Insights into the Effectiveness of Internal Audit: A Multi-Method and Multi-Perspective Study

Abstract

This doctoral dissertation includes five related working papers that provide valuable contributions to the understanding of internal audit (IA) and its effectiveness. Paper 1 is a literature review that uses the perspective of new institutional theory as a framework and acknowledges that IA effectiveness is largely still viewed as a “black box” that is under-explored in academic research. Paper 2 is an explorative work that studies the variables that are theoretically associated with the IA function’s active role in corporate governance. This paper was published in the Journal of Applied Accounting Research (JAAR 2012). Paper 3 is a conceptual essay that discusses the status of IA as a profession and questions why the IA profession has not generally been seen as playing a significant role in the financial crisis, either as part of the problem or as part of the solution. This paper was published in the Managerial Auditing Journal (MAJ 2012). Paper 4 is an empirical survey that clarifies the discriminatory power of characteristics suggested by practitioners and academic research that may indicate IA effectiveness. Paper 5 is a qualitative research paper that breaks new ground in applying role theory (Kahn et al. 1964) in combination with the theory of relational coordination (Gittell 2006) to the research context of IA effectiveness. This dissertation builds on an exhaustive literature review, provides a mix of different methods and perspectives and offers innovative and complementary insights that open the door for further research.