Determinants of combined assurance adoption : a global survey

Corporate governance failures and new regulation has emphasized the importance of risk management oversight. As a result, combined assurance has recently emerged as a paradigm to enhance risk management oversight. Combined assurance ensures that assurance activities are coordinated in such a way that it provides holistic assurance to the board about the effectiveness of risk management, which ultimately helps board exercise its risk management oversight role. This exploratory study presents the results of a global survey of internal auditors’ perceptions about the determinants of combined assurance adoption. Based on a unique dataset of 186 usable responses, we find that internal auditors perceive that (i) risk management oversight maturity, (ii) the existence of a board subcommittee responsible for overseeing risk management processes, (iii) the number of different assurance providers, and (iv) other organizational characteristics are significantly associated with combined assurance adoption. We discuss the implications of our findings for research and practice