Purpose: Our purpose is to investigate if the documentation of an internalaudit department at banks reflects a shift towards more consultingactivities, and how this potential change in the internal audit doc-umentation can be explained. Background: Previous research indicates that internal audit has developed fromits traditional assurance activities to include more consulting ac-tivities such as risk management assistance and corporate govern-ance support. Some researches argue that this development canhave a negative impact on internal auditor independence. Howev-er, there is a lack of research in this area using documentation andcontent analysis of internal audit reports. Method: In this study, we have done qualitative content analysis of internaldocuments collected from the period 2004-2013. These docu-ments are analyzed using a coding scheme based on previous re-search. Conclusion: By qualitatively analysing the activities reported we find that thedocumentation reflects a shift, over time, towards more activitiesthat we classified as consulting. We argue that this can mainly beexplained by coercive and normative isomorphism; for example,regulatory pressures and influences from the Institute of InternalAuditors. We also argue that internal auditing might benefit froma more consistent view of the role.

本研究旨在探討台灣上市、上櫃及公開發行及其他類型公司在不同治理單位架構下，內部稽核單位的角色是否會有所差異。本研究深入分析前項差異，藉以瞭解我國公司內部稽核之功能及其影響因素。本研究發現： 1.內部稽核協助「內部控制」、「風險管理」及「公司治理」之功能並未因公司治理單位架構的改變而有顯著差異。內部稽核功能已受到企業一定程度之重視，即使公司治理架構正處於轉型過程，內部稽核單位仍可發揮其功能。 2.設置審計委員會之公司提供較多預算及人力，有助於年度稽核計畫與業務的執行，顯示公司治理單位架構的改變，會影響稽核預算及人力配置。 3.公司設置審計委員會，有助於提升「內稽單位給予的建議更容易被採納」、「內稽單位與治理單位互動增加」、「內稽主管更多機會參與策略制定」、「內稽單位查核工作之執行更為順利」、「內稽單位獨立性增加」、「內部稽核預算增加」及「內稽單位更能協助企業進行風險管理」等七項內部稽核功能。 / This purpose of this research is to investigate the effect of a public company’s corporate governance structure on its internal audit activity’s role in Taiwan. This research analyzes the above effect to understand the functions of public companies’ internal audit activities and the factors affecting these functions. The main results of this study are as follows. 1.The internal audit’s functions of assuring "internal control", "risk management" and "corporate governance" do not show significant differences with changes in corporate governance structure. The internal audit functions are well recognized. Even if the corporate governance structure in Taiwan is in a transformation process, the internal audit activity can still fulfill its functions. 2.The company with an audit committee provides more budget and manpower to facilitate the performance of annual audit plan and related activities. That is, the changes in corporate governance structure do have an effect on the internal audit activity’s budget and staffing. 3.For the companies with audit committees, they have the following characteristics, i.e., ”internal audit activity’s recommendations are more likely to be accepted”, ”increased interaction between the internal audit activity and corporate governance members”, ”the chief internal auditor has more opportunities to participate in strategy formation”, ”the internal audit activity perform their works more smoothly”, ”higher independence for the internal audit activity”, ”higher budget for the internal audit activity”, and ”the internal audit activity can further assist the company in managing risks”.