A theoretical foundation for defining and representing internal controls

内部控制是指公司为保护资产、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，内部控制失效导致了安然、亚瑟安德森和世界通信等大公司的破产。 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力度。 虽然内部控制在实践中至关重要，并得到广泛研究，但核心问题仍未得到研究。 最根本的是，在界定内部控制的含义或性质方面几乎没有开展工作。 虽然这是一个高度理论化的问题，但它也是一个高度实践性的问题，因为公司如果不深入了解内部控制是什么，就无法证明这些控制的强度。 因此，本研究计划的长期目标是：发展一个理论基础和相关的方法来定义和代表组织的内部控制。 具体的短期研究目标如下：1。为定义和描述内部控制制定一套必要且充分的概念。2.开发一种方法来准确地表示内部控制，并在软件工具中实施。 3.测试拟议的软件工具是否有助于执业审计师理解和测试控制措施。 这项研究有望做出几项贡献。 对于学术界来说，本研究将澄清内部控制的本质，并有助于为内部控制的定义、分类和表示提供一般性的理论基础。 对于实践，研究将提供一个软件应用程序和方法，将帮助从业人员记录，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.