Quo vadis, internal auditing? A vision for internal auditing in 2030

• Published date: 01 January 2024
• Author: Annukka Jokipii,Antti Rautiainen
• Date: 01 January 2024
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/ijau.12324

ORIGINAL ARTICLE

Quo vadis, internal auditing? A vision for internal auditing in

2030

Annukka Jokipii

1

| Antti Rautiainen

2

1

University of Vaasa, Vaasa, Finland

2

School of Business and Economics, University

of Jyväskylä, Jyväskylä, Finland

Correspondence

Annukka Jokipii, University of Vaasa, P.O. Box

700, FI-65200 Vaasa, Finland.

Email: annukka.jokipii@uwasa.fi

Funding information

The authors report no funding related to this

paper.

We aim to respond to calls in internal auditing (IA) literature and to the current

changes in the IA field by describing the driving forces and vision of the future for IA

in the year 2030. [Correction added on 24 August 2023, after first online publication:

The definition of IA in the preceding sentence has been corrected in this version.]

The goal was to prompt in-depth discussion informed by the divergent views of

experts. As a contribution, we identify three key driving forces: prolific data and its

application, globalization and new value chains between organizations. Further, the

study reports a vision for the future of IA. By surveying a wide range of stakeholders,

including the board, management, internal auditors, teachers and a legislator, we

expand on the views in earlier literature regarding IA, IA developments and the appli-

cation of Delphi argument analysis in voluntary IA context. The findings are of value

in researching, planning, educating and developing IA activities to understand where

IA is going and where divergences among stakeholders arise.

KEYWORDS

change, corporate governance, Delphi, driving forces, education, future, internal auditing,

internal control, stakeholders

1|INTRODUCTION

The direction of development in auditing and internal auditing

(IA) research and practice is a continuous topic of interest (see Barac

et al., 2021;Hay,2021; Moll & Yigitbasioglu, 2019). Transformations in

IA have been studied, and the role of IA has evolved due to laws and

regulations, digitalization, environmental issues and the changing

demands of stakeholders (Kapoor & Brozzetti, 2012; Liu et al., 2020;

Nickell & Roberts, 2014;Roussy,2013; Soh & Mar tinov-Bennie, 2011;

Spekle et al., 2007). Kapoor and Brozzetti (2012) identified several fac-

tors contributingto this change, including theincreased complexity of a

globalized marketplace, high-profile fraud and scandals, new laws and

regulations,and increased demand from stakeholdersfor greater assur-

ance. Duringthe last 20 years, under the influence of rapid andcontinu-

ous changes in the business environment, companies' exposure to

various risks, including financialscandals, has increased, and the control

mechanisms have also changed, echoing the views of the risk society

and the audit society (Beck, 2002; Power, 2000), instead of general

agency theory considerations (Mihret, 2014; Nickell & Roberts, 2014).

In such a context,establishing functioning internal controls andinternal

audit in the companyis important to long-term businesssuccess.

In parallel with the focus on the role and importance of IA in

improvingcompany performance, the issue of ensuringIA effectiveness

in the future has emerged. Internal audit function needs to meet the

demands from multiple stakeholders and increasing digitalization,

thereby creating added value for the company and/or other stake-

holders (seeNickell & Roberts, 2014;Roussy,2013). However, the roles

of internalauditors are not clear, andthe impact of information technol-

ogy (IT) on IA work is stillunknown (Roussy & Perron, 2018). Therefore,

we look furtherand ask: where is IA going and whatwill IA be in 2030?

IA has evolved from control towards consultancy, and the func-

tion currently provides services to a variety of different stakeholders

Received: 29 November 2021 Revised: 4 April 2023 Accepted: 3 June 2023

DOI: 10.1111/ijau.12324

This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any

medium, provided the original work is properly cited and is not used for commercial purposes.

© 2023 The Authors. International Journal of Auditing published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

170 Int J Audit. 2024;28:170–184.

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