The impact of corporate governance statement assurance on financial professionals’ decisions

Figures & data

Table 1. Overview of the five experimental conditions and number of participants per cell.

Experimental condition	Assurance provider SA = Statutory Auditor AA = Another Auditor	Assurance level LA = Limited Assurance RA = Reasonable Assurance	Number of participants
			Before MC	After MC
1	–	–	19	12
2	SA	LA	32	16
3	SA	RA	32	12
4	AA	LA	38	16
5	AA	RA	36	10

Table 2. Overview of socio-demographic information of participants.

AGE in years	<30	30–40	40–50	50–60	>60
N = 57	6	11	18	16	6
EDUCATION	Middle School	High School	Bachelor’s Degree	Master’s Degree or Diploma	PhD
N = 57	2	10	16	26	3

Variable	N		Mean	SD	Minimum	Maximum	Median
	Valid	Missing
KNOW_AS	57	9	3.88	1.62	1	7	4
KNOW_CG	57	9	3.84	1.57	1	7	4
TRUST_CG	57	9	3.98	1.13	2	7	4
TRUST_AF	57	9	4.28	1.28	2	7	4

Table 3. Means and standard deviations of dependent variables by factor levels.

Variable		RELY		ADVICE		CREDIT		INVEST
Factor	Level	Mean	SD	Mean	SD	Mean	SD	Mean	SD
AProvider	SA (N = 28)	4.64	1.39	3.96	1.40	4.29	1.41	3.39	1.60
	AA (N = 26)	4.96	1.40	3.62	1.65	4.69	1.49	3.31	1.67
ALevel	LA (N = 32)	4.31	1.28	3.53	1.44	4.03	1.23	2.91	1.35
	RA (N = 22)	5.50	1.26	4.18	1.59	5.14	1.52	4.00	1.77

Table 4. Means and standard deviations of dependent variables by experimental conditions.

Variable		RELY		ADVICE		CREDIT		INVEST
Experimental Condition		Mean	SD	Mean	SD	Mean	SD	Mean	SD
1	CG	4.17	1.64	2.92	0.67	4.17	1.19	2.83	0.72
2	SA_LA	4.19	1.28	4.00	1.46	4.13	1.09	3.00	1.41
3	SA_RA	5.25	1.36	3.92	1.38	4.50	1.78	3.92	1.73
4	AA_LA	4.44	1.32	3.06	1.29	3.94	1.39	2.81	1.33
5	AA_RA	5.80	1.14	4.50	1.84	5.90	0.57	4.10	1.91

Table 5. Difference in means of dependent variables of control group against other experimental conditions.

Variable	Mean control	Mean all other	t-value	p-value
RELY	4.17	4.80	−1.372	0.175
ADVICE	2.92	3.80	−1.951	0.055
CREDIT	4.17	4.48	−0.700	0.487
INVEST	2.83	3.35	−1.083	0.283

Table 6. Multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) results [Wilks’ Lambda].

	Value	df	F	Sig.
Intercept	0.04	4	278.99	0.000***
AProvider	0.89	4	1.41	0.244
ALevel	0.74	4	4.23	0.005***
AProvider × ALevel	0.80	4	2.91	0.031**

Table 7. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) results for dependent variable RELY.

Panel A Descriptive statistics for RELY for each experimental cell
	LA	RA	t-value p-value	Total
SA	N = 16 4.19 (1.28)	N = 12 5.25 (1.36)	−0.838 0.406	N = 28 4.64 (1.39)
AA	N = 16 4.44 (1.32)	N = 10 5.80 (1.14)		N = 26 4.96 (1.40)
t-value p-value	−3.366 0.001***
Total	N = 32 4.31 (1.28)	N = 22 5.50 (1.26)
Panel B ANOVA results with RELY as the dependent variable
	Type III sum of squares	df	F-value	p-value	partial η^2
Intercept	1255.48	1	763.44	0.000***	0.939
AProvider	2.08	1	1.26	0.267	0.025
ALevel	19.07	1	11.60	0.001***	0.188
AProvider × ALevel	0.29	1	0.18	0.675	0.004
Residuals	82.23	50
N = 54
Adjusted R^2 = 0.152
Panel C Pairwise Comparisons (t-test)
		t-value	p-value
AA_LA vs. AA_RA	−2.703		0.012**
SA_LA vs. SA_RA	−2.122		0.044**
SA_RA vs. AA_RA	−1.018		0.321
SA_LA vs. AA_LA	−0.546		0.589
SA_RA vs. AA_LA	1.596		0.123
SA_LA vs. AA_RA	−3.264		0.003***

Table 8. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) results for dependent variable ADVICE.

Panel A Descriptive statistics for ADVICE for each experimental cell
	LA	RA	t-value p-value	Total
SA	N = 16 4.00 (1.46)	N = 12 3.92 (1.38)	0.839 0.405	N = 28 3.96 (1.40)
AA	N = 16 3.06 (1.29)	N = 10 4.50 (1.84)		N = 26 3.62 (1.65)
t-value p-value	−1.564 0.124
Total	N = 32 3.53 (1.44)	N = 22 4.18 (1.59)

Panel B ANOVA results with ADVICE as the dependent variable
	Type III sum of squares	df	F-value	p-value	partial η^2
Intercept	777.10	1	358.59	0.000***	0.878
AProvider	0.41	1	0.19	0.667	0.004
ALevel	5.95	1	2.74	0.104	0.052
AProvider × ALevel	7.50	1	3.46	0.069*	0.065
Residuals	108.35	50
N = 54
Adjusted R^2 = 0.064

Panel C Pairwise Comparisons (t-test)
	t-value	p-value
AA_LA vs. AA_RA	−2.346	0.028**
SA_LA vs. SA_RA	0.153	0.880
SA_RA vs. AA_RA	−0.850	0.406
SA_LA vs. AA_LA	1.925	0.064*
SA_RA vs. AA_LA	1.684	0.104
SA_LA vs. AA_RA	−0.769	0.450

Figure 1. ANOVA results for dependent variable ADVICE.

Table 9. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) results for dependent variable CREDIT.

Panel A Descriptive statistics for CREDIT for each experimental cell
	LA	RA	t-value p-value	Total
SA	N = 16 4.13 (1.09)	N = 12 4.50 (1.78)	−1.030 0.308	N = 28 4.29 (1.41)
AA	N = 16 3.94 (1.39)	N = 10 5.90 (0.57)		N = 26 4.69 (1.49)
t-value p-value	−2.943 0.005***
Total	N = 32 4.03 (1.23)	N = 22 5.14 (0.32)

Panel B ANOVA results with CREDIT as the dependent variable
	Type III sum of squares	df	F-value	p-value	partial η^2
Intercept	1105.51	1	653.47	0.000***	0.929
AProvider	4.77	1	2.82	0.099*	0.053
ALevel	17.72	1	10.48	0.002***	0.173
AProvider × ALevel	8.17	1	4.83	0.033**	0.088
Residuals	84.59	50
N = 54
Adjusted R^2 = 0.196

Panel C Pairwise Comparisons (t-test)
	t-value	p-value
AA_LA vs. AA_RA	−4.227	0.000***
SA_LA vs. SA_RA	−0.689	0.497
SA_RA vs. AA_RA	−2.375	0.028**
SA_LA vs. AA_LA	0.425	0.674
SA_RA vs. AA_LA	0.939	0.356
SA_LA vs. AA_RA	−4.747	0.000***

Figure 2. ANOVA results for dependent variable CREDIT.

Table 10. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) results for dependent variable INVEST.

Panel A Descriptive statistics for INVEST for each experimental cell
	LA	RA	t-value p-value	Total
SA	N = 16 3.00 (1.41)	N = 12 3.92 (1.73)	0.192 0.849	N = 28 33 (1.60)
AA	N = 16 2.81 (1.33)	N = 10 4.10 (1.91)		N = 26 3.31 (1.67)
t-value p-value	−2.571 0.013**
Total	N = 32 2.91 (1.35)	N = 22 4.00 (1.77)

Panel B ANOVA results with INVEST as the dependent variable
	Type III sum of squares	df	F-value	p-value	partial η^2
Intercept	620.26	1	253.68	0.000***	0.835
AProvider	0.00	1	0.00	0.996	0.000
ALevel	15.76	1	6.44	0.014**	0.114
AProvider × ALevel	0.45	1	0.18	0.671	0.004
Residuals	122.25	50
N = 54
Adjusted R^2 = 0.063

Panel C Pairwise Comparisons (t-test)
	t-value	p-value
AA_LA vs. AA_RA	−2.031	0.053*
SA_LA vs. SA_RA	−1.543	0.135
SA_RA vs. AA_RA	−0.236	0.816
SA_LA vs. AA_LA	0.387	0.702
SA_RA vs. AA_LA	1.914	0.067*
SA_LA vs. AA_RA	−1.686	0.105

Table

	2020	2019	%
EBIT (in € million)	4,667	7,342	−36.4
Net cash flow (in € million)	2,542	4,334	−41.3
Operating return on sales	4.8%	7.6%	−36.8
R&D quota	7.6%	6.7%	13.4
Earnings-per-share (in €)	6.65	10.65	−37.6