The Evolution of Internal Audit’s Role in Enterprise Risk Management: Integration of Theoretical Development and Empirical Evidence

DOI

10.2991/978-94-6239-719-4_47How to use a DOI?

Keywords

Internal Audit; Enterprise Risk Management; Role Evolution; Theoretical Development; Empirical Evidence; Corporate Governance; Risk Governance

Abstract

Against escalating business complexity and global uncertainty, internal audit’s role in enterprise risk management (ERM) has profoundly evolved from a financial compliance watchdog to a strategic risk advisor and integrator. This paper systematically reviews the theoretical evolution of this role and synthesizes cross-country, cross-industry empirical evidence. The findings reveal that internal audit’s expanded functions—core assurance, legitimate consulting, and strategic integration—significantly enhance ERM effectiveness, organizational resilience, and governance quality, while reducing operational and financial risk. However, persistent challenges include role ambiguity, competency gaps, resource constraints, and integration barriers across diverse contexts. By providing an integrated framework of this evolutionary path, this study addresses the fragmentation in existing research and offers actionable insights for optimizing internal audit’s contribution to modern ERM systems, while identifying critical gaps for future research.

Copyright

© 2026 The Author(s)

Open Access

Open Access This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits any noncommercial use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.

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TY  - CONF
AU  - Xiwen Liang
PY  - 2026
DA  - 2026/07/09
TI  - The Evolution of Internal Audit’s Role in Enterprise Risk Management: Integration of Theoretical Development and Empirical Evidence
BT  - Proceedings of the 2026 6th International Conference on Enterprise Management and Economic Development (ICEMED 2026)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 409
EP  - 416
SN  - 2352-5428
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/978-94-6239-719-4_47
DO  - 10.2991/978-94-6239-719-4_47
ID  - Liang2026
ER  -