Research On Corporate Governance Structure And Changes In Accounting Estimates

Listed companies usually manipulate financial information by a variety of means such as assets reorganization, related party transaction, self-serving attribution, accounting error correction, choice of accounting policies and changes in accounting estimates etc. It is proved that listed companies manipulate financial information has become a common phenomenon by changing accounting estimates or accounting policies. In recent years, because of China stricter oversight of the choice of accounting policies, listed companies prefer to use changes in accounting estimates to manipulate financial information.The paper (1) employs following methods:comparing mean method, two independent samples nonparametric tests method, binary logistic regression analysis and canonical correlation analysis; and (2) examines and discusses the following issues:①The difference of the corporate governance structure between listed companies which made inappropriate changes in accounting estimates and listed companies which made appropriate changes in accounting estimates;②The relationship between the corporate governance structure and the possibility of inappropriate changes in accounting estimates;③The relationship between the corporate governance structure and the characteristics of inappropriate changes in accounting estimates.This paper gets the following conclusions:①The corporate governance structure of listed companies which made inappropriate changes in accounting estimates is different from listed companies which made appropriate changes in accounting estimates;②The proportion of outstanding shares, degree of restriction and the proportion of the independent directors have significant negative correlations with the possibility of inappropriate changes in accounting estimates; the proportion of the largest shareholder has a significant positive correlation with the possibility of inappropriate changes in accounting estimates; the proportion of state shareholder and the combined general manager and the chairman in one person or not have non-significant positive correlations with the possibility of inappropriate changes in accounting estimates; the times of the board of supervisors' annual formal meeting, the managers hold shares or not have non-significant negative correlations with the possibility of inappropriate changes in accounting estimates;③For those listed companies that made inappropriate changes in accounting estimates, the factors that have positive correlations with the influenced profit degree by the changes of accounting estimates are the proportion of state shareholder, the proportion of the largest shareholder, the size of the board, the proportion of the independent directors, the combined general manager and the chairman in one person or not and the size of the board of supervisors; the factors that have negative correlations with the influenced profit degree are the proportion of outstanding shares, degree of restriction, the times of the board of supervisors' annual formal meeting and the managers hold shares or not.Finally, based on the research conclusions, the paper gives countermeasures and suggestions on perfecting corporate governance structure.