Arena et al. (2004)
This study is based on a surveywithin 365 private Italian companies and investigates the
existence and characteristics of an internal audit function and the activities performed.
It was found that 74 per cent of the responding companies have introduced an internal
audit function. The existence of an internal audit function differs between industries and
can be linked with the company size. For those companies that did not have an internal
audit function at that time, 30 per cent has intentions to introduce one in the future.
However, 50 per cent are not willing to introduce an internal audit function in the
future, whereas 20 per cent have removed their internal audit function. More than 50
per cent of the internal audit departments in this study have less than five internal
auditors. With respect to the internal audit agenda, they found that operational audits,
compliance audits and the monitoring of the internal control system are the most
prevalent activities.