Abstract:Using a sample of Chinese charity foundations over the period 2005 to 2019, this paper investigates the effect of board governance on accounting information quality from the perspective of the contingency theory. The empirical results show that board size, average age of board directors and number of national staff of board directors are negatively associated with discretionary accruals, suggesting that the larger the board size, the older the average age of board directors, and the greater the number of national staff of board directors, the lower the discretionary accruals, that is, the higher the quality of accounting information. The proportion of female directors is significantly positively associated with discretionary accruals, suggesting that the greater the proportion of female directors, the greater the discretionary accruals, that is, the lower the quality of accounting information. The duality of board chairperson and secretary general has no significant effect on the quality of accounting information. The effects of board size, average age of board directors, number of national staff of board directors and the proportion of female directors on the quality of accounting information vary with the donation dependence and accounting information quality of charity foundations. Specifically, the smaller the dependence on donations and the higher the quality of external audit, the stronger the supervision effect of board governance on accounting information quality. |