| 摘要: | 本研究以審計服務供給面之觀點，探討合夥型會計師事務所之產業專業化對經營效率及獲利能力之影響。以台灣財政部及主計處所公布「會計師事務所服務業調查報告」1989至2003年之公開資料庫進行分析，主要研究結論包括以下三方面。首先，在產業專業化與技術效率之關係方面，以全體合夥會計師事務所為對象分析時，其產業專業化程度與技術效率間顯著地呈現由負到正的U型非線性關係，顯示在產業專業化程度較小之階段，可能未具規模經濟，故與技術效率間呈現負向關係。但隨著產業專業化程度之逐漸提昇，其與技術效率間則轉成正向關係，即產業專業化程度愈高，則技術效率愈高。此種由負到正的U型非線性關係，主要由小型合夥會計師事務所驅動而成。當進一步將技術效率分解成純粹技術效率(即管理效率)與規模效率時可以發現，產業專業化與純粹技術效率類似於技術效率之型態，至於在規模效率方面，產業專業化程度與其規模效率間之顯著關係僅存在於大型且遞增規模報酬的次樣本中。其次，技術效率與獲利能力間之關係方面，以整體合夥會計師事務所為對象分析時，其技術效率與淨利率間顯著地呈現由正到負的倒U型非線性關係，顯示在技術效率較小之階段，與淨利率間呈現正向關係。但隨著技術效率之逐漸提昇，其與淨利率間則轉成負向關係，即技術效率愈高，則淨利率之邊際增量愈低，此種非線性之關係可能受制於市占率之潛在影響。至於兩個技術效率的組成份子方面，純粹技術效率與淨利率間之關係，類似於技術效率與淨利率間之關係。在規模效率方面，全體合夥會計師事務所三組不同情況規模效率次樣本，即遞增、固定、及遞減規模報酬之分析結果指出，除了遞增規模報酬族群之規模效率與淨利率具顯著之關係外，其餘族群及係數均無顯著之結果。整體而言，前述之實證結果傾向支持產業經濟理論中效率結構假說之論點，即效率愈高則獲利能力愈高。最後，在產業專業化對獲利能力之影響方面，以全體合夥型會計師事務所為對象進行係數估計，由於全體合夥會計師事務所將大型及小型合夥的會計師事務所混合估計，使得產業專業化對其淨利率之影響受到干擾。本文將全體合夥型會計師事務所依大、小型會計師事務所產業專業化程度對其淨利率之影響分別估計後發現，具相對較高專業水準之大型會計師事務所，由於有對公開發行公司進行財務簽證工作，故其專業水準通常較高，此一較高之專業水準則為潛在地促使其產業專業化程度與獲利能力呈現在先升後降影響型態的潛在因素。相反地，在低專業的會計師事務所，由於客戶規模均較小，且無法提供關鍵性的公開發行公司財務簽證工作，故亦潛在地促使其產業專業化程度與獲利能力呈現在先降後升之影響型態。至於是否有其他之原因則有待進一步之驗證。
Based on auditing service supply side viewpoint, this thesis studies the effects caused by industry specialization of public accounting firms on their operating efficiency and profitability. After detailed analysis on Taiwan, R.O.C. Ministry of Finance and Directorate-General of Budget published open data bank from year 1989 to year 2003, a major research conclusion is reached in the following three aspects.Firstly, on the subject of correlation of industry specialization and technical efficiency, when applying overall partnership accounting firms in the sample data population as study objects, the correlation represented by the slope of technical efficiency over industry specialization is in significant non-linear U shape. It implies that when scale economy has not achieved, the public accounting firms with low industry specialization have negative slope of the correlation defined in the above lines; while those with high industry specialization have positive slope. The major driving force of forming such non-linear U shape correlation is small public accounting firms. If we break down technical efficiency into pure technical efficiency (i.e. managerial efficiency) and scale efficiency, the correlation of industry specialization and pure technical efficiency resembles the correlation of industry specialization and technical efficiency. While such inferred correlation of industry specialization and scale efficiency only exist in subset samples of public accounting firms with big firm size and increasing return to scale characteristics.Secondly, on the subject of correlation of technical efficiency and profit margin, when applying overall partnership accounting firms in the sample data population as study object, the correlation represented by the slope of profit margin over technical efficiency is in significant non-linear upside down U shape. This implies that public accounting firms with low technical efficiency have positive slope of the correlation stated above, while those with high technical efficiency have negative slope. That is, partnership accounting firms with higher technical efficiency will have lesser marginal increment on profit margin, and we assume this non-linear correlation might be indirectly effected by market share of public accounting firms. As conducting the same breaking down analysis of technical efficiency, the correlation of pure technical efficiency and profit margin resembles that of technical efficiency and profit margin. In the correlation of scale efficiency case, by breaking down sample population of partnership accounting firms into three subsets, as increasing return to scale, fixed return to scale, and decreasing return to scale subsets, the result analysis implies only increasing return to scale subset has significant correlation between scale efficiency and profit margin, while there is no such significant correlation in the other two subsets. Overall speaking, the research result prone to support efficiency structure hypothesis in the industrial organization theory, in other words, the higher efficiency makes the higher profitability.Finally, on the subject of effect caused by industry specialization on profit margin, when applying overall partnership accounting firms in the sample data population as study objects to conduct coefficient estimation, due to the nature of sampling method of the data used which mixing big size firms with small size ones to compose the overall partnership accounting firms sample population, it is hard to clearly identify the effect caused by industry specialization on profit margin. Therefore, this study proposes to do the separate studies on the defined effect by dividing the sample population by big size partnership accounting firms and small size ones. Hence it implies that, big size accounting firms with high professional capability do provide financial attestation service to stock-go-public company, therefore they are more professional compared to small size ones, which also drives these big size accounting firms to meet the tendency of the correlation represented by the slope of profit margin over industry specialization is in significant non-linear upside down U shape. In contrast, for those small size accounting firms with low professional capability, since their customer size is smaller in average, meanwhile as they could not provide crucial financial attestation service to stock-go-public companies, hence they meet the tendency of the correlation represented by the slope of profit margin over industry specialization is in significant non-linear U shape. Other reasons for such result are to be studied or examined in future researches |
