Audit Within the Corporate Governance Paradigm: A Cornerstone Built on Shifting Sand?
通过四个知名会计与治理失败案例，研究当前公司治理范式中审计、内部控制与风险管理的作用，发现薪酬依赖、知识缺乏和社会心理依赖等因素削弱了治理守门人的决策质量。
Abstract This paper is a case study‐based investigation of aspects of the current paradigmatic approach to ‘good’ corporate governance, with its focus on the interlinked roles of internal control and risk management procedures, internal audit and external audit, overseen and coordinated by a formal structure of board committees, in particular the audit committee. The evidence that we adduce from the study of four high‐profile cases of perceived accounting and governance failure provides limited assurance that this approach will in fact be cost‐effective or efficient in preventing further such cases of accounting and governance failure. Specifically, issues as to remuneration and fee dependence, lack of relevant knowledge and expertise, social and psychological dependence upon executive management appear to have significantly and negatively affected the quality of decision‐making of governance gatekeepers. This suggests that further consideration of relevant economic, institutional and cognitive/behavioural factors beyond the rational choice model of traditional economics should underpin future developments in required modes and structures of governance.