Executive Hidden Corruption,Media Attention And Auditor’s Decisions

At present,our country is in the period of social transition,and the problem of corruption has gradually spread from the political field to the economic field.In modern corporate enterprises,the ownership and management rights are separated,and professional managers are responsible for the operation and management of the enterprise and assume the responsibility of maintaining and increasing the value of the enterprise property.Executives have absolute right of management and management over corporate property,and excessive power can easily lead to rent-seeking behavior of executives,resulting in damage to the enterprises and the majority of shareholders.The corruption phenomenon means that there are some shortcomings in corporate governance.In order to conceal their own corruption,senior executives may commit fraud in financial statements.Once found by auditors in the audit process,they are likely to be issued with "unclean" audit opinions.However,the type of audit opinion will directly affect the judgment of investors,creditors,regulators and other financial statement users on the quality of accounting information.If there is corruption and other misconduct,executives will have the incentive to collude with auditors to obtain a "cleaner" audit opinion,and generally tend to pay higher audit fees.The current situation puts forward higher requirements for certified public accountants.Only by insisting on maintaining good independence and professionalism can the quality of audit work be guaranteed and the role of "economic police" be played well in the capital market.At the same time,news media,as an effective supplement to the external supervision mechanism of enterprises,can improve the information transparency of listed companies,reduce the degree of information asymmetry,and promote the normal operation of the market.Therefore,the emotional tendency of media reports will also affect the types of audit opinions and audit pricing issued by certified public accountants to some extent.Based on the practical background of corruption governance,this article selects A-share listed companies as the research samples from 2012 to 2018 after the introduction of the "eight regulations".Studies the relationship between executive hidden corruption and auditor decision-making through empirical test.And from the perspective of media attention,examines the moderating effect of negative reports on the relationship between executive hidden corruption and auditors decision-making.The results show that:(1)There is a significant negative correlation between the executive hidden corruption and the degree of "cleanliness" of audit opinions,and a significant positive correlation with audit fees.(2)There is a significant negative correlation between negative media reports and the degree of "cleanliness" of audit opinions,and a significant positive correlation between negative media reports and audit fees.(3)Media attention has a significant moderating effect between the executive hidden corruption and the auditor’s decisions,which is manifested in the negative media reports that enhance the negative influence of executive hidden corruption on the degree of "cleanliness" of audit opinions,and weaken the positive influence of executive hidden corruption on audit fees.The results of further analysis according to the nature of property rights show that :(1)The influence of executive hidden corruption on audit opinions and audit fees exist in both state-owned enterprises and non-state-owned enterprises with the same level of significance.(2)The influence of negative media reports on audit opinions and audit fees exist in both state-owned enterprises and non-state-owned enterprises with the same level of significance.(3)The moderating effect of negative media reports on executive hidden corruption and audit opinions only exists in state-owned enterprises;The regulation of executive hidden corruption and audit fees is more significant in state-owned enterprises.The research contributions of this article are as follows: First,it broadens the research ideas on the economic consequences of executive hidden corruption among executives and the influencing factors of auditors’ decisions,and verifies the implementation effect of the "eight provisions".Second,the article studies from the Angle of recessive corrupt executives auditor decision,consider the regulation of media attention,the media attention,latent corrupt executives and auditors decision-making in the same research framework,the mechanism between logic and enrich the executives,auditors,media attention to the aspects of theory and empirical studies.