There are some studies that have concentrated on problems concerning internal auditing in
developed countries including the U.S. and the U.K. but little evidence is found in emerging markets.
Hutchinson and Zain’s (2009) study involved the examination of the relationship between internal
(audit experience and accounting qualification) audit and firm performance (ROA) with growth
opportunities and audit committee independence in Malaysia. They recommended future research to
consider different factor models that may impact quality of internal audit and improve corporate
governance. From this recommendation, the current study focuses on investigating the association
between internal audit function and performance of firm both accounting measurement and market
measurement while taking some new variables such as qualification of the chairman of internal audit,
the internal audit size, experience of internal audit and internal audit qualification and consider
moderators such as audit quality between internal audit and firm performance. More importantly, there
is a lack of research in both developed and emerging nations concerning the direct relationship
between internal audits functions with performance of firm. In addition to that, Al-Matari et al. (2012)
investigated the relationship between board characteristics and firm performance in Kuwait. They
recommended that future researchers examine the association between internal audit and firm
performance whether directly or through a moderator. Moreover, the qualification of chairman of the
internal audit is a new variable added by the present study