私立大專院校會計師選任策略之研究

Abstract

組織的會計師選任是其整體會計策略的一環，本研究引用信號傳遞賽局分析非營利組織選任會計師與其所獲捐款或補助金額之關聯性，並據以探討國內許多私立大專院校群集聘任某小型會計師事務所之現象。許多營利組織常藉由選任信譽良好之會計師為其財務報表簽證以降低其與重要關係人間的資訊不對稱問題；但其他組織則可能基於成本效益之考量而選用其他類型之簽證會計師。本研究預期私立大專院校亦可藉由簽證會計師之選任以極大化其效益，並以2004至2008學年度我國私立大專院校之相關資料進行實證。結果證實當學校為滿足政府法令規範而於前期聘任某小型會計師事務所查核時，本期獲得之補助或捐贈收入較少；進一步將補助或捐贈來源區分為政府補助或民間捐款後，實證結果亦同。從學校選任會計師角度而言，此結果支持許多學校會透過會計師選任來向外界傳遞訊息，以提升其補助或捐款收入；但當選任高品質會計師之增額成本大於獲得外界認同之增額效益時，學校的選擇會是只符合政府法令要求最低門檻之會計師。

CPA selection is part of organization's overall accounting strategy. This paper analyzes the relationship between CPA selection of nonprofit organization and the donation or subsidy companies received and use this to explore why many private universities select the same small accounting firm. The value of audit is in improving the quality of financial information. To reduce the information asymmetry problem, corporations always select good reputation accountants to audit their financial reports while other organizations may select cheaper accountants. This study examines whether private universities can improve their fundraising to maximize their self-interests by selecting a good reputation auditor. We apply signaling games to analyze the relationship between the CPA selection and amount of donation or government financial support for private universities. This study collects the schools' data from academic year 2004 to 2008. The empirical results show that schools receive more private donation or government financial support small accounting firm when financial reports in prior year were audited by Big-4 CPA firms. We also partition the small accounting firm to two new separate variables: private donation and government financial support. The result is consistent with the SA variable. However, schools selecting the specific small accounting firm mere meet the regulations; these schools receive fewer private donations or government financial supports. This indicates that private universities try to send an important signal to outsiders through CPA selection. This signal affects private donations or government financial supports for private universities.