理解，为完善审计监管机制和投资者保护机制提供政策支持。