摘要
信息技术背景的董事可以利用其在信息技术方面的优势监督会计信息的生产与报告过程,进而抑制盈余管理。本文以2004-2016年我国A股上市公司为样本,检验董事的信息技术背景对盈余管理的影响。研究发现,董事的信息技术背景有助于抑制盈余管理;这种抑制作用在产品市场竞争较弱、机构投资者持股比例较低时更为显著。本研究揭示了从董事会层面加强对信息技术监督的机制与重要性,丰富了董事个人特征的经济后果及盈余管理的影响因素的相关文献,并为信息化背景下我国企业如何提高盈余质量提供了经验证据。
Data has become an important strategic resource in China nowadays. The huge commercial value, scientific research value, management and decision support value contained in big data are being recognized and exploited. In the era of digital transformation, the application of information technology(IT) is particularly important. However, IT is a double-edged sword for firms. If properly applied, IT can improve the quality of enterprise information and hence firm value;conversely, it may facilitate self-interested behavior of corporate management and hence damaging firm value.To meet the need of corporate governance in the big data era, IT has been increasingly valued by the academic and the business. IT governance, an integral part of corporate governance, aims to effectively alleviate IT risks, promote the collaboration of IT and business, and maximize firm value. IT governance at the board level becomes the core of IT governance of a firm. IT governance of the board focuses on the role of directors in strategic decision-making and control activities related to IT, and supervises and controls the management.Earnings management is a hot topic in the capital market. The collection, production, processing and reporting of accounting information cannot be finished without the aid of IT. Whether directors with IT expertise(IT directors) can take the advantages of IT to supervise the production process of accounting information, and effectively restrain earnings management has become an important topic. IT directors are more likely to understand the entire process of IT and IS(information system) implementation, pay more attention to the rationality of the information production process, and identify IT risks, so they can discover and correct information manipulation behavior in a timely manner to restrain earnings management. In addition, IT directors help to establish an internal environment that emphasizes IT and information quality, improve the internal information environment, prevent information risks, and enhance the accuracy and transparency of accounting information, thereby inhibiting earnings management.Using manually collected data on directors’ IT expertise of China’s listed companies from 2004 to 2016, we examine the effect of IT directors on earnings management. The empirical results demonstrate that IT directors do help prevent earnings management. The results are robust to a series of robustness tests, including fixed firms effects model, instrumental variable method, and propensity score matching procedure. The effect of IT directors on earnings management is more significant for firms facing less market competition or with fewer institution shareholdings.This paper enriches the literature on the economic consequences of the director’s personal characteristics and the inf luencing factors of earnings management. It also has implications for Chinese firms on how to improve information quality. For firms themselves, it is necessary to raise the supervision of IT to the height of corporate governance. The IT governance mechanism at the board level can be established so as to give full play to the advantages of IT, improve information quality and empower enterprises to develop with high quality. For example, directors with IT background can be hired to strengthen the supervision on IT investment and application.
作者
袁蓉丽
李瑞敬
孙健
Yuan Rongli;Li Ruijing;Sun Jian(School of Business,Renmin University of China;School of Accounting,Capital University of Economics and Trade;School of Accounting,Central University of Finance and Economics)
出处
《南开管理评论》
CSSCI
北大核心
2021年第3期139-149,I0026,I0027,共13页
Nankai Business Review
基金
国家自然科学基金项目(71872179、71672208)
中央高校基本科研业务费专项资金项目资助。
关键词
信息技术背景
盈余管理
产品市场竞争
机构投资者
Information Technology Background
Earnings Management
Product Market Competition
Institutional Investor
作者简介
袁蓉丽,中国人民大学商学院会计系教授、博士生导师、管理学博士,研究方向为公司治理、公司财务、管理会计;通讯作者:李瑞敬,首都经济贸易大学会计学院会计系讲师、管理学博士,研究方向为公司治理、会计信息化;孙健,中央财经大学会计学院会计信息化系、中国管理会计研究与发展中心教授、博士生导师、管理学博士,研究方向为公司财务与资本市场、会计信息化、大数据治理。
