Risk Of Entities Research Articles

Ergonomic Interventions in the Implementation of Risk-Based Audit to Overcome Dysfunctional Auditor Behavior

It is undeniable that auditors are expected to develop a strong audit plan to produce value-added audit reports. Given the preceding, current practice in auditing shows that many auditors use Risk-Based Audit (RBA) to determine an appropriate audit scope. RBA could effectively guide auditors to define audit scope based on the assessed risk. However, RBA does not consider human factors in performing audits. Consequently, most auditors encounter time budget pressure in meeting tight audit deadlines. Such an issue could adversely affect auditors' productivity and health. On the other hand, ergonomics is a discipline that focuses on human capabilities in completing tasks. The study also guides employees to adapt to the job while improving their well-being and increasing the quality of work results. Therefore, this study aims to intervene the principles of RBA with ergonomics. RBA consists of three stages: risk assessment, response, and reporting. The authors have concluded that ergonomics could intervene in RBA in the risk response step once the risk level is determined in the risk assessment phase by conducting a literature review study. Therefore, the auditors should balance the time budget allocation based on the assessed audit risk (low, moderate, or high). As the entity's risk is high, the audit team should be given an extended time allocation and vice versa. The findings suggest that auditors should develop an appropriate time budget scheme for specific audit procedures based on the assessed risks resulting from RBA implementation.

Dynamic sale prices for load serving entity's risk based profit maximization

In any retail market, Load Serving Entities (LSE) and consumers can benefit from an effective dynamic pricing mechanism. Consumer's price responsiveness and uncertainty of Wholesale Electricity Market (WEM) prices can offer unexpected profits for LSE. LSEs are incentivised to procure a portion of their energy demand from Energy Storage Systems (ESS) due to increasing renewable penetration at the distribution end. LSE's decisions become complex while handling uncertainty arising from such constantly varying conditions. Sale price dynamics optimization could minimize undesirable impact of these uncertainties and maximize LSE's profit. However, this optimization is subject to severe WEM price uncertainty. In this perspective, this paper proposes a sale price dynamics optimization model to maximize LSE's profit while immunizing LSE against severe uncertainty of WEM prices. Information Gap Decision Theory (IGDT) framework is considered to explicitly model severe price uncertainty and determine robust and opportunistic decisions. Impact of Renewable Energy (RE) availability along with Battery Energy Storage (BES) operations on procurement decisions is analyzed. Results highlight that the proposed model ensures consumer benefit and increases LSE's profit. Correlation variation between demand and WEM price profile establishes effectiveness of the proposed model. RE and BES enhance robustness of procurement decisions.

Landslide risk management analysis on expansive residential areas – case study of La Marina (Alicante, Spain)

Abstract. Urban expansion is a phenomenon that has been observed since the mid-20th century in more developed regions. One aspect of it is the urban development of holiday resorts with second homes that generally appeared following world political stabilisation. This residential expansion has often happened with scarce control, especially in its early stages, allowing areas to be occupied that are not so suitable in terms of the environment, culture and landscape, not to mention the very geological risks of flooding, earthquakes and landslides. Indeed, the risk of landslides for buildings occupying land in zones at such risk is not a matter solely attributable to the geomorphological characteristics of the land itself, nor is it simply a question of chance; it is also due to its management of such land, generally because of a lack of specific regulations. This study aims to lay down objective criteria to find how suitable a specific local entity's risk management is by looking at the evolution of its urban development procedures. It also aims to determine what causes the incidence of landslide risk (geomorphology, chance, land management, etc.) and finally to suggest control tools for the public bodies tasked with monitoring such matters.