The purpose of this discussion is to review the paper “Correlates of External Quality Assessment and Improvement Programs in Internal Auditing: A Study of 68 Countries” by Steven M. DeSimone and Mohammad Abdolmohammadi (2016, hereafter DA). In this discussion, I hope to bring out a few important questions about the internal auditing profession and especially research that we need to conduct to help further this important component of high-quality corporate governance. I also address institutional factors of our current research paradigm—and how they are manifested in this paper—that are hindering our ability to learn as much as we can in our pursuit of research knowledge.
DA fits in well with and makes an important contribution to the larger internal audit quality research stream. As outlined by DA, internal audit is a critical component of high-quality corporate governance; yet, in spite of the importance of internal audit, it receives relatively...
