修正式無保留意見是否預告了公司不佳的經營績效？

Abstract

修正式無保留意見是否預告了公司不佳的經營績效？是一個重要且尚未有人討論過的議題。本文以2000至2003年間收到此一審計意見的535個台灣上市公司作爲研究對象。結果發現收到修正式無保留意見的公司，其未來的經營績效的確低於產業的平均水準。而且，在六種不同的修正式無保留意見原因中，被簽發對繼續經營假設存有疑慮的公司，其後續的經營績效表現最差。此外，我們還進一步發現公司治理較佳的公司，受到此一審計意見負面訊息的影響較低，本文所稱的公司治理機制較佳包括有聘任外部董事的公司、非家族企業、內部人以及法人持股比率較高的公司。

Does modified unqualified opinion foresee a poor performance is a central but never discussed issue. We explore this story using a sample of 535 event companies listed on Taiwan Stock Exchange during 2000-2003. Our results show that firms receiving this auditing report would experience poor performance relative to their industry peers, furthermore, the companies would get a worst performance when this auditing opinion comes from a reason of going-concern. In addition, we find those firms with better corporate governance, including companies with outside directors, higher insider shareholdings, higher institutional shareholdings and non-family-owned business, would suffer less negative impact from this gloomy opinion.