Internal audit practices and tools according to company's value creation proces

The importance of value creation as the ultimate commitment of organizations is highly recognised in the economic literature. In recent business administration studies the need for transparency and accountability in the corporate governance processes has become apparent. These topics are relevant to all the organizations’ bodies and the internal audit function (IAF) as well. In recent years the role of internal auditing is growing, as has been stressed in the definition of internal auditing stated by the IIA. Internal auditing is a player in corporate governance of a company and its activity is “value oriented”. Recent surveys have outlined the main features of the internal audit function in the Italian context, pointing out its objectives, its structure and its activity. The aim of this study is to update the monitoring of the internal audit function in Italian companies and to understand how it regards itself inside the organization, at present and in the future as a player in the value creation process. The first topic to be investigated is wheather and how the internal auditing function contributes to create value in organizations. The role of the IAF and it’s relationship within the corporate governance process are also considered. Than further new topics will be analysed concerning the use of audit tools, in particular the reasons for the choice and if any similar investment is planned in the future. Finally the research will analyse a possible evolution of the activity of the IAF. The study is based on empirical research with questionnaires sent to the chief audit executive of the Italian listed companies. In particular, the survey targets those companies included in the S&P/MIB index, which are selected both for quantitative and qualitative profiles, such as capitalization, floatation and industry representativeness. In short, the main objective is to offer an overview of the practices of internal auditing used in the Italian companies, as the boundaries of practice and possible paths of development for internal auditing.