Joseph Zhang,会计学副教授,注册会计师,George Johnson 研究员,研究方向为资本市场(财务会计和审计)。从2013年开始陆续在Contemporary Accounting Research, Accounting Horizons, Journal of Corporate Finance, Journal of Information Systems, Journal of Business Finance & Accounting 等期刊发表30篇学术论文。多次指导博士学生毕业论文,现任 Asian Review of Accounting, Journal of Forensic Accounting Research, Managerial Auditing Journal 三个期刊的副主编,Journal of International Accounting Research 编委,并担任多个期刊的审稿人。
Do Chief Audit Executives Matter?
Evidence from Turnover Events
Abstract
:
We investigate the importance of the Chief Audit Executive’s (CAE) internal audit supervisory role by examining the change in internal audit quality following the turnover of CAEs. Using a sample of firms listed on the small and medium enterprise board of China’s stock market, we find that CAE turnover is accompanied by a reduction in internal audit quality and that the reduction is more pronounced for firms whose successor CAEs have lower financial expertise than their predecessors. Further analysis shows that the negative association with internal audit quality is stronger when the turnover is for personal reasons than when it is for internal transfer of the CAE. Our findings are robust to a battery of sensitivity tests, including controlling for confounding turnover of other executives, assessing market reactions, using different turnover windows, and using alternative measures of internal audit quality. Our results highlight the importance of the CAE for a firm’s internal audit quality.