O presente trabalho tem por objetivo identificar de que forma a auditoria interna pode contribuir com o atingimento dos objetivos da organização tendo em vista o seu papel atual dentro do contexto de instabilidade financeira que ocasiona o aumento dos riscos inerentes ao negócio fazendo com que este departamento seja desafiado a gerir os riscos presentes, futuros, juntamente com a pressão por reduzir custos e agregar valor à organização. A importância da auditoria interna é destacada como sendo uma área que possui alto potencial dentro da organização dados seu conhecimento acerca dos riscos e processos internos e que pode ampliar sua atuação em áreas que possuem relevância sob o ponto de vista da alta administração. / This final paper focus on identify how internal audit can contribute to the achievement of organizational goals with a view to its current role within the context of financial instability that causes the increase of inherent business risks and therefore this department is challenged to manage the present and future risks, along with the pressure to reduce costs and add value to the organization. The importance of internal audit is highlighted as an area that holds great potential within the organization given their risk knowledge and internal processes that can expand its activities in areas that are relevant from the point of view of top management.

O objetivo principal da pesquisa foi investigar quais fatores motivaram empresas brasileiras de capital aberto a adotarem o Comitê de Auditoria como parte integrante de sua estrutura de Governança Corporativa. Como complemento, investigou-se a associação entre características das companhias, como Liquidez, Porte e Emissão de ADR\'s, e a adoção ou não de comitês de auditoria. Para tanto, foi selecionada uma amostra de 100 companhias, extraídas de um universo de 420, com maior volume de negócios entre abril de 2009 e março de 2010. Para esse grupo, foi submetido um questionário a fim de coletar informações referentes à estrutura geral dos comitês de auditoria, bem como informações sobre os motivos que as levaram a implantar o referido comitê. O índice de respondentes foi de 32%. Para analisar os dados dos questionários, a pesquisa foi dividida em duas partes inter-relacionadas. Na primeira, buscou-se interpretar os resultados provenientes do questionário utilizando-se de técnicas estatísticas simples, com o intuito de descrever os resultados. Na segunda, estudou-se as associações entre características das companhias e a opção de elas adotarem ou não o comitê de auditoria em suas estruturas de governança corporativa. A Análise de Correspondência (ANACOR) foi empregada nessa parte. Em relação à primeira parte, pelas respostas das próprias companhias, os principais determinantes para a adoção do comitê de auditoria foram: i) apoiar as atividades do Conselho de Administração; ii) atender à legislação norte-americana - SOX; iii) atender à Resolução do Conselho Monetário Nacional / Banco Central do Brasil; e iv) incrementar o sistema e as práticas de governança corporativa. Em relação aos resultados da segunda parte, de forma geral, os resultados sugerem que empresas com alta liquidez estão fortemente associadas com a adoção de comitês de auditoria e empresas com baixa liquidez estão associadas à ausência de comitês em sua estrutura de governança. Outro resultado obtido foi com relação ao porte das companhias. Pela ANACOR, foi possível verificar a associação de comitês de auditoria e outros comitês do conselho a empresas de médio e grande porte, com uma maior aproximação entre empresas de médio porte. Por fim, observou-se que empresas que emitem ADR\'s cujos níveis de exigências são mais baixos (ADR\'s Nível 1 e Regra 144-A) estão associadas com a ausência de comitês, enquanto que as empresas que emitem ADR\'s Nível 2 e 3, estão associadas com a adoção de comitês em suas estruturas de governança corporativas, mas não necessariamente o comitê de auditoria. Esse resultado pode ser explicado pela flexibilidade existente na legislação norte-americana que possibilita às empresas optarem pela adaptação do Conselho Fiscal às normas da Securities and Exchange Commission. Todavia, é necessário salientar as limitações inerentes à pesquisa. A primeira importante limitação é com relação à amostra, tendo em vista que as companhias não foram selecionadas aleatoriamente, e sim pelo volume de transações. Logo, há um viés de seleção na amostra, cujo resultado direto é a impossibilidade de generalização dos resultados. Em seguida, cabe salientar que as definições apresentadas na pesquisa também podem ser criticadas, tendo em vista que o conceito de governança corporativa está limitado às características do comitê de auditoria. As técnicas estatísticas também podem ser criticadas, pois as análises descritivas e ANACOR não permitem afirmar haver causalidade entre as variáveis estudadas. / The main objective of this research was to investigate which factors motivated Brazilian public companies to adopt the Audit Committee as part of its Corporate Governance organizational structure. Additionally, it was investigated the association between characteristics of companies, such as Liquidness, Size and Issuance of ADRs, and the adoption or lack of audit committees. For this purpose, a sample of 100 companies were selected, drawn from a universe of 420, with higher trade volume between April 2009 and March 2010. For this group, a questionnaire was sent to collect information regarding the overall structure of audit committees, as well data related with the reasons which led them to establish such a committee. The rate of respondents was 32%. To analyze the data, the research was divided into two interrelated parts. In the first session, the results were analyzed based on simple statistical techniques, in order to describe the results. In the second session, the results were analyzed based on associations between the companies\'characteristics as well as the option to adopt them with regards the Audit Committee in their corporate governance organizational structures. The Correspondence Analysis (ANACOR) was used in this session. Based on the survey results of the first session, the main determinants for the adoption of the Audit Committee are: i) to support the Board of Directors activities; ii) to comply with USA SOX law; iii) to comply with the Resolution established by National Monetary Council / Central Bank of Brazil; and iv) to enhance the best practices of Corporate Governance. Moreover, the results of the second session, in general suggested that the companies of high liquidness are strongly associated with Audit Committees adoption while the companies of low liquidness are associated with the absence of committees in its organizational structure. Another result was related to the size of the companies. As per ANACOR, it was possible to verify the association between the Audit Committees and other board of directors committees with companies from middle to large size with slightly trend to middle size companies. Finally, it was observed that companies with ADR\'s launch which requirement levels is low (ADR\'s level 1 and Rule 144-A) are associated with the absence of Audit Committees while the companies with ADR\'s launch with high requirement level (ADR\'s level 2 and 3) are associated with the adoption of its committees on corporate governance structures, but not necessarily the audit committee. This result can be explained for the flexibility of U.S. law that allows the companies to opt for the adaptation of Fiscal Council to the rules of Securities and Exchange Commission. Notwithstanding is necessary to highlight the limitation inherent in this research. The first important limitation is related to the sample used, considering that the companies were not selected randomly, but by the volume of transactions. So there is a selection bias, whose offer the impossibility of generalizing results. Furthermore, it is important to highlight that the presented definitions in the survey could be criticized considering that the Corporate Governance concept is limited by characteristics of the Audit Committees. The statistics techniques could also be criticized once the descriptive analysis and ANACOR couldn\'t guarantee the causality between the study variables.

Actions by both private sector organizations and legislators in recent years have highlighted the importance of the audit committee of the board of directors of corporations in the financial reporting process. For example, the Sarbanes Oxley Act of 2002 has multiple sections that deal with the composition and functioning of audit committees. My dissertation examines multiple issues related to the composition of audit committees. In the first two parts of my dissertation, I examine the stock market reactions to disclosures of audit committee appointments and departures in the 8-Ks filed with the SEC during 2008 and 2009. I find that there is a positive stock market reaction to the appointment of audit committee directors who are financial experts. The second essay investigates the cumulative abnormal return to departure of audit committee directors. I find that when an accounting expert leaves the audit committee, the market reaction is significantly negative. These results are consistent with regulators’ concerns related to having directors with audit, accounting and other financial expertise on corporate audit committees. The third essay of my dissertation examines the changes in audit committee composition in the last decade. I find that while the increase in audit committee size is relatively modest, there has been a significant increase in the number of audit committee experts and the frequency of audit committee meetings over the past decade; interestingly, such increase in the number of meetings has persisted even after the media focus on the auditing profession, in the immediate aftermath of the Enron and Andersen failures, have waned. My results show that audit committee composition and its role continues to evolve with regulatory and other corporate governance related changes.

The aim of this thesis is to provide insights into what the concept of audit quality means for a number of parties who have responsibilities for delivering, commissioning or evaluating audit quality in practice - auditors, AC members and quality inspectors concerning. It explores the influence of internal and external factors in the auditing setting on the construction of meaning of audit quality and how meaning is symbolised in practice. This research is based on an interpretive approach employing research methods of document analysis, semi-structured interviews and a survey questionnaire. Drawing on a symbolic interactionist framework, the research illustrates the process of giving meaning to audit quality in practice. The study identifies various constructs that give meaning to audit quality in practice - auditors' characteristics, firm's characteristics, compliance obligations, the content and control of audit procedures, financial statement quality and client service orientation. It also identifies acts such as asking challenging questions, professional appearance, the quality of interaction between auditor and AC, consultation and training, and objects such as documents and records as fundamental in symbolising audit quality in practice. The study also highlights the existence of possible conflicts between some of these constructs of audit quality and the potential for problems in audit quality in practice.The research reports that the audit practitioners predominantly framed their conceptions of the meaning of audit quality around four important constructs: client service, compliance obligations, the technical audit process or content, and individual auditors' characteristics. Client service is found to have a particular importance for the practitioners' meaning of audit quality. Their construction of the meaning for audit quality is influenced by interactions with other audit market constituents as well as by economic and societal forces in the auditing environment. Auditors perceptions of what quality means in practice are underpinned by factors such as the need to legitimise the conduct of the auditor, to restore trust and confidence in the public at large about the quality of audit services, to maintain profitability and the survival of the audit firm given the competitive and commercial pressures in the audit market, and to legitimise firm methodology and the resulting audit process to outside constituents.Amongst the AC members interviewed, the meaning of audit quality appears to be associated with the characteristics of individual auditors, in particular, auditors' interpersonal and behavioural skills, attributes of the audit firm (size and industry specialisation) and financial statement quality. The findings show that AC members perceptions of audit quality significantly depend on the 'relational' rather than the technical attributes of individual auditors. The quality of the financial statements also dominates the AC members' perceptions of audit quality rather than a technical interpretation of the quality of the content of the audit process. The AC members' conception of meaning for audit quality is influenced by interaction and communication with the external auditors. For the quality inspectors, the meaning of audit quality is mainly constructed in relation to the conduct or content of an audit. Therefore, the level of challenge to the management of the audit, and the sufficiency of evidence and documentation are important for constructing their perceptions of audit quality. They also ascribe considerable importance to the internal compliance-quality control applied within the audit firm the notion of audit quality. Overall, the study describes the multifaceted meaning of audit quality and how this is influenced and shaped by interactions - based on role expectations, self-image, economic and social factors - and illustrates the way in which various acts and objects are used to represent practical meaning for the abstract concept of audit quality in practice. These findings have relevance for auditors, other parties to audit engagements, policy makers and regulators concerned with the contribution of auditing to the financial reporting system and for academic researchers seeking to develop a deeper understanding of how that contribution is achieved in practice.

This research provides initial empirical evidence on the association between municipal audit committees and internal control problems. Prior research has reported on the use and benefits of municipal audit committees and the quality of governmental accounting and reporting. This study extends prior literature by investigating an area of governmental accounting not heavily researched. This study also investigates the association between the presence of a municipal audit committee and the form of municipal governance, an area of governmental accounting not yet explored in the literature. Prior research on forms of governance indicates that the professional goals of the city manager, or the political goals of the mayor, may influence his or her decisions concerning municipal operations. Examining the association of the presence of an audit committee and form of governance allows for insight into a new area of municipal research. This research finds that the presence of an audit committee is not associated with reported internal control deficiencies, but is positively associated with reported internal control weaknesses. This suggests that municipalities with audit committees have higher incidences of reported internal control weaknesses. There is also partial support for an association between the presence of an audit committee and the form of governance. However, the results are not conclusive and suggest that the political climate beyond form of governance influences decisions with regard to having audit committees.

In my dissertation, I examine factors associated with firms’ submission of auditor selection for shareholder ratification and test if shareholder ratification of auditor selection is associated with the extent of price competition in the audit market (as measured by audit fees) and audit quality (as measured by clients’ earnings management). The dissertation is motivated from the recent recommendation of the U.S. Treasury’s Advisory Committee on Auditing Profession (ACAP) regarding the submission of auditor selection for shareholder ratification votes. The ACAP suggests that this practice may improve the competition in the audit market; yet, there is no empirical evidence supporting the ACAP’s recommendation. My dissertation attempts to fill the gap in the literature on an issue of current interest to the auditing profession. I find that firm size, CEO-Chair duality, insider ownership and institutional ownership are associated with the submission of auditor selection for shareholder ratification vote. However, I do not find an association between audit committee variables and the submission of auditor selection for shareholder ratification vote. The second essay investigates the association between auditor ratification and audit fees. Audit fees are higher in firms that submit auditor selection for shareholder ratification. The finding is not consistent with the increased price competition predicted by the ACAP. The third essay of my dissertation examine whether the submission of auditor selection for shareholder ratification is associated with earnings management. I find that firms that submit auditor selection for shareholder ratification are more likely to have lower level of earnings management. Overall, the results suggest that the same factors that are associated with higher quality monitoring also may be associated with the submission of auditor selection for shareholder ratification vote. The results call into question the one-size-fits-all approach recommended by the ACAP.

The beginning of the 21st century was plagued with unprecedented instances of corporate fraud. In an attempt to address apparent non-existent or “broken” corporate governance policies, sweeping measures of financial reporting reform ensued, having specific requirements relating to the composition of audit committees, the interaction between audit committees and external auditors, and procedures concerning auditors’ assessment of client risk. The purpose of my dissertation is to advance knowledge about “good” corporate governance by examining the association between meeting-or-beating analyst forecasts and audit fees, audit committee compensation, and audit committee tenure and “busyness”. Using regression analysis, I found the following: 1) the frequency of meeting-or-just beating (just missing) analyst forecasts is negatively (positively) associated with audit fees, 2) the extent by which a firm exceeds analysts’ forecasts is positively (negatively) associated with audit committee compensation that is predominately equity-based (cash-based), and 3) the likelihood of repeatedly meeting-or-just beating analyst forecasts is positively associated with audit committee tenure and “busyness”. These results suggest that auditors consider clients who frequently meet-or-just beat forecasts as being less “risky”, and clients that frequently just miss as being more “risky”. The results also imply that cash-based director compensation is more successful in preserving the effectiveness of the audit committee’s financial reporting oversight role, that equity-based compensation motivates independent audit committee directors to focus on short-term performance thereby aligning their interests with management, and that audit committee director tenure and the degree of director “busyness” can affect an audit committee member’s effectiveness in providing financial reporting oversight. Collectively, my dissertation provides additional insights regarding corporate governance practices and informs policy-makers for future relevant decisions.

The corporate form that developed in the early 20th century created enormous pressure for corporate governance mechanisms to curb the power of corporate managers. Berle and Means, legal pluralists, warned about concentrating economic power in the hands of a small but powerful class of professional managers. They claimed this "new form of absolutism" required governmental oversight and viewed boards of directors as part of management, rather than monitors for shareholders. The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) proposed that corporations establish a special board committee, made up of "nonofficer members" in response to the McKesson & Robbins scandal of the late 1930s. My dissertation examines the evolution of the U.S. corporate audit committee through three specific time periods: (1) 1920-1954; (2) 1955-1986; and (3) 1987 to the passage of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002. My purpose is to determine if evolution of the audit committee throughout these periods has been a reform continually couched in symbolism or whether the audit committee concept has evolved into real reform, allowing proper corporate governance and mitigation of unchecked corporate power. My analysis is a traditional empirical analysis, relying on both primary and secondary sources to develop a coherent ordering of facts. I use narrative in a narrow sense as my historical methodology, examining patterns that emerge and interpreting facts to develop a clear understanding of demands for and uses of audit committees. I use a holistic approach in studying the data, using narrative to show how these patterns ensue from the historical data.

There is an increasing need for companies to act more responsibly in sustainability related issues due to pressures from their stakeholders. This increased pressure comes with a corresponding need for companies to report on their actions. As the stakeholders of companies do not have the opportunity to assess the credibility of the reporting themselves, the responsibility falls upon a third party to give assurance on the contents of the report. The assurance of such will be an important part in providing reliability to the sustainability work and report. One important corporate governance function responsible for overseeing the sustainability reporting and the assurance thereof is the audit committee. Therefore, this study will examine the effect of audit committee characteristics on the quality of sustainability assurance. Due to the novelty of the concept of sustainability assurance and as not many previous studies have addressed the issue of the quality, the authors proposed the following research question: “How do audit committee characteristics influencesustainability assurance quality?”. The findings from the study are analyzed through the shareholder-stakeholder theory, legitimacy theory, agency theory and the resource dependency theory. The shareholder-stakeholder and legitimacy theory are used to analyze the audit committees role as a governance function and the agency and resource dependency theory are applied to the different characteristics. This quantitative study includes data from the top 100 publicly listed companies in Sweden with a separate audit committee appointed by and amongst the board. The study uses observations from the fiscal year 2021, with data collected through content analysis. This thesis is conducted under a positivist paradigm, with a deductive approach. The data is tested through OLS regression, and the analysis is conducted with grounds in previous literature and theory. The results of this study are in some respects in line with a previous study but has also found differing results. Companies with audit committees with at least one member with industry expertise are more likely to have higher quality assurance on their sustainability report. Apart from the previous study, this study did not find a significant relationship of the independence and meeting frequency of audit committees. A significant relationship was neither found to the gender diversity, size, or experience of audit committees. Therefore, the authors can conclude that the research question is answered and that the results indicate that the audit committee may not be the best explanatory basis for the quality of sustainability assurance.

Syfte: Intresset för miljö och processen kring miljöprestanda har blivit alltmer intensiv hos forskare, investerare och andra intressenter och därför har relevansen av miljöprestanda blivit alltmer viktig. Syfte med studien är därför att analysera inverkan av längden på styrelseuppdrag (BoD) och revisionskommitténs uppdrag (AC) på miljöprestanda (EP) år 2021 i EU och USA. Vi ska undersöka om styrelseledamöternas rotation genererar högre miljöprestanda. Vi ska titta på det genomsnittliga antalet år som nuvarande styrelse- och revisionskommitté har tjänstgjort i en organisation.  Metod: Studien bygger på en positivistisk forskningsfilosofi och en hypotetisk-deduktiv ansats antas. En tvärsnittsdesign och en kvantitativ forskningsstrategi har antagits för att genomföra studien med data för 1143 företag i EU och 3131 företag i USA. Studiens data är sekundär och inhämtad från databasen Refinitiv Eikon och har därefter analyserats i statistikprogrammet SPSS.  Resultat och slutsats: Utifrån studiens resultat finner vi inget stöd för våra hypoteser gällande ett positivt samband mellan längden på styrelseuppdrag och miljöprestanda, ett positivt samband mellan längden på revisionskommitténs uppdrag och miljöprestanda och en negativ interaktionseffekt mellan variablerna och miljöprestanda i EU men däremot finner vi stöd för våra hypoteser i USA. Längre styrelse-och revisionsuppdrag leder till högre miljöprestanda i företag och detta går i linje med legitimitetsteorin där erfarenhet och kunskap skapar mer legitimitet för företaget. Däremot, om styrelsen och revisionskommittén har samma position i en organisation samtidigt leder det till en “kollisionsväg” mellan dessa.  Examensarbete bidrag: Studien bidrar till att fylla forskningsgapet genom att studera år 2021 samt bidrar den med en jämförelse mellan EU och USA som ska skapa en större förståelse och förklara styrningsmekanismer som förklarar beteenden som finns i en organisation.  Förslag till fortsatt forskning: Eftersom studie inom detta forskningsområde är unik och forskning inom icke-finansiella frågor är begränsad i detta sammanhang finns det stora möjligheter för forskare att utveckla den. Ett förslag till vidare forskning är att studera denna hypotesprövning under flera år för att få en mer representativ bild över en längre tid fast med en annan metod. / Aim: Interest in the environment and the process of environmental performance has become increasingly intense among researchers, investors and other stakeholders and therefore the relevance of environmental performance has become increasingly important. The purpose of the study is therefore to analyze the impact of the length of board of directors (BoD) tenure and audit committee (AC) tenure on environmental performance (EP) in 2021 in the EU and the USA. We will investigate whether the rotation of board members generates higher environmental performance. We will look at the average number of years the current board and audit committee have served in an organization. Method: The study is based on a positivist research philosophy and a hypothetical-deductive approach is adopted. A cross-sectional design and a quantitative research approach have been adopted to conduct the study with data for 1143 companies in the EU and 3131 companies in the US. The study's data is secondary and obtained from the Refinitiv Eikon Database and has subsequently been analyzed in the statistical program SPSS. Result and conclusions: Based on the results of the study, we find no support for our hypotheses regarding a positive relationship between the length of board tenure and environmental performance, a positive relationship between the length of audit committee tenure and environmental performance and a negative interaction effect between the variables and environmental performance in the EU, but we do find support for our hypotheses in the United States. Longer board tenure and audit committee tenure lead to higher environmental performance in companies and this is in line with the legitimacy theory where experience and knowledge create more legitimacy for the company. On the other hand, if the board and the audit committee have the same position in an organization at the same time, it leads to a "collision course" between them Contribution of this thesis: The study contributes to filling the research gap by studying the year 2021 and it contributes with a comparison between the EU and the USA that should create a greater understanding and explain governance mechanisms that explain behaviors found in an organization. Suggestions for future research: As the study in this research area is unique and research in non-financial matters is limited in this context, there are great opportunities for researchers to develop it. A suggestion for further research is to study this hypothesis test over several years to get a more representative picture over a longer period of time but with a different method.