A Study On Internal Auditing Based On Accountability Theory

Internal Auditing (IA) has been the focus around the world with the development of corporate governance reforms. The essence of and theoretical basis for IA is accountability. This study reviews recent researches on accountability theory, and then constructs a conceptual framework to explain and analyze issues in accounting and auditing. Along the development of accountability, we provide a detailed background for exploring the change of IA's nature, and support the assumption that'the development of accountability leads the change of IA'. And this study explains that corporate governance (CG) is a control mechanism of accountability system, and IA is an internal CG mechanism for securing accountability.This study is organized as follows:Chapter 1 reviews literature from several disciplines and puts forward a conceptual framework. The early scholars in accounting and auditing focused on information and report aspects of accountability, while recent researches have absorbed many concepts from social psychological, organizational, and sociological theories, and so pay more attention to social setting,human behavior. Further, a framework of accountability system is designed, which includes social and organizational setting, participants, contents, behavior and monitoring mechanisms. This framework is a basis for other chapters'analysis.Chapter 2 follows the evolution of IA's nature, and examines every stage's background, opens out that the development of accountability system determines the changes of IA's nature. Particularly, the changes of corporate managerial structure influence on the structures and contents of accountability relationships, and have a substantial effect on IA. Both internal accountability and external accountability works on IA's nature, especially the external legal regulations. And theories of other...