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Internal Control and Operational Efficiency
Author(s) -
Cheng Qiang,
Goh Beng Wee,
Kim Jae B.
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
contemporary accounting research
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.769
H-Index - 99
eISSN - 1911-3846
pISSN - 0823-9150
DOI - 10.1111/1911-3846.12409
Subject(s) - operational efficiency , control (management) , strengths and weaknesses , business , accounting , quality (philosophy) , internal control , operational costs , frontier , industrial organization , environmental economics , operations management , economics , marketing , psychology , management , political science , social psychology , philosophy , audit , epistemology , law
In this study, we examine whether internal control over financial reporting affects firm operational efficiency. We find that operational efficiency, derived from frontier analysis, is significantly lower among firms with material weaknesses in internal control relative to firms without such weaknesses. We also find that the remediation of material weaknesses leads to an improvement in operational efficiency. Additional analyses indicate that the negative effect of material weaknesses on operational efficiency is stronger for firms with a greater demand for higher quality information for decision making, for weaknesses that are deemed to be more severe, and to a certain extent, for smaller firms. Overall, our study extends the literature by presenting systematic evidence on the effect of effective internal control on operational efficiency and informs the debate over the costs and benefits of the internal control reporting requirements under the Sarbanes‐Oxley Act of 2002.