Internal Audit & ESG

Internal Audit & ESG - Research 

Thought Leadership, Funding Specific Research Projects 

 

Internal Audit Competencies 

  • Activities during current fiscal period (cumulative):

  • Objective: This survey of Canadian practitioners from CPA, IIA (Institute of Internal Auditors) and ISACA 
  • Research Team: Adam Vitalis, Efrim Boritz and Laura Simeoni 

  • Plan to submit to a journal in Q4 of 2022.

 

Pulse 

  • Activities during current fiscal period (cumulative): 

  • Objective: Produce a Canadian extract from this international survey. 

  • Research Team: Adam Vitalis, Efrim Boritz and Laura Simeoni 

  • Planning has started.

 

On Risk 

  • Activities during current fiscal period (cumulative): 

  • Objective: Produce a Canadian extract from this international survey. 

  • Research Team: Adam Vitalis, Laura Simeoni and Efrim Boritz 

  • Planning has started

 

CFO (chief financial officers) Competencies, Firm Performance and Reporting Quality 

  • Activities during current fiscal period (cumulative): Do Differences in CFO Background Matter to Financial Statement Quality? An Application of Machine Learning and Textual Analytics. 

  • Research team is Louise Hayes and Efrim Boritz.  

  • The objective is to explore uses of machine learning technologies with applications to accounting and auditing. This paper was presented at the CAAA Annual Conference in Montréal, QC, June 2017; the AAA Annual Meeting in San Diego, CA, August 2017; and the EAA (European Accounting Association) Annual Conference in Milan, IT, May 30-June 1, 2018.  

  • Data is being gathered.

 

EXTENDED EXTERNAL REPORTING 1 

  • Activities during current fiscal period (cumulative): Communicating Value Creation in Integrated Reporting. 

  • Research team is Efrim Boritz. 

  • The objective is to review and evaluate the presentation of value creation information in integrated reports. This project is in pilot testing.

 

COVID-19 1 

  • Activities during current fiscal period (cumulative): “Do firms provide informative disclosures in an environment of extreme uncertainty? Evidence from the COVID-19 pandemic.” 

  • Research Team:  Changling Chen, T. Stratopoulos, Victor (Xiaoqi) Wang, and Bin (Betty) Xing 

  • We study the informativeness of corporate disclosures in an environment of extreme uncertainty by using the COVID-19 pandemic as the setting. During the initial stage of the pandemic, firms had to respond to an unprecedented crisis with little prior experience or guidance from regulators. We find that COVID-19 disclosures in annual reports appeared to have been informative to investors during this period of extreme uncertainty. 

  • Currently under review at RAST.

 

COVID-19 1 

  • Activities during current fiscal period (cumulative): “Corporate Disclosures under Extreme Uncertainty: Evidence from COVID-19 Pandemic” 

  • Research Team: Changling Chen and T. Stratopoulos 

  • Grant Social Sciences and Humanities Council of Canada (SSHRC); $97,544. 2020-2024.

Internal Audit & ESG – Education and Knowledge Transfer 

Disseminating Best Practices, Sharing Material (Workshops / Conferences) 

Developing Courses, Workshops, Cases and Other Teaching Material 

 

Internal Audit Competencies 

  • Activities during current fiscal period (cumulative): Internal Audit course launched in Fall 2022. 

Internal Audit & ESG – Interaction 

 

Alliances and Relationships – IIA 

  • Activities during current fiscal period (cumulative):

  • Adam Vitalis continues to work with members of the Toronto Chapter of IIA to build an IA specialization at UW that could be replicated at other Universities. The goal is to align supply (students) with demand (hiring based on completing the specialization) so that it would increase the profile of internal audit and provide another career path for students. 

  • Companies are hiring co-op students starting in January under our new initiative.