재무위험이 내부회계 관리제도 검토의견과 재무제표 감사의견에 미치는 영향

The Effect of Financial Distress on Review Opinions of Internal Control over Financial Reporting and Audit Opinions of Financial Statements

본 연구의 목적은 재무위험 수준이 내부회계 관리제도 검토의견과 재무제표 감사의견에 영향을 미치는지, 그리고 검토의견과 감사의견의 관계에 영향을 미치는지 검증하는 것이다. 2006년부터 2013년까지의 상장기업을 대상으로 표본을 선정하고 그룹간 평균차이 분석과 로지스틱 회귀분석을 통하여 검증하였다. 재무위험의 대용치로 도산예측점수와 신용등급, 베타와 주가변동성을 사용하였다. 그룹간 평균차이 분석을 통해서 재무위험이 감사의견뿐만 아니라 검토의견에도 영향을 미친다는 결과를 제시하였다. 로지스틱 회귀분석을 통해서 재무위험이 검토의견과 감사의견간의 관계에 음(-)의 영향을 미친다는 결과를 확인하였다. 재무위험이 검토의견과 감사의견의 상호관계에 미치는 영향에 대한 추가분석을 실시하였다. 추가분석을 통해서 재무위험 수준이 내부회계 관리제도 검토의견과 재무제표 감사의견의 상호관계에 음(-)의 영향을 미치는 원인으로 재무위험이 내부회계 관리제도 검토의견 또는 재무제표 감사의견에 미치는 차별적 영향보다는 내부회계 관리제도의 효과성, 즉 내부회계 관리제도 검토의견과 재무제표 감사의견간의 높은 상호관련성 때문이라는 것을 확인하였다. 본 연구는 기존 연구와 달리 재무위험에 집중하여 내부회계 관리제도의 효과성을 검증하였으며, 내부회계 관리제도의 검토의견을 형성하는 과정에서 기업이 부담하는 재무위험을 적절하게 반영한다는 것을 확인하였다. 또한 기존 연구에서 다루어지지 않은 재무위험이 내부회계 관리제도 검토의견과 재무제표 감사의견간의 관계에 미치는 영향을 검증하였으며, 감사의견을 형성하는 과정에서 재무위험보다 검토의견의 종류가 감사의견을 결정하는데 더 중요한 요소로 작용한다는 것을 확인하였다. 본 연구는 회계정보의 투명성과 재무제표의 신뢰성 제고를 목적으로 수행되고 있는 내부회계 관리제도의 효과성을 재무위험이 내부회계 관리제도 검토의견과 재무제표 감사의견간의 관계에 미치는 영향을 통해서 입증하였다는데 가장 큰 의의가 있다.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of financial distress on review opinions of Internal Control over Financial Reporting (ICFR), audit opinions of financial statements, and the relationship between review opinions of ICFR and audit opinions of financial statements. The sample used in this study consists of listed firms in KOSPI and KOSDAQ from 2006 to 2013. To test the hypotheses, we use t-test for the mean differences between groups and logistic regressions. Also, we use business failure indicators, market sensitivity coefficients, and credit ratings as proxies for financial distress. We find that qualified review opinions and qualified audit opinions are more likely to be disclosed as financial distress is higher. Also, financial distress affects the relationship between review opinions and audit opinions. More specifically, the effect of financial distress on the relationship between review opinions of ICFR and audit opinions of financial statements decreases in case of firms with material weaknesses. From the results of additional analyses, we propose three possibilities for negative (-) coefficient of interaction term, IC×FSTRESS. Fist, firms with qualified review opinions are likely to disclose qualified audit opinions, as their financial distress gets lower. Second, the relation between review opinions of ICFR and financial distress is likely to be stronger than that between audit opinions of financial statements. Third, relationship between review opinions of ICFR and audit opinions of financial statements is very close due to the effectiveness of ICFR. Finally, we find that the reason for diminishing effect of financial distress is that the intrinsic relationship between review opinions of ICFR and audit opinions of financial statements is very close and ICFR is operated effectively in listed firms. The primary contribution of this study is the finding of the operational effectiveness and usefulness of ICFR through the analysis of the effect of financial distress on the relationship between review opinions of ICFR and audit opinions of financial statements. This study focuses on intrinsic financial distress of listed firms, even though most previous studies concentrate on accounting information quality to demonstrate the effectiveness of ICFR (Cohen et al. 2008; Ashbaugh et al. 2008; Bedard et al. 2012). We find that financial distress of listed firms is properly reflected in review opinions of ICFR, which proves that ICFR is operated effectively. Another contribution is that it is the first study to analyze the effect of financial distress on the relationship between review opinions of ICFR and audit opinions of financial statements. We find that the intrinsic relationship between review opinions of ICFR and audit opinions of financial statements is very close due to the effectiveness of ICFR, rather than the differential effect of financial distress on review opinions of ICFR or audit opinions of financial statements. This results also suggest that financial distress of listed firms is properly reflected in review opinions of ICFR and therefore, audit opinions of financial statements are highly affected by review opinions of ICFR. Our study provides the following policy implications. The results from this study support the effectiveness of ICFR, so those could be used as a basis for a improvement of ICFR, for example, transition from review to audit on ICFR. Especially, International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) were adopted by all KOSPI and KOSDAQ listed firms in 2011, so this study could help to establish policies for extended application of ICFR to consolidated financial statements from current non-consolidated basis. A potential limitation of the study is that, unlike the U.S., Korea only requires review opinions of ICFR which provide negative and less strict assurance, so the firms with qualified review opinions account for just 3.3% of our sample.