A theoretical foundation for defining and representing internal controls

内部控制泛指公司为保护资产、确保财务数据的完整性、遵守法律和改善业务运营而实施的做法。近年来，内部控制失败导致了安然、亚瑟·安德森和世通等大公司的破产。作为回应，美国通过了新的法律，如《萨班斯-奥克斯利法案》，要求公司经理和审计师每年正式证明公司内部控制的有效性。人们发现，尽管内部控制在实践中至关重要，并得到了广泛的研究，但核心问题仍然没有得到研究。最根本的是，很少有人对内部控制的含义或性质进行定义。虽然这样的问题是高度理论性的，但它也是一个高度实际的问题，因为如果不深入了解内部控制是什么，公司就无法证明内部控制的强度。因此，本研究计划的长期目标是：开发定义和表示组织中的内部控制的理论基础和相关方法。研究计划的具体短期目标如下：1.开发一套必要的和充分的概念来定义和表示内部控制。2.开发一种准确表示内部控制的方法并在软件工具中实施。3.测试建议的软件工具是否有助于执业审计师理解和测试控制。这项研究承诺做出几项贡献。对于学术界来说，这项研究将澄清内部控制的性质，并为定义、分类和表示内部控制提供一般的理论基础。作为实践的补充，该研究将提供一种软件应用和方法，帮助从业者记录、理解和测试组织中的内部控制。

Internal controls broadly refer to practices that companies implement to safeguard assets, ensure the integrity of their financial data, comply with laws, and improve business operations.  In recent years, internal control failures have led to the ruin of major corporations such as Enron, Arthur Anderson, and WorldCom.  In response, new laws such as the Sarbanes-Oxley Act in the USA have been passed that require corporate managers and auditors to formally attest to the strength of companies' internal controls on an annual basis.      Although internal controls are critical in practice and widely researched, core issues remain unstudied.  Most fundamentally, little work has been conducted to define the meaning or nature of internal controls.  While such a problem is highly theoretical, it is also a highly practical problem because companies cannot attest to the strength of internal controls without a deep understanding of what those controls are.  Thus, the long-term objective of this research program is: to develop a theoretical foundation and an associated method for defining and representing internal controls in organizations.  The specific short-run objectives of the research program are as follows: 1. Develop a necessary and sufficient set of concepts for defining and representing internal controls. 2. Develop a method for accurately representing internal controls and implement it in a software tool.   3. Test whether the proposed software tool helps practicing auditors to understand and test controls.    The research promises several contributions.  For academics, the research will clarify the nature of internal controls and contribute to a general theoretical foundation for defining, classifying, and representing internal controls.  For practice, the research will provide a software application and method that will help practitioners to document, understand, and test internal controls in organizations.