Before the industrial revolution, accountancy was mainly used to record operating conditions of enterprises or organizations, and after the industrial revolution, especially entering the 20th century, with the popularity of the organizational form of joint-stock enterprises worldwide, as well as the high development of financial markets, corporate stakeholders became more diversified (Cortese and Irvine, 2010), organizational structure became more complex, the significance of accountancy is not only confined to corporate management, it is more reflected in improving corporate transparency, standardize enterprise behavior and protect the public interest (Wehrfritz and Haller, 2014), Hu, Li and Zhang (2014) have even pointed out that the protection of public interests is a cornerstone of modern accountancy. From the time when accounting information generated, it makes generation process and results of accounting information scientific, rational, real, credible (Weetman, 2006). However, in real economic life, there are many political factors, economic factors and human factors which influence or even decisively impact quality of accounting information, resulting in that accountancy fail to perform their duties of protecting public interests (Forst, 2014). Corporate management's malpractices interfere with normal financial order and undermine the public's confidence in joint-stock companies, which is a violation of public interests. For example, the false accounting information cases happened continuously in the U.S. since the second half of 2001 were the results of the impact of economic factors and human factors on the quality of accounting information in real life (Gómez-Biscarri and López-Espinosa, 2008). In 2002, in addition to the accounting fraud cases of WorldCom, Xerox, Merck in American stock market, the global communications company, Kmart department store chain, Tyco International, Adelphia Company were engaged in financial fraud and tax evasion cases (Patro and Gupta, 2012). Operators of these companies manufactured false accounting information, so that the quality did not meet the objective requirements, many accounting treatment and operation were not in compliance with accounting rules, and they failed to disclose to investors according to regulations, making accounting intermediary organizations such as Arthur Andersen, KPMG involved in financial fraud of the above-mentioned companies. These cases of distortion of accounting information not only greatly damage the enthusiasm of investors, but also make the public have ever stronger requirements for the authenticity of quality of accounting information than ever. Both the government and the public are aware of the need to strengthen corporate governance through accountancy, so as to effectively safeguard public interests (Henders and Ostwald, 2014).
Before the industrial revolution, accountancy was mainly used to record operating conditions of enterprises or organizations, and after the industrial revolution, especially entering the 20th century, with the popularity of the organizational form of joint-stock enterprises worldwide, as well as the high development of financial markets, corporate stakeholders became more diversified (Cortese and Irvine, 2010), organizational structure became more complex, the significance of accountancy is not only confined to corporate management, it is more reflected in improving corporate transparency, standardize enterprise behavior and protect the public interest (Wehrfritz and Haller, 2014), Hu, Li and Zhang (2014) have even pointed out that the protection of public interests is a cornerstone of modern accountancy. From the time when accounting information generated, it makes generation process and results of accounting information scientific, rational, real, credible (Weetman, 2006). However, in real economic life, there are many political factors, economic factors and human factors which influence or even decisively impact quality of accounting information, resulting in that accountancy fail to perform their duties of protecting public interests (Forst, 2014). Corporate management's malpractices interfere with normal financial order and undermine the public's confidence in joint-stock companies, which is a violation of public interests. For example, the false accounting information cases happened continuously in the U.S. since the second half of 2001 were the results of the impact of economic factors and human factors on the quality of accounting information in real life (Gómez-Biscarri and López-Espinosa, 2008). In 2002, in addition to the accounting fraud cases of WorldCom, Xerox, Merck in American stock market, the global communications company, Kmart department store chain, Tyco International, Adelphia Company were engaged in financial fraud and tax evasion cases (Patro and Gupta, 2012). Operators of these companies manufactured false accounting information, so that the quality did not meet the objective requirements, many accounting treatment and operation were not in compliance with accounting rules, and they failed to disclose to investors according to regulations, making accounting intermediary organizations such as Arthur Andersen, KPMG involved in financial fraud of the above-mentioned companies. These cases of distortion of accounting information not only greatly damage the enthusiasm of investors, but also make the public have ever stronger requirements for the authenticity of quality of accounting information than ever. Both the government and the public are aware of the need to strengthen corporate governance through accountancy, so as to effectively safeguard public interests (Henders and Ostwald, 2014).
