Research On The Influence Of Confucian Cultural Cognition Of Management On The Quality Of Accounting Information

Accounting information,as the information foundation for evaluating enterprise performance,serves the interests of stakeholders and is a necessary basis and important means for judging and guiding high-quality development of enterprises.High-quality accounting information can improve resource allocation efficiency,stock price information content,and enterprise value,and reduce corporate financing costs,among other benefits.However,accounting fraud has always existed,causing extremely negative impacts on society.For example,the senior executives of Kangmei Pharmaceutical intentionally hid insider information and engaged in illegal transactions,causing significant economic losses to investors and seriously affecting the credibility of China’s capital market.The unethical behavior of executives in accounting fraud and earnings management makes information disclosure a tool for misleading accounting information users in judging corporate performance.The high-level managers who are the core of enterprise operations should receive attention from academia on what kind of characteristics make managers more willing to comply with regulations and improve the quality of accounting information.This is an urgent problem that needs to be addressed.This article argues that Confucian culture is the most enduring and important cultural symbol and signifier in traditional Chinese culture,serving as the philosophical and ideological foundation for constructing Chinese society,as well as a behavioral norm and moral guide that individuals and groups unanimously uphold.The ethical and moral standards and social norms advocated by Confucianism can have a subtle impact on the formation of individual and organizational values.Therefore,in the cultural context of China,the cognition and behavior of management will be influenced by Confucian culture and reflected in daily decision-making.Based on a review of research on management cognition,Confucian culture,and accounting information quality,this article finds that there are few studies that explain the role of Confucian thought in the quality of accounting information from the perspective of cultural cognition of management individuals.Based on the role of Confucian culture in corporate accounting information governance,this article selects the Confucian cultural cognition of management as an explanatory variable,analyzes the role of Confucian culture in management cognition and behavior from an individual level using the informal institutional perspective of new institutional theory,and explains how this role is transmitted to the quality of accounting information in companies.Culture and cognition are among the top-tier analysis paradigms in new institutional economics,but the measurement of culture and cognition is still in the exploratory stage.In this study,we applied text analysis and machine learning methods to measure the Confucian cultural cognition of management,in order to identify the Confucian cultural factors in management cognition and empirically test the impact of Confucian cultural cognition on accounting information quality at the micro level.Furthermore,we explored the mechanism of how management Confucian cultural cognition affects accounting information quality through the mediating effects of management self-interest and management style,with internal control as the boundary condition.The results show that:(1)there is a significant positive correlation between management Confucian cultural cognition and accounting information quality,indicating that management Confucian cultural cognition has a positive impact on accounting information quality.However,this effect varies across enterprises and regions,with a more significant effect in private enterprises and northern regions than in state-owned enterprises and southern regions.(2)Management Confucian cultural cognition can enhance information quality by inhibiting the self-interest behavior of senior management,indicating that management self-interest plays a mediating role in the relationship between management Confucian cultural cognition and accounting information quality.(3)Management Confucian cultural cognition can influence accounting information quality by shaping a conservative management style,with management style playing a mediating role in the relationship between the two.(4)Finally,we examined the impact of internal control and found that in companies with a better internal control environment,management Confucian cultural cognition can more effectively promote the improvement of accounting information quality,indicating that internal control quality has a moderating effect on the relationship between the two.This study provides new empirical evidence for the role of Confucian culture in corporate governance,enriches the empirical research literature on management cognition,and provides a theoretical basis for improving accounting information quality.