The Operationalizing and Influencing Factors of Internal Audit Effectiveness

Abstract

This study has carried out a systematic literature review to examine the metrics that have been applied in the prevailing literature to operationalise or quantify the effectiveness of internal auditing, as well as to determine the factors that are thought to have impact on the influence of the internal auditing. With predefined exclusion and inclusion criteria, this research has finally selected a total of 33 primary studies that were published between 2000 and 2019. This study has identified a total of eleven indicators will used to measure the effectiveness of auditing. These indicators have further grouped into two categories: objectively assessed effectiveness; and perceived effectiveness. The indicators in the perceived group have dominance in the prevailing literature, and therefore this study argues that the indicators used for measuring the effectiveness in objective way generally demonstrates the strides assumed by the internal auditors. Additionally, this study has identified a total of twenty factors that have been considered as the influencing factors in terms of the influence of internal audit. These twenty factors have been further grouped into two categories: factors on supply side and factors on demand side.