도시바와 대우조선해양 회계부정과 사후처리 비교연구

We conduct a comparative analysis of the causes, processes and post-treatments of accounting scandals at Toshiba and DSME. Toshiba in Japan and DSME in Korea were global top companies in the electronics and shipbuilding industries, respectively. The two companies suffered reputation damage because of the accounting scandals revealed in 2015. Both companies had incentives to manipulate profits because of the excessive emphasis on accounting profits and accumulated losses from new businesses. Both had ineffective monitoring systems due to the weak corporate governance. The accounting frauds were revealed by whistleblowers. Toshiba and DSME are investigated by regulatory bodies to identify the causes of the accounting frauds. CEOs and external auditors of Toshiba are not sentenced to imprisonment, while those of DSME are sentenced to imprisonment. In addition, the laws related to accounting are revised to improve accounting transparency in Korea. This study suggests that (1) the excessive emphasis on a target profit linked to the compensation contract can cause accounting frauds, (2) the existence of effective anti-fraud measures and the appointment of outside board-of-directors with expertise are needed to prevent accounting frauds, and (3) the corporate culture where juniors can challenge their superiors' decisions and the tone at the top management are important in preventing accounting frauds.