SUMMARY
We investigate whether the concern of shareholder litigation motivates auditors to disclose internal control weaknesses. We document that issuing adverse internal control opinions reduces the ...likelihood of auditors being named with their clients as defendants in shareholder lawsuits. This finding suggests that auditors can reduce their legal liability arising from failed financial statement audits by increasing the quality of internal control audits. Consistent with this expectation, we find that auditors are more likely to issue such opinions in a timely manner for clients with higher ex ante litigation risk. Overall, our evidence suggests that the threat of litigation provides an incentive rather than a disincentive for auditors to issue adverse internal control opinions for clients with higher litigation risk.
Data Availability: The data are available from public sources indicated in the paper.
JEL Classifications: M42; K41.
SUMMARY We investigate the concept of internal audit function (IAF) quality from a multi-stakeholder perspective through conducting 36 interviews with key IAF stakeholder groups: audit committee ...members, senior management, internal audit executives, and outsourced internal audit partners from the major accounting firms. We adapt established quality frameworks that suggest quality is a five-dimensional construct (including input, process, output, outcome, and contextual dimensions) to the internal audit context. We find that the various stakeholder groups focus on different quality dimensions in their evaluation of IAF quality. For example, the groups focus on the process dimension (internal audit executives), output dimension (audit committee members and internal audit partners), or outcome dimension (senior management and internal audit partners). We also find that the five dimensions comprise multiple indicators of IAF quality. We conduct six supplementary interviews with external audit partners to compare their insights on IAF quality to the focal IAF stakeholder groups. External auditors evaluate quality via the output dimension after an ex ante assessment focusing on the input dimension. Finally, we contribute to the IAF quality literature by developing a multi-stakeholder IAF quality framework.
The education and training of internal auditors is an example of management learning that has received limited attention in management education journals. This paper presents the lessons from an ...action research inquiry designed to reconfigure the internal auditing function to address the problem of a conformance mindset and compliance-based approach. We show how cultivating a "reflexive mindset" becomes a critical catalyst in developing an internal auditing approach that leads to the identification of misconduct, conduct risk, and deficiencies in the organization's conduct risk–management and governance frameworks. We contribute to advance reflexivity as a practice that can support the reconfiguration of management functions like internal auditing, not only by readjusting operating routines but also by encouraging internal auditors to critically (re)consider how their activities may contribute to the common good of the organization's members and customers.
New Frontiers for Internal Audit Research Christ, Margaret H.; Eulerich, Marc; Krane, Ronja ...
Accounting perspectives,
December 2021, 2021-12-00, 20211201, Volume:
20, Issue:
4
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
ABSTRACT
Internal audit provides useful and valuable services to organizations, and academic research has established its importance in improving corporate governance. However, the body of internal ...audit research is still relatively small. Indeed, there are many emerging, lesser‐known topics and practitioners would like guidance. The primary focus of this paper is to make specific recommendations for future research based on surveys, interviews, and discussions with practitioners. We identify three broad areas for additional academic research: innovation in information technology, staffing and personnel development, and agile auditing. In each area, we describe current practices and discuss the relevant accounting literature, noting gaps where additional inquiry is needed. We also provide a list of testable research ideas to help inform academics about practice‐relevant research questions that would not only add to the academic literature, but would benefit practitioners who seek guidance. We hope this paper will inspire more academic research that investigates important internal audit questions.
RÉSUMÉ
Nouvelles frontières dans le domaine de la recherche sur l'audit interne
L'audit interne fournit des services utiles et précieux aux organismes, et la recherche a mis en lumière son importance pour l'amélioration de la gouvernance d'entreprise. Toutefois, le corpus de recherche sur l'audit interne est encore relativement restreint. En fait, il existe plusieurs thèmes émergents et moins connus sur lesquels les praticiens aimeraient obtenir des orientations. Le but principal de la présente étude est de formuler des recommandations précises pour la recherche à venir, recommandations fondées sur des enquêtes, entrevues et discussions avec des praticiens. Nous cernons trois grands domaines nécessitant davantage de recherche : innovation en technologie de l'information, dotation de personnel et perfectionnement professionnel, et audit agile. Pour chaque domaine, nous décrivons les pratiques actuelles et examinons la littérature comptable pertinente, tout en relevant les lacunes sur lesquelles il est nécessaire de se pencher davantage. Nous dressons aussi une liste des idées de recherche testables afin d'informer les chercheurs des questions de recherche pertinentes pour la pratique qui, non seulement enrichiraient la littérature savante, mais profiteraient également aux praticiens en quête d'orientations. Nous espérons que la présente étude suscitera davantage de recherche portant sur d'importantes questions d'audit interne.
Transparency is largely seen as essential to public sector accountability. Yet, information disclosure also generates unintended consequences that may prove detrimental to the workings of some ...accountability processes. In this light, we investigate the views of Canadian public sector internal auditors, a subset of professionals fulfilling an important accountability function. We show that concerns surrounding disclosure requirements are prevalent. We demonstrate that internal auditors who see public disclosure requirements as a barrier to their effectiveness are more likely to be and/or perceive their organization to be risk averse, to feel professionally isolated and to favour a greater role for data analytics in accountability processes. However, auditors who would like to see their profession play a greater advisory role in their organization view public disclosure in a more positive light. We argue that understanding who is resisting helps identify threats to accountability mechanisms, improves the design of transparency policies and facilitates implementation.
Good quality is never brought about by accident; it is almost always the cumulative result of sincere intentions, dedicated effort, intelligent direction and skilful execution. As a choice, good ...quality may not necessarily be the easiest or the cheapest; however it is definitely the wisest for both patient health and welfare as well as laboratory credibility.
The consequences of not organizing and not properly implementing/ developing the interned control system, respectively not implementing the requirements of the above-mentioned legal standards/ ...requirements, create the premises of not identifying all functions/ activities that present a significant risk in relation to the general and specific objectives of the audited entity.
The consequences of not organizing and not properly implementing/ developing the interned control system, respectively not implementing the requirements of the above-mentioned legal standards/ ...requirements, create the premises of not identifying all functions/ activities that present a significant risk in relation to the general and specific objectives of the audited entity.
