過往研究指出，外生突發事件可能影響個體情緒，進而改變其判斷與行為。本研究將此概念延伸至審計情境，探討恐怖攻擊是否會透過提高會計師之風險感知與疑慮，進而影響其出具繼續經營意見之決策。本研究以2004年至2020年美國境內恐怖攻擊事件與財務困境公司為樣本，並結合地理配對機制與差異中差異模型進行實證分析。實證結果顯示，恐怖攻擊事件之發生並未顯著提高會計師出具首次繼續經營意見之可能性。進一步之橫斷面分析顯示，僅四大會計師事務所於365天衝擊窗口下呈現較高之保守傾向，而辦公室產業專精程度與客戶訴訟風險皆未呈現顯著調節效果。最後，本研究進行穩健性測試，在放寬恐怖攻擊事件之篩選標準後，主要結果仍大致維持一致。整體而言，本研究顯示恐怖攻擊所引發之外生情緒衝擊並未普遍影響會計師之繼續經營判斷；惟其影響可能在具較高聲譽壓力之事務所環境下較容易被觀察。

This study examines whether auditors’ exposure to terrorist attacks affects their going-concern reporting decisions. Using U.S. terrorist attacks and mass shooting incidents from 2004 to 2020, this study measures auditor exposure based on whether the audit office is located in the same Metropolitan Statistical Area as the attack location and whether the audit report is issued within the post-event window. The empirical results show that terrorist attack exposure does not significantly increase the likelihood of issuing first-time going-concern opinions. Cross-sectional analyses provide limited evidence that Big 4 audit firms may become more conservative under the 365-day event window, while audit office industry specialization and client litigation risk do not show significant moderating effects. Robustness tests using a broader event definition yield similar results. Overall, this study suggests that external emotional shocks caused by terrorist attacks do not generally affect auditors’ going-concern judgments, although such effects may be more observable in audit environments with higher reputational pressure.

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