The aim of this study is to investigate how the board of directors, audit committee (AC), external auditor and management explain the outsourced internal audit function (IAF) practice. Although prior studies provide some insights into the determinants of IAF, we have little understanding of how their characteristics are associated with outsourced IAF. Using 767 observations from an emerging market, we find that board independence and AC accounting expertise are negatively associated with outsourced IAF. We also observe a positive association between board expertise, AC independence, CEO with accounting expertise, and the size of the external audit firm and outsourced IAF. Corroborating these findings, additional tests show that the type of outsourced IAF provider, either big4 or non-big4, plays a significant role in these associations. We also extend the recent literature on the governance role of an AC chair with accounting expertise and report that a chair with accounting expertise is associated with outsourced IAF if the provider is a big4 audit firm. These findings may serve a large number of stakeholders who are interested in audit practices in general and IAF practices in particular.

本研究的目的是调查董事会，审计委员会（AC），外部审计师和管理层如何解释外包内部审计职能（IAF）的做法。尽管先前的研究对IAF的决定因素提供了一些见解，但我们对它们的特征与外包IAF的关系知之甚少。使用来自新兴市场的767条观察结果，我们发现董事会独立性和AC会计专业知识与外包IAF负相关。我们还观察到董事会专业知识，审计委员会独立性，具有会计专业知识的首席执行官与外部审计公司和外包IAF的规模之间存在正相关关系。证实这些发现的其他测试表明，IAF外包提供商的类型（big4或非big4）在这些关联中起着重要作用。我们还扩展了有关具有会计专业知识的AC主席的治理角色的最新文献，并报告说，如果提供商是big4审计公司，则具有会计专业知识的主席与外包IAF相关。这些发现可能会为许多对一般审计实践尤其是IAF实践感兴趣的利益相关者服务。