Audit Committee Disclosure Tone and Corporate Violations in China: Textual Analysis

Table 11

Mediation effect test: auditors’ opinion.

Path A (no mediation factor test)
Variable	VIOL	VIOLN
TONE	−0.654; (−2.62)	−0.454; (−3.43)
N	6,210	6,210
Pseudo R^2/adj R^2	0.106	0.098
Path B (mediation factor test)
Variable	OPIN	OPIN
TONE	1.081; (2.42)	1.081; (2.42)
N	5,426	5,426
Pseudo R^2	0.381	0.381
Path C (includes mediation factor test)
Variable	VIOL	VIOLN
TONE	−0.600; (−2.40)	−0.397; (−3.02)
OPIN	−0.358; (−3.93)	−0.534; (−9.59)
N	6,210	6,210
Pseudo R^2/Adj R^2	0.109	0.111
Sobel Z	−0.016	−0.064
P value of Sobel Z	(0.001)	(0.001)

Notes: , , and indicate statistically significant at the 10%, 5%, and 1% levels, respectively (two-tailed). t-values are in parentheses. The robustness test only lists the regression results of the main variables and does not report the control variables.