Abstract:
This study assesses whether internal audit role and reporting relationships affect investor judgment and decision-making. Specifically, the study examines whether investor perceptions of disclosure credibility of financial statement information are increased by the inclusion of an Internal Audit Report (IAR) that details an internal audit function whose role is primarily assurance-related (versus consulting-related) and who reports strategically to the audit committee and administratively to the CEO (versus strategically and administratively to the CFO). The study also tests whether the effects on investor perceptions of disclosure credibility are mediated by investor perceptions of the level of assurance provided by internal audit. The study is motivated by a lack of information about firms' internal audit functions given the function's key role in corporate governance and by the need to better understand the influence of various internal audit characteristics on investor judgment and decision-making. The lack of this governance information is costly to firms due to investors demanding a premium to bear the risks associated with the uncertainty. The experiment used a 2x2 design with internal audit role (i.e. primarily assurance vs. primarily consulting) and reporting relationship (i.e. reports strategically to the audit committee and administratively to the CEO vs. strategically and administratively to the CFO) randomly manipulated between subjects. The participants of the study were comprised of 84 MBA students serving as proxies for nonprofessional investors. The results indicate that participants perceived disclosure credibility to be significantly higher when the Chief Audit Executive reported strategically to the audit committee and administratively to the CEO (versus both strategically and administratively to the CFO). Mediation testing indicates that this increase in perceived disclosure credibility was attributable to an increase in the level of assurance provided for the disclosed financial information. The results reveal no significant differences in perceived disclosure credibility from the differing internal audit roles. Finally, supplemental analysis indicate that the reporting relationship judgments ultimately affected participants' price-earnings multiple decisions.
