Korean Accounting Review (KAR) is the official journal of the Korean Accounting Association. The Korean Accounting Association (KAA) is the largest and oldest academic organization of accounting scholars and practitioners in Korea. It aims to create a fertile environment for innovation and collaborative research, to foster and improve research for the development and the promotion of accounting, and to develop a powerful network among scholars, practitioners, and authorities concerned with political decision making in this field.
DOI:10.24056/KAR.2021.08.001 KAR Vol.46(No.4) 1-34, 2021
Abstract
In this paper, we examine whether human resource investment in internal control affects firm operating efficiency at both the firm and individual department level. We find that operational efficiency, derived from frontier analysis, is positively associated with the level of human resource investment in internal control. We also find that the increase in investment in internal control personnel leads to an improvement in operational efficiency. Our cross-sectional analysis indicates that the positive association between the human resource investment in internal control and firm's operational efficiency is more pronounced for smaller firms. Unlike prior studies mainly focusing on the effect of internal control on firm's financial reporting quality, this paper focuses on the positive effect of internal control on corporate operation. Thereby, our study documents that effective internal control system not only enhance the decision making of the external information users as documented in prior studies, but also help internal users, such as management, make better decision. Our findings also informs the debate over the costs and benefits of the internal control reporting requirements, which is relevant and timely given that recent amendment of the External Audit Act, effective November 2018, raised the level of assurance auditors provide on firm's internal control.
Key Words
내부통제, 내부회계관리제도, 내부회계담당인력, 운영효율성, human resource investment, internal control, internal control over financial reporting, operating efficiency
Are Financial Analysts More Likely to Forecast Earnings after the Announcement of Management Forecast in the Post-IFRS Period? 재무분석가가 경영자 예측공시 이후에 예측치를 발표하는 경향은 IFRS 도입 이후 커졌는가?
박주형 Ju Hyoung Park , 고재민 Jaimin Goh , 김수인 Sooin Kim
DOI:10.24056/KAR.2021.08.002 KAR Vol.46(No.4) 35-72, 2021
Abstract
We investigate the timing of financial analysts’ earnings forecasts in the pre- and post-IFRS periods. Specifically, we examine whether the likelihood of issuing analysts’ forecasts after the announcement of management forecasts are released increases in the post-IFRS period. Consolidated financial reporting, principle-based accounting standards, fair value accounting, and the increase of information quantity in the notes are key features of IFRS, which are challenging for financial analysts to interpret the financial information. Under these circumstances, prior studies have documented that earnings forecast becomes more difficult. We hypothesize financial analysts utilize management forecasts for their earnings forecast more under IFRS regime because management forecasts are regarded as relatively more accurate and reliable information source. Using firms listed in the Korea Stock Exchange from 2006 to 2015, we find that financial analysts are more likely to release their forecasts after the announcement of management forecasts in post-IFRS period. However, the likelihood of issuing analysts forecasts after the announcement of management forecasts is larger in the early years than in the late years from the IFRS adoption. It can be interpreted that financial analysts adapt themselves to new accounting standards since IFRS was introduced. This study contributes to IFRS-related studies by presenting that the informational value of management forecasts increases for financial analysts’ earnings forecasts under IFRS regime.
Time-series Similarity of Management Discussion and Analysis (MD&A) Disclosure and it’s Usefulness 경영진단의견서(MD&A)의 전기와 당기 유사성과 정보유용성
최가영 Ga-young Choi , 이준일 Joonil Lee , 조현권 Hyunkwon Cho
DOI:10.24056/KAR.2021.08.003 KAR Vol.46(No.4) 73-105, 2021
Abstract
The informativeness of MD&A section in the annual report has been challenged by the authority. MD&A needs to provide useful information to investors by disclosing the managers’ evaluation and forecast on the current and future performance of the firm. The premise of the informativeness of MD&A lies in that it should reflect the changes in firm’s business timely. In this paper, we examine the extent to which the sentences from the MD&A are similar each other compared to those in the previous year, and firms’ overall efforts to improve the informativeness of disclosures mitigate such similarity. Using a sample of Korean listed firms from 1999 to 2018, we show that around 40% of sentences from the MD&A disclosure are same to those in previous year’s MD&A, and the median cosine similarity is 0.87. Consistent with the concern that the informativeness will be weaker when the similarity is higher, we find that the tone of MD&A sentences is associated with future firm performance only for the sentences with low similarity. Such similarity implies that most of the sentences in the MD&A disclosures are stale and less likely to provide useful information to information users. We find that firms’ efforts to improve overall disclosure quality reduce the similarity. Overall, these results show that the sentence similarity can be a useful measure for the MD&A quality, and that such similarity should be carefully addressed in the future textual research using the MD&A section.
LGBT(Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender)- Supportive Corporate Policy and Audit Fee
Sangyi Shin , Hongmin Chun , Hakjoon Song
DOI:10.24056/KAR.2021.08.004 KAR Vol.46(No.4) 107-140, 2021
Abstract
This study investigates the relationship between Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender (LGBT) supportive corporate policy and audit pricing using U.S. firms’ data from 2000 to 2011. Prior studies show that firms embracing diversity, including LGBT-supportive policy, enhances credit rating and earnings quality. Despite its growing importance of diversityrelated LGBT-supportive policy, less attention is paid to the LGBT-supportive firms and its effect on audit pricing. Our results suggest that, LGBT-supportive firms demand high audit quality and pay higher audit fee than firms that do not adopt LGBT-supportive policies. We conduct instrumental variable analyses and propensity score matching analyses to mitigate endogeneity and test results reinforce our main results. Further we find that LGBT-supportive firms appoint city-level industry specialist auditors, which supports our audit demand hypothesis. Overall results suggest that LGBT-supportive firms demand high-quality audit and pay high audit fees by appointing high-quality auditors to provide transparent and reliable financial information which would satisfy various stakeholders‘ information needs. Our study has practical and policy implications for auditors and regulators by identifying new determinants of audit fee and auditor choice decisions using U.S. data.
Does the Ownership of Domestic and Foreign State Affect Asymmetric Cost Behavior?
Heeju Hwang , Hyesoo Ko , Hosung Son
DOI:10.24056/KAR.2021.08.005 KAR Vol.46(No.4) 141-168, 2021
Abstract
The ownership structure of a company affects cost behavior through the governance structure and management's decision-making process. This study examined how the ownership of states affect cost behavior from the perspective of domestic and foreign state ownership by using 13,387 financial data and ownership observations from 2008 to 2016 in the United States. Based on the cost asymmetry model, we found that the higher the state’s ownership, the more asymmetric cost behavior in terms of selling, general, and administrative and operating costs. However, firms with foreign state ownership shows less asymmetric cost behavior comparing to firms with domestic state ownership. This study is the first paper to analyze the effect of state ownership on cost behavior, classified into domestic and foreign, and the relationship between the state ownership and cost behavior from the viewpoint of the agency problem, budget maximization tendency, compensation of managers and insufficient monitoring. This study provides implications for policy makers to consider these characteristics of state ownership and origins of the differences between domestic and foreign state ownership, and supplements the structure to overcome the limitations.
Key Words
asymmetric cost behavior, domestic state ownership, foreign state ownership, corporate governance, managerial decision
The Effects of Engagement Partner Identification on Audit Hours, Audit Fees, and Labor Mix Hours 업무수행이사의 이름 공시가 감사시간, 감사보수 그리고 직급별 감사시간에 미치는 영향
황지회 Jihoe Hwang , 이종은 Jong Eun Lee
DOI:10.24056/KAR.2021.08.006 KAR Vol.46(No.4) 169-212, 2021
Abstract
Audit firms are required to disclose audit engagement partner identification on audit reports by revised auditing standards of 2017. In this study, using Korean data for the years 2017 and 2018, before and after the adoption of the new standard, we examine the effects of engagement partner identification on audit hours, audit fees, and labor mix hours and find the following empirical results. First, audit hours and audit fees are significantly increased after the adoption of new disclosure requirement, suggesting that the audit team makes great efforts to manage potentially increased audit risk from the requirement. Second, in the result of using the ratios of labor mix hours, we also find that the ratios of the engagement partner's, specialist’s, and the quality reviewer's audit hours are significantly increased, indicating that not only individual engagement partners but also the accounting firms respond to the increased accountability and transparency of the audit report. The aforementioned empirical results are consistently robust across alternative sample and proxy: (1) expanded sample, (2) sample of controlling the effect of audit partner changes before and after adoption, (3) balanced sample, and (4) another proxies for audit efforts. In addition, we find that there is a differential effect of the disclosure requirement on labor mix hours between Big4 and Non-big4. More importantly, this study provides policy implications to the recent debate on the efficacy of the adoption of engagement partner identification requirement.
The Association between Board Gender Diversity and Corporate Investment Efficiency
Shin¸ Hyejeong , Park¸ Seun-young
DOI:10.24056/KAR.2021.08.007 KAR Vol.46(No.4) 213-247, 2021
Abstract
We investigate the relationship between board with female outside directors (FODs) and firms’ investment efficiencies using the firms listed in KOSPI from 2015 to 2019. We find that the association between firms with FODs and their investment efficiencies is generally insignificant although we find a weak negative association with under-investment. Then, we conduct the additional analyses to see if the association between them would be different in firms with high agency costs arising from excess free cash flow. Interestingly, we find that firms with FODs are negatively associated with over-investment as well as under-investment but the association is only pronounced in firms with higher level of free cash flow. The results of this study continue to maintain when we employ propensity score matching approach to address self-selection bias. Overall, our evidence supports the prior studies suggesting the positive aspect of gender-diverse boards in corporate decision-making process. That is, gender diversity may enhance board‘s governance roles, providing implication that female outside directors in boards can add a value to a firm needing a strong governance mechanism. This could be of interest of regulators and policy makers while considering the adoption of female quota system in the board of directors in listed firms.
The Effect of Audit Committee Expertise on the Informativeness of Accounting Information 감사위원회의 전문성이 회계 정보성에 미치는 영향
조미옥 Meeok Cho , 최선화 Sunhwa Choi
DOI:10.24056/KAR.2021.08.008 KAR Vol.46(No.4) 249-288, 2021
Abstract
This study examines whether the financial expertise of audit committee (AC) members and the specific types of expertise affect the informativeness of accounting information. Specifically, we examine the association between the ratio of AC members with financial expertise (and the specific types of financial expertise) and the ability of current-period returns to reflect future earnings (i.e., the future earnings response coefficient, FERC). We find that the financial expertise of AC members is positively associated with FERCs. This result suggests that AC financial expertise improves the informativeness of stock prices about future earnings. We classify AC financial expertise into four specific types (according to the relevant Korean regulations) and find that AC members with CPA certifications (i.e., type 1) and those with experience at government agencies or financial institutions (i.e., type 4) are associated with greater FERCs, whereas those with a master’s or higher degree in accounting or finance (i.e., type 2) and those with experience as accounting or financial executive in public companies (i.e., type 3) are not significantly associated with FERCs. We also examine whether the mix of AC financial expertise affects FERCs and find that AC members with different types of financial expertise interact with each other, suggesting that the mix of AC financial expertise affects the effectiveness of ACs in improving the informativeness of financial information. The results using earnings persistence yield similar findings, further supporting the results based on the FERC model.
