This research was carried out to present the internal auditors' coping strategy model with an interpretative structural approach. From the point of view of the result of its implementation, the upcoming research is applied research, to implement exploratory research and descriptive research using a survey method. The information required for the research to provide the model was collected using semi-structured interviews from 11 experts in the subject field of the research, i.e. people in the accounting and auditing profession who had more than 15 years of work experience in the field of internal audit. In this research, a coping strategy model for internal auditors was designed using Interpretive Structural Modeling (ISM). The results of the interpretive structural analysis (ISM) by the exploratory model showed that brain software coping strategies include financial intelligence, accounting and auditing, clear recognition of roles and responsibilities and the development of internal auditors' skills with training, hardware coping strategies including continuous communication between managers and employees, reporting Physical errors and defects and continuous inspections, software coping strategies including systematic review and analysis of reports, performance evaluation processes and upgrading internal audit technologies lead to the reduction of conflicts of internal auditors including personal conflict, conflict of duties, conflict of job position and conflict of interests.

Objective: Fraud is likely globally the most costly and common form of financial crime. The Fraudsters attacked large multinational businesses, small private companies, government agencies, nonprofits, and every other size or type of organization imaginable. The (ACFE) report truly is a global study of occupational fraud, and as its results make clear, no organization is immune from these crimes. According to the ACFE report, global losses are likely measured in trillions of dollars. This represents money that could have been spent creating jobs, producing goods and services, or providing public services. Instead, it went into the pockets of fraudsters. internal auditors have a unique position in the fight against fraud to prevent and detect fraud because they are considered part of the internal controls (IC) that continuously evaluates and monitors the IC. IC is regarded as the primary mechanism of prevention, deterrence and detection of fraud. According to The International Standards for The Professional Practice of internal Auditing (Standards), internal auditors must have sufficient knowledge to evaluate the risk of fraud and must exercise due professional care by considering the Probability of significant errors, fraud, or noncompliance and the internal audit activity must evaluate the potential for the occurrence of fraud and how the organization manages fraud risk. The standards require the internal audit activity to evaluate the potential for fraud and how the organization manages fraud risk. internal auditors must consider the probability of significant errors, fraud, noncompliance, and other exposures when developing the engagement objectives, and internal auditors must exercise due professional care by considering the Adequacy and effectiveness of governance, risk management, and control processes & Probability of significant errors, fraud, or noncompliance. According to recent corporate governance reforms, Iranian companies have been required to establish an internal audit unit since last decade. The major companies listed on the Tehran Stock Exchange have established an internal audit function to fulfil the recent requirements. In recent years, the risk of fraud in Iranian organizations has increased as various frauds are disclosed in various organizations. These disclosures destroy the trust of investors and the general public. With the loss of trust, great damage is inflicted on companies and society. Therefore, the prevention of fraud is very important. Considering the importance of fighting against fraud and considering the unique role and position of internal auditors in companies in this regard and considering that recently internal audit Functions have been established in Iranian companies, so considering their reaction to the risks of fraud are not explained and also due to the lack of similar Iranian research in the past, this study examines the response of internal auditors to the risks of fraud in Iran.Method: Participants in this study are 106 chief audit executives of companies listed on the Tehran Stock Exchange in 2021. Data were collected by survey. This research questionnaire is based on the 2015 Common Body of Knowledge (CBOK) study of the Institute of internal auditors Research Foundation (IIARF) with slight changes. This study studied about 20% of the statistical population using random sampling. The response of internal auditors is measured through the professional competence of the human resources of the internal audit unit, how the internal audit work is performed, and the tools and software used by the internal auditors.Results: Analysis of the Research participants' responses and perceptions shows that internal auditors lack sufficient competence and knowledge to evaluate and respond to the risk of fraud, they do not have enough knowledge about fraud prevention and detection techniques, mainly because they do not assess the risk of fraud, and they mostly do not use new tools to respond to the risk of fraud.Conclusion: Generally, according to the analysis result and the chief audit executive of companies listed on the Tehran Stock Exchange opinion, internal auditors do not adequately respond to fraud risks. That is, the internal audit functions of Iranian companies lack the necessary qualifications and resources and do not have appropriate formal procedures to assess the risk of fraud in the performance of audit work. Probably, this situation could be due to the low maturity of internal audits due to the infancy of internal audits in Iranian companies due to the recent corporate governance reforms in Iran. These findings indicate that internal audit in Iran requires special attention. Further promotion of university and professional education and allocation of sufficient resources to the internal audit units of Iranian companies are the leading suggestions of this research.

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to investigate the factors affecting the moral courage of internal auditors. Method: According to the method and nature, this research is a descriptivesurvey. The sample is comprised of the members of Iranian Association of internal auditors in 2019. We used Khalil et al (2018) Questionnaire for data collection. Data analysis and hypothesis testing were performed using Amos software and structural equation modeling based on 230 questionnaires collected from internal auditors of Iranian Association of internal auditors. Results: The results indicate that positive attitudes, support and independence of internal auditors have a positive and significant effect on the moral courage. Also, the level of moral courage was different between the groups. Conclusion: Considering the Positive attitudes of internal auditors (self-efficacy, hope, and flexibility) in recruitment, improves internal reporting and avoids many of the norms. Subordinating internal auditors to the audit committee reduces the psychological pressure on internal auditors. Also, audit committee support for auditors enhances their moral courage in reporting weaknesses in the organization. Contribution: Research findings, in addition to extending the theoretical foundations of past research, contain valuable concepts to companies in support and recruitment of internal auditors.

On the first stages of appearance (fifth decade of 20th century) internal auditors were seen mostly as revisers of accounting and financial information. Step by step internal auditors are focusing on compliance audits, later internal auditors start to evaluate effectiveness of internal control system, assess operating processes and finally, nowadays, the scope of internal audit covers not only compliance audits, evaluating internal controls, fraud investigations, assess of operating processes, but also consultations to the senior management and participation in risk management. The main purpose of this study is to investigate the role of internal audit in enterprise risk management (ERM) in the companies listed in the Tehran Stock Exchange. The final sample used for this study consists of 43 companies listed in Tehran stock exchange. Also, data were collected using a questionnaire. The study results showed that internal auditors have low involvement in enterprise risk management (ERM) activities, but they are also engage in activities that could compromise their objectivity.

Purpose: This study was conducted with the aim of developing and formulating a model for the role of internal and independent auditors' interaction on the moral courage of internal auditors. Methodology: The research method is descriptive-survey and applied research type, and the research data was collected cross-sectionally in the first half of 2024, through Khalil standard questionnaire (2023) among the sample members and collected in a certain period of time. From the unlimited statistical population of audit institutes and companies, the statistical sample of the research, including internal and independent auditors, 186 people were randomly selected. In order to determine the validity of the questionnaires, combined divergent validity and factor analysis were used. In order to review and analyze the data, appropriate statistical methods were used. Results: The results of the research indicate that the interaction of internal and independent auditors plays a significant role on the moral courage of internal auditors and makes them perform better in the field of audit reports.. Conclusion: Therefore, interaction and cooperation between internal and independent auditors will reduce unethical practice in internal auditors or strengthen their moral courage. Contribution: The results of this study can be useful for audit institutions and companies, so that the interaction of internal and independent auditors is increased, and on the other hand, they provide a stronger audit report or audit quality.

This study aims to investigate the tendency to the use of continuous auditing by internal audits in the companies listed in the Tehran Stock Exchange. The concept of continuous auditing backs to two decades ago, but despite its numerous advantages, the acceptance and use of it has been much slow. In this study, we interviewed with internal auditors in 75 companies to determine the state of use of continuous auditing.Using the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology, we found that there exist six reasons for the tendencies to the use of continuous auditing by internal auditors. Among them, ease of use, organizational support and social influences are the most important determinants of the tendencies. Also, of the remaining reasons, annual sales volume and voluntary use of auditing services moderate the relationship between organizational support and social influence, significantly. The last reason, promoting auditing function and specialty, could not be considered valid predictor for the proposed tendencies.

Background and Objective: The auditing profession is an independence-based profession, both in terms of standards and in terms of code of conduct, but internal auditors are different from independent auditors because they operate in a structure owned by corporate executives and must be governed by Maintain these conditions of behavioral and functional independence in accordance with auditing standards. The Purpose of this research is evaluating the function of the effective voice of internal auditors in disclosing the environmental performance of capital market companies. Material and Methodology: In this research, which is considered as a methodology of development and composition, an attempt was made to identify the components of the effective voice of internal auditors in exposing the environmental performance of capital market companies by relying on Metasynthesis and Delphi analysis processes in the qualitative. Then, in the quantitative part, interpretive ranking analysis is used to identify the most effective function of the effective voice of internal auditors in exposing the environmental performance of capital market companies. Fidings: The results of the research in the qualitative section, after screening the content of 12 approved studies, indicated the existence of 8 components of the effective voice function of internal auditors in exposing the environmental performance of capital market companies. These components were evaluated through Delphi analysis and the results of this section showed that all 8 components were approved. Discussion & Conclusion: The results show that auditors who have an identity and rely on the code of professional conduct, based on the limits of the requirements to disclose environmental performance, always try to disclose the company's performance in this area and in this way, they can improve the level of information transparency of the company to external stakeholders.

In this research we examine the role of internal auditors in the preparation of sustainability reporting, consulting and assurance services prior, during and after preparation.We collect and analyze data by reviewing related literature,  conducting interviews of 24 internal audit experts, and using theme-analysis method. Our results show that internal auditors actively participate in: (1) promoting the sustainability culture and risks assessment prior to the preparation of sustainability reports; (2) assisting management during the preparation of sustainability reports by identifying stakeholders and important sustainability issues, considering sustainability in strategies, evaluating alignment of goals, strategies sustainability mission and designing the process of developing sustainability reports; and (3) performing assurance statements on sustainability reports and post-audit in importing sustainability reporting and assurance.  The results indicated 113 roles, of which 22 components are related to pre-development, 50 items during and 41 after-implementation of sustainability. The highest role in pre-development belongs to consulting services, during implementation both roles are recognized to the same extent, and after-deployment, assurance services is seen more.Results show that internal auditors can play a crucial role in the preparations  and development of sustainability reports. Results provide policy, practice and research implications for the emerging role of internal auditors in sustainability reporting and assurance.

This study examines the effect of reducing processes in organizational silence of companies on the ethical courage of internal auditors. It is conducted based on a survey-correlation method. Furthermore, it also focused on the responses of 183 accepted internal auditors on the stock exchange. Then, partial least squares analysis method was used for the findings in 5 frameworks. Moreover, items like positive statesalong with being independent in doing internal auditing responsibilities and perceived support of the supervisor on courage of internal auditors were carefully considered. Findings show that self-efficacy, level of hope, resilience and perceived support of the supervisor on courage of internal auditors have positive and significant effect as the reducing processes in organizational silence of companies on the ethical courage of internal auditors. Finally, it was concluded that more perceived support of the supervisor will end up to more courage on the behavior of such auditors in their performances.

The Present study aims to propose a conceptual model for explaining Iranian internal auditors’ professional identity formation process. A qualitative approach and the grounded theory strategy were used to obtain a profound and rich description of the experiences, attitudes and perceptions of research participants about this process. For this purpose, using theoretical and purposeful sampling method, 14 experts in the field of internal auditing were interviewed as the key informants of the research, finally, the gathered data were coded and analyzed into 13 axial categories and one core category. Findings indicated the existence of negative and stereotypical perceived image of internal auditors in organization, and this image was affected by some causal conditions. In the face of the mentioned phenomenon, internal auditors are adopting two strategies: defensive, adaptive and passive strategies. Lack of adequate rules supporting internal auditors, weakness of control and supervision culture in Iranian society, and the problems related to economic structure were among contextual factors affecting core category and related strategies. Poor corporate governance as well as weak internal control systems among organizations are intervening conditions that exacerbate negative image of the internal auditors in the organization. Moreover, core category of this research, according to strategies adopted by internal auditors, will have positive and negative consequences for them.