Human Capital and Operating Performance

Abstract

由於全球對會計專業規範的日益嚴苛，以及執業環境的惡化，會計師事務所如何在市場上占有一席之地，是一門值得深思的課題，尤其是事務所特別依賴著以知識為基礎的人力資本來執行其審計服務，然而，有關於事務所之經營續效為何，以及人力資本的優劣究竟在事務所之經營績效上扮演何種角色，卻少見研究探討之。因此，本文首先採用資料包絡法，分析事務所效率與規模報酬等經營績效，其次，利用資源基礎觀點，進而探討高品質人力資本是否會影響事務所之經營績效。本文按生產技術水準將樣本分為大型及小型等兩類事務所，結果顯示，就效率而言，大型事務所樣本下之四人表現較優，且主因係該管理者有較佳的資源運用能力。小型事務所则以員工9人（含）以上事務所表現較佳，惟與四人情況不同，其原因並非源自於管理者能力，而係有較佳的生產規模所致。就規模報酬而言，大型事務所中的四大，多數均處於最適的生產規模中，從年度趨勢來看，非四大事務所有積極調整規模的現象。小型事務所中，員工9人以下事務所大多處於規模報酬遞增，而員工9人（含）以上事務所則多數於規模報酬遞減之生產狀態下。就高品質人力資本能否影響事務所績效而言，結果顯示，無論是大型或小型事務所，若所內有愈多經驗豐厚之高階專業人力，愈能提昇技術效率，且若事務所教育訓練支出愈多者，其技術效率亦愈能有所增加，惟無論是大型或小型事務所，所內有愈多高學歷的高階專業人力，均無法顯著增加其技術效率。

Recently, increasingly severe regulation and stringent market competition deteriorate the operating environment in which auditors practise. Accordingly, it is undoubtedly an important lesson for auditors to adapt to the practicing situation to survive and to sustain competitive advantages in the audit market. As a professional organization, audit firm offers various services by knowledge-based human capital. However, few prior studies address the operating performance of audit firm and the role played by human capital in creating the operating performance. To fill the gap, this study estimates the efficiency and return to scale by Data Envelop Analysis. Then, this study investigates the effects of high quality human capital upon operating performance in terms of resource-based view. Total observations used in this study are grouped into large and small firms by production technical level. Empirical results indicate that Big 4 international firms and small firms with number of employee equal to and more than 9 possess higher efficiency. For return to scale, most of the Big 4 international firms are in the optimal scale of production. Non-Big 4 firms adapt their scale aggressively in the long-run tendency. Of the small firms, firms with number of employee less than 9 are in the increasing return to scale and firms with number of employee equal to and more than 9 are in the decreasing return to scale. Finally, audit firms with more experienced upper-level professionals improve their technical efficiency significantly. In addition, audit firms with more expenditure on educational training significantly increase technical efficiency. However, for either large or small firm, more upper-level professionals with high academic degree are unable to improve their technical efficiency.