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This study examines the strategy–performance relationship within publicly traded German firms. Strategic management literature provides several strategic frameworks that offer guidance on promising strategies. However, given major changes, such as globalization, managers wonder whether strategic frameworks are still applicable.

The authors employ principal component analysis (PCA) to measure competitive strategy and analyze a sample of 6,037 firm-years among 651 firms between 2000 and 2019.

While the authors find evidence for the existence of efficiency-based strategies, differentiation-based strategies and mixed strategies, only differentiation-based strategies are positively related to performance.

The study’s results contribute to the discourse on the strategy–performance relationship, as they provide insights into promising strategies that are of interest to researchers and practitioners. Further, the authors introduce a new measure of competitive strategy based on PCA.

This study aims to examine the extent to which external auditors (EAs) use the work of the internal audit function (IAF) based on the purpose of its primary activities. The authors rely on attribution theory, which suggests that individuals search for meaning when an event occurs. In this setting, the authors explore how the overall (assurance vs advisory) or specific (e.g. risk management and evaluating internal controls) focus of IAF activities influences perceived EA reliance on the IAF’s work.

The authors first explore the research question with data extracted from a broad, longitudinal survey conducted triennially by the national chapters of the Institute of Internal Auditors in Austria, Germany and Switzerland. The data includes responses from 2014, 2017 and 2020 administrations of the survey. The authors conduct a parallel survey with practicing EAs attending two training sessions of a European office of a global network firm. Hypotheses were tested using ordered logistic regression.

Among the chief audit executive (CAE) participants, the authors observe that a balanced or primarily assurance-related purpose of the IAF, relative to a primarily advisory-related purpose, is associated with higher perceived EA reliance. The authors observe similar perceptions of the extent of reliance among the EA participants.

With a unique data set of practicing internal auditors from three countries, coupled with a sample of EAs, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first to examine differences in EA reliance across the IAF’s primary roles. The study relies on data from three European countries, which differs from prior EA reliance literature with a largely North American focus. Further, comparison between perceptions of EAs and CAEs is a novel approach and this paper’s findings suggest that perceptions of CAEs could be a reliable proxy for EA-intended behavior.

The purpose of this study is to analyze how internal audit function (IAF) activities differ, depending on the impact of executive boards (EBs) and audit committees (ACs).

This study is based on data collected from the Common Body of Knowledge (CBOK) study conducted by the Institute of Internal Auditors Research Foundation in 2010. Using 524 responses from US Chief audit executives the authors examine the direct and interaction effects of ACs and EBs on the probability to perform specific activities with a logistic regression model.

This manuscript shows that ACs and EBs have different direct and interaction effects on the portfolio of activities performed by the IAF. Furthermore, a varying prevalence among activities was identified, which pinpoints to the maturity of IAFs. All findings contribute to the prior and recent discussion about the position of IAFs between the stakeholders’ AC and EB.

When the CBOK study was designed by the Institute of Internal Auditors, the investigators did not have the research questions in mind. The authors are therefore limited to those variables that have been collected as part of a larger questionnaire. Nevertheless, the new approach tries to open a new research direction, analyzing different activities performed by IAFs.

The identified portfolio of IAF activities can help practitioners to double-check their own work and to evaluate the impact of the EB and the AC on their activities.

This study provides the first empirical evidence of the influence of ACs and EBs on IAF activities.