The Empirical Study On Effects Of Internal Audit On Risk Assessment And Enterprise Performance

Due to the complex and changeable economic environment, internal audit of modern enterprises has developed quickly. With the exposure of some famous companies'financial scandals, internal audit has gradually attracted the attention of researchers and practitioners. Especially, many researches discussed internal audit from the view of corporate governance. However, there is still lack of theoretical analysis and empirical researches in the effects of internal audit on risk assessment and firm performance and the interrelationship among the above three. This thesis makes empirical research on the relationship of internal audit, risk assessment and firm performance in Group corporations in Hunan province. It may not only enrich and expands the theory of internal audit, and may also has a guiding significance to the practice of internal audit and risk control and governance in Group corporations in Hunan province.On the basis of literature review , from the viewpoints of the principal-agent theory and internal control theory, this thesis analyzes the effect of internal audit on the risk assessment and firm performance, and then, presents the research framework and hypotheses. Also, using Group corporations in Hunan province as the sample, this thesis collects related data by questionnaires to investigate the internal audit situation in the sample enterprises. Meanwhile, by factor analysis, descriptive statistical analysis, One way ANOVA and regression analysis, the thesis empirically analyzes the relationship between internal audit and risk assessment and firm performance.Through empirical analysis,we obtain that internal audit includes internal audit executive force, independence, audit personnel quality and technology level; and that risk assessment comprises risk identification and risk analysis and response; and that firm performance includes financial performance and non-financial performance.Meanwhile, through the multivariate linear regression analysis, we confirm that all the factors of internal audit have significant effects on risk identification, risk analysis and response, financial performance and non-financial performance. However, internal audit independence has no significant effects either on risk analysis and response or on non-financial performance. The two factors of risk assessment both have significant effects on financial and non-financial performances. Using One way ANOVA analysis, we determine that enterprise sales has significant effects on internal audit executive force, risk analysis and respond and financial performance, and that the establishment length of the internal auditing department has influenced internal audit executive force and internal audit personnel quality and technology level, risk identification and risk analysis and response significantly. On the basis of the above conclusions, this thesis finally presents suggestion for the enhancement of enterprise performance through the improvement of internal audit and risk management ability.