This study investigates the association between human resource investment in information technology (IT) controls over financial reporting and its investment efficiency. To conduct the analysis, it uses novel hand-collected data on the number of IT control personnel. In particular, it uses the ratio of (1) the number of IT control personnel, (2) the number of IT control personnel who are certified public accountants to the total number of employees in a firm, and (3) the natural logarithm of average working experience of IT control personnel in months as a proxy for human resource investment in IT controls. This study finds that such investment is negatively associated with the firm's abnormal investment, suggesting that investing in IT control personnel enhances a firm's investment efficiency. Furthermore, not only quantitative but also qualitative investment in IT control personnel improves investment efficiency. We also find that the association between human resource investment in IT controls and a firm's investment efficiency is more pronounced for firms with lower financial reporting quality and information environment. The results of this study provide useful implications for management, regulators, and market participants, as they demonstrate the positive role of investment in IT control personnel on the firm's internal decision.

本研究调查了信息技术 (IT) 控制财务报告中的人力资源投资与其投资效率之间的关联。为了进行分析，它使用了有关 IT 控制人员数量的新颖的手工收集数据。特别是，它使用了（1）IT控制人员的数量，（2）注册会计师的IT控制人员的数量与公司员工总数的比例，以及（3）的自然对数IT 控制人员在几个月内的平均工作经验，作为 IT 控制人力资源投资的代表。本研究发现，此类投资与企业的异常投资呈负相关，表明对 IT 控制人员的投资提高了企业的投资效率。此外，对 IT 控制人员进行定量和定性投资，提高投资效率。我们还发现，对于财务报告质量和信息环境较低的公司，IT 控制方面的人力资源投资与公司投资效率之间的关联更为明显。这项研究的结果为管理层、监管者和市场参与者提供了有益的启示，因为他们证明了 IT 控制人员的投资对公司内部决策的积极作用。