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This study aims to bridge a gap in literature by exploring the impact of art and culture projects on primary internal stakeholders (i.e. employees), focusing on the micro-foundations of corporate social responsibility (CSR).

The analysis uses a qualitative approach, using a single-case study and semi-structured interviews. The single-case study focuses on art and culture projects developed by companies participating in the public contest promoted by Parma City of Culture 2020. The analysis relies on the information gathered from interviews with the employees who were involved in the projects of seven of the winning companies.

The results suggest that employees positively assess their participation in CSR activities based on art and culture projects. Specifically, through their direct involvement in the competition employees manage to experience meaningfulness and they attribute intrinsic motives to these types of activities.

This study analyses the effectiveness of a publicly endorsed CSR initiative oriented towards internal social enhancement based on art and culture projects, leveraging the unique case of Parma City of Culture 2020. The findings might be beneficial to both companies and regulators aiming to achieve internal social enhancement. This study contributes to existing literature on the social dimension of CSR by emphasising the key role of art and culture projects in the organisational context and by opening new avenues for future research.

This study aims to identify the principal changes that digitalization has brought about in the internal audit functions (IAFs), focusing on the main characteristics that have been affected by this phenomenon.

The study follows a qualitative approach, involving the thematic analysis of semistructured interviews. A total of 22 professionals working in Italian-listed companies’ IAFs were interviewed. The framework of institutional theory was used to analyze the results.

The elements most affected by the digitalization of IAFs in Italy are: the skills required in IAFs, the relationship with external consultants and the types of activities performed by internal auditors (IArs). Nevertheless, the extent of the level digitalization within the IAFs of the companies analyzed appears to vary in accordance with the level of institutional pressures experienced by the organizations.

The study contributes to the literature on IA and digitalization by delineating the principal elements that are influenced by the digitalization process of IA. Moreover, it highlights how these elements develop and evolve as the level of digitalization of the IAF changes.

The differences between Big audit firms (BigN) and non BigN (nBigN) have been discussed at the international level from various points of view, focusing in particular on issues regarding the different quality of the services offered. This study aims to analyze the impact of digitalization on audit firms in the Italian context, seeking to understand how this phenomenon has influenced the quality differences already studied in the scientific literature.

The research adopts a qualitative approach, using semi-structured interviews. A total of 16 professionals working in the legal audit world were interviewed. The firms involved were PricewaterhouseCoopers, KPMG, Ernst and Young and Deloitte in the BigN category and BDO Italia Spa, MooreAxis Srl and Analisi Spa in the non Big class. The data collected via the interviews underwent thematic analysis. This analysis allowed the identification of three topics, on which the presentation of the results concentrated.

The findings of this research reveal that the digitalization of companies has widened the quality gap between Big and non BigN. BigN have been better able to exploit the benefits of the new digital technologies due to their greater investment capacity. At the same time, stakeholders’ expectations of the audit process in terms of quality have increased sharply, also in relation to nBigN.

This study’s main contribution is its analysis of the impact of digitalization on the audit quality of BigN and nBigN. This paper contributes to the existing literature by studying the consequences of digitalization on nBigN, a topic previously unexplored in the scientific literature (Manita et al., 2020), and the impact of new technologies in the context of audit firms in general.