Corporate governance and financial statement fraud–Evidencefrom China

• Main Authors: Ming-Xun Wu, 吳明勳
• Other Authors: Hsiu-Ching Chiu
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2008
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/16530543667416011145

碩士 === 中國文化大學 === 會計研究所 === 96 === This research studied the correlation between corporate governance and financial statement fraud in Mainland Chinese companies. According to the World Bank Group, the corporate governance structure is divided into two parts: the internal and the external. The former is made up of (1) shareholding structure, (2) board characteristics, whereas the latter concerns (3) the quality of auditing. Referring to past research conducted by academics, the shareholding structure is examined by the degree of shareholding concen-tration and the ratio of corporation stocks. The board characteristics are judged by the proportion of external directors, the size of the board, the frequency of board meetings, and the director who is also the proprietor. The quality of auditing is measured by the term of service of the accountancy firm and its size. Test results show that the higher degree of shareholding concentration has positive influence over board supervision, thus effectively holds in check any fraud activities. The bigger size of the board coupled with that the director, who also functions as the proprie-tor, means the board would not be able to exert effective supervision or contain any fraud activities. When the proportion of external directors is high, the board would be able to apply its supervision power to check any fraud activities in financial reports. If the term of service of the accountancy firm is short, the auditing quality tends to drop, thus resulting in ineffectiveness in containing the fraud activities in financial reports.