Search results

This study aims to investigate the relationship between the attributes of corporate boards in UK companies and their tendency to assure their corporate social responsibility (CSR) reports.

From the agency theory perspective, the authors examine the impact of board attributes on the assurance of CSR reports for the Financial Times Stock Exchange (FTSE) 350 during 2016–2019. The authors used annual integrated reports, companies’ websites and Thomson Reuters Eikon database for data collection and the logistic regression for data analysis.

The results confirm that some board attributes significantly influence a company’s decision to assure its CSR reports. While board size, board tenure, the presence of female board members and female executive directors and Chief Executive Officers (CEOs)’ global working experience positively contribute to CSR assurance (CSRA) decisions, the chairman’s independence negatively contributes to it. However, board independence, board meetings and board financial expertise demonstrate no effect on the CSRA decision.

The authors focus on some attributes of board members, but the authors did not consider board diversity in its broader meaning. Moreover, the effect of board committees and their attributes on CSRA was not addressed. The authors also did not consider the impact of scope, the quality level of assurance service and the differences between assurance providers on companies’ decisions to neither undertake CSRA nor choose between assurance providers.

The study provides insights into the increasing demand on voluntary assurance to boost the credibility of CSR reports and the role of the board of directors (BOD) in taking this initiative. The findings highlight the importance of board diversity (e.g. gender) in improving transparency and sustainability reporting, which can help policymakers and regulators in shaping future governance policies. Additionally, the findings refer to a drawback in the UK Corporate Governance Code regarding the chairman’s independence, which requires corrective actions from the Financial Reporting Council. The findings raise concern over the small share of audit firms in the assurance service market, despite the growing demand for these services in the UK, which may require more attention to these services from the audit firms.

Companies are increasingly pressurized, especially after the COVID-19 pandemic, to discharge their accountability to stakeholders and to act in a socially responsible manner in their business activities. CSR reporting is one of the main tools that companies use to communicate their social activities. Understanding the determinants of voluntary CSRA helps to increase the credibility of CSR reports and the favorable response to social pressure.

The authors add empirical evidence to the limited literature on CSRA about the role of the BOD in undertaking companies’ social responsibility, improving CSR reporting and reducing information asymmetry. It also highlights the significance of maintaining a balanced BOD in terms of gender, experience and tenure, in minimizing the risk of perpetuating non-transparent integrated reporting.

In recent times, stakeholders have called on corporate organizations especially those charged with governance to embrace full disclosure on non-financial issues, especially sustainability reporting. Based on this premise, this study aims to examine the influence of corporate board and assurance on sustainability reporting practices (SRP) of selected 80 firms from 8 countries in sub-Saharan Africa.

To measure the corporate board, the authors use both board variables and audit committee variables. Also, the authors adapted the sustainability score model as used by previous authors in the field of sustainability disclosure to measure SRPs. The analysis was done using both ordered logistic regression and probit regression models.

The results show that the combination of board corporate and assurance has a positive and significant impact on the sustainability reporting practice of selected firms in sub-Saharan Africa.

The study places emphasis on the need for strong collaboration between the corporate board and external assurance in evaluating and enhancing the quality of sustainability disclosure.

The study bridged the gap in the literature in the area of corporate board, assurance and SRP of corporate firms which has received little attention within sub-Saharan Africa.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate whether there is a significant deficit in the assurance needs of boards and, if so, what might be done to fill this gap and whether internal auditors have a role to play in this.

Contemporary examples of boards being taken by surprise are analysed, making extensive use of high quality reports and other information. The role played by internal audit, both in these cases and with reference to what is currently regarded as “best practice” is explored to assess internal audit's potential to evolve to meet the challenge.

Boards are exposed to a partial assurance vacuum which urgently needs to be filled. If internal audit can make a further quantum leap, as internal audit has done in other respects in the past, then internal audit may fulfil this need.

This research is based on the plentiful information in the public domain which has been sufficient to reliably support the conclusions drawn.

Nothing less than a root and branch revamp of internal auditing is called for. If responded to, the rewards for internal audit and the added value for boards and their stakeholders will be massive.

While internal auditors are tentatively moving into the audit of governance processes, this paper argues that internal audit must be much bolder to become a respected corporate governance partner to the board.

The purpose of this paper is to analyze how family ownership influences the strength of the board’s monitoring function in companies’ decisions regarding the assurance of sustainability reports.

The international sample consists of 536 companies operating in more stakeholder-oriented countries during the period 2007-2014. The paper proposes alternative logit models of analysis using the random-effects estimator.

The results provide evidence that a firm’s sustainability assurance and its choice of accounting professionals as higher quality assurers are positively associated with board size and independence. The main result is the positive impact of family businesses on these assurance issues. The paper evidences the greater orientation toward sustainability issues of family businesses. Furthermore, it verifies the greater impact of board size on family firms’ assurance demand.

This study sheds some light on the unexplored topic of sustainability assurance in family firms. One of the differentiating aspects with respect to previous studies is the consideration of the moderating factor of family property. This study also contributes to the understanding of family firms’ demand for assurance and its practitioners, and the literature’s focus on its determinants.

This purpose of this paper is to investigate how to implement a combined assurance program.

This paper uses qualitative data obtained through semi-structured interviews with six multinationals at different stages of combined assurance implementation maturity.

The paper finds that organizations are still learning through combined assurance implementation because no organization seems to have attained a mature combined assurance program. Nevertheless, our descriptive findings reveal that a successful combined assurance implementation follows six important components.

One limitation of this study is that, as the organizations studied are at different stages of combined assurance program implementation, data may have comparability issues. Another limitation is that different interviewees were studied from one case to another.

The results have implications both for organizations that do not yet have a combined assurance program in place and for those currently at the implementation stage. It has also implications for chief audit executives who are good candidates to lead a combined assurance implementation and for regulators, as the study describes combined assurance as an important accountability mechanism that helps boards and audit committees exercise their oversight role properly.

The study is the first to address combined assurance implementation. It complements the study of the Institute of Internal Auditors UK and Ireland (2010), which identifies the reasons for failed attempts to coordinate assurance activities, by illustrating combined assurance implementation through six international case studies of organizations at different combined assurance implementation stages.

The purpose of this paper is to explore how internal auditing may recover from being one of the corporate governance gatekeepers that failed to prevent the global financial crisis.

This paper draws on the theory of professions and provides a brief analysis of internal auditing history, ending with an appraisal of contemporary status.

Internal auditing has not been “fit for purpose” and can be enhanced. Low expectations of internal audit are currently addressed by enhanced guidelines from a number of parties. Internal audit needs to move firmly into the corporate governance space – to audit corporate governance more effectively and to provide more dependable assurance to boards.

The global Institute of Internal Auditors can use recent enhanced internal auditing guidelines as a springboard to regain their lead. Internal audit needs to cut the umbilical cord that ties it to management. The accepted “dual reporting” of internal audit is flawed.

Society cedes professional status to an occupational group when it is in society’s best interests to do so. An attribute of a profession is its accent on serving the public interest. It is unsatisfactory that, five years after the global financial crisis broke, the international Standards for internal auditing still do not articulate the correct professional conduct on making external disclosures in the public interest when internal auditors are aware of serious wrongdoing not satisfactorily addressed internally.

This paper comprises a conceptual analysis to challenge the internal audit profession.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate and discuss potential reasons why the internal auditing (IA) profession has been marginalized in the governance debate on solutions after the financial crisis that started in 2007, also noting recent studies questioning the value of IA's work. The key aim of this paper is to make readers aware of ambiguities concerning the ultimate customer of IA and its core business, and to stimulate critical reflection thereon.

The conceptual discussion of this paper is based on an objective review of relevant literature, both practitioner and academic.

Positioning IA as agent to the board/audit committee and, at the same time, as partner to management is challenging in practice. The IA function should clarify the customer dimension in its organizational context. Furthermore, this paper argues for a consolidation of internal audit around its core function of providing assurance when seeking to establish IA as a profession.

Practitioners will benefit as this paper demands fundamental questions to be addressed in the organizational context, about the ultimate customer and the core business of the IA service rendered. The Institute of Internal Auditors will benefit from this paper and subsequent discussions in academia and practice, supporting its pursuit to gain universal recognition for IA as a profession.

This paper may open a new research area in IA that addresses a more critical way of evaluating IA practices.

Reacting to the calls in the contemporary literature to further examine the relationship between board attributes and firms’ decisions to obtain corporate social responsibility assurance (CSRA) through the use of pioneering techniques, this study aims to analyse the influence of such attributes together with the existence of a corporate social responsibility (CSR) committee on the adoption of CSRA using fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis (Fs-QCA).

Fs-QCA was performed on a sample of nonfinancial European companies listed on the STOXX Europe 600 index over the period 2016–2018.

The study findings indicate that the decision to obtain a CSRA report depends on a complex combination of the influence of the CSR committee and certain board attributes, such as size, experience, independence, meeting frequency, gender and CEO separation. These attributes play essential contributing roles and, if suitably combined, stimulate the adoption of CSRA.

The study findings are important for policymakers, professionals, organisations and regulators in forming and modifying the rules and guidelines related to CSR committees and board composition.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study represents the first examination of the impact of board attributes and CSR committees on the adoption of CSRA using Fs-QCA method. It also offers a novel methodological contribution to the board-CSRA literature by combining traditional statistical (logistic regression) and Fs-QCA methods. This study emphasises the benefits of Fs-QCA as an alternative to logistic regression analysis. Through the use of these methods, the research illustrates that Fs-QCA offers more detailed and informative results when compared to those obtained through logistic regression analysis. This finding highlights the potential of Fs-QCA to enhance our understanding of complex phenomena in academic research.

This study aims to review the literature on non-financial information (NFI) assurance including external assurance of sustainability reports (SRA) and integrated reports (IRA). The objectives are as follows: provide an overview of academic research; understand the nature of NFI assurance engagements by organising the literature around the five key elements of an assurance engagement; develop a framework for understanding NFI assurance; and provide directions for future research.

The study undertakes a structured literature review of 179 articles published from 1999 to 2023.

The review identified 324 researchers located in 35 different countries who published 179 articles on SRA and IRA. The researchers, their locations, journals, methods, theories and themes are examined. The literature is structured around the definition of an assurance engagement including a tripartite arrangement, subject matter, a suitable criterion, sufficient appropriate evidence and a written assurance report. A framework for understanding NFI assurance is offered. Avenues for future research, structured around the five elements of an assurance engagement, are presented.

Researchers will benefit from an overview of the literature and guidance on areas for future research. Lecturers can use the findings to develop content for their auditing courses. Reporting managers will benefit from a better understanding of this new form of assurance. Regulators can use this study’s insights to better inform the development of laws and corporate governance codes mandating NFI assurance. Standard setters can use these findings to guide the emergence of the new assurance standards. Assurance practitioners may use this research to inform practice.

The findings may prove useful in addressing capture, which deters NFI assurance from enhancing disclosure credibility and fulfilling its transparency and accountability role. This is to the detriment of the wider society.

The consolidation of the literature around the five key elements of an assurance engagement is unique. The framework devised offers useful insights into the dynamics of assurance generally and NFI assurance more specifically. The study is timely given the new European Union regulations on NFI reporting and assurance and the work of the International Audit and Assurance Standards Board in developing a specialist NFI assurance standard.

This paper aims to analyze the governance-related and financial determinants and consequences of corporate social responsibility assurance (CSRA).

Based on a legitimacy theoretical framework and on the business case argument, the author conducts a structured literature review and includes 66 quantitative peer-reviewed empirical (archival) studies on key CSRA proxies (CSRA adoption, choice of CSR assuror and CSRA quality).

In line with the business case for CSRA, the literature review indicates that internal corporate governance, country-related governance and specific financial determinants as reporting, firm size and industry (sensitivity) have a positive impact on CSRA adoption.

A detailed analysis of CSRA proxies is needed in future archival research to differentiate between symbolic and substantive use of CSRA. In view of the current regulatory initiatives on CSR reporting and their decision usefulness, future research should also analyze in greater depth CSRA proxies as moderator and mediator variables.

With regard to the increased stakeholder demand on CSRA after the financial crisis of 2008–2009, firms should be aware of the value-added of CSRA to increase the decision usefulness of their CSR reports and firm reputation.

The analysis makes useful contributions to prior literature by focussing on empirical quantitative (archival) research method, structuring research on the business case for CSRA with respect to its governance and financial determinants and consequences for firms and stressing moderator analysis in archival CSRA research.