The intention behind the communication of key audit matters (KAMs) is to facilitate financial statement understandability by providing information about the focus of the audit. We predict and find two KAM characteristics affecting financial statement understandability: readability and quantification. While KAM readability enhances financial statement understandability, quantification impacts understandability in different ways. When a KAM is more readable, quantification further enhances understandability, but when a KAM is less readable, understandability is lower when quantification is present than when absent. Our findings suggest that KAMs are more helpful to investors when readable and quantification is more beneficial when KAMs are readable.

中文翻译：

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关键审计事项特征如何结合起来影响财务报表的可理解性？

关键审计事项 (KAM) 沟通背后的目的是通过提供有关审计重点的信息来促进财务报表的可理解性。我们预测并发现影响财务报表可理解性的两个 KAM 特征：可读性和量化。虽然 KAM 可读性增强了财务报表的可理解性，但量化以不同方式影响可理解性。当 KAM 更具可读性时，量化会进一步增强可理解性，但当 KAM 可读性较低时，存在量化时的可理解性低于不存在量化时的可理解性。我们的研究结果表明，当 KAM 可读时，KAM 对投资者更有帮助，而当 KAM 可读时，量化更有益。