The Role of Finnish Business Characteristics in an International Auditing and Internal Control Framework
Academy of Finland, Grant Number 126630, 2009-2012, 400 000 Euros
The Role of Finnish Business Characteristics in an International Auditing and Internal Control Framework is a project financed by the Academy of Finland. It is a three-part project that aims to research in the Finnish context those scientific auditing and internal control issues which are important for companies, investors, statutory auditors and internal auditors.
In the first part, the project aims to shed light on the effects that Finnish legislation and characteristics of the Finnish business environment have on auditing and internal control in Finland.
In the second part, the project aims to support and strengthen areas of research within auditing and internal control that are of particular importance to the Finnish context. These four areas are audit quality, auditor decision making, audit report, and internal control and internal auditing. The research on audit quality focuses on audit committee effectiveness, financial information quality and financial information demand. The auditor decision making project area addresses the research questions of (i) how does the level of combined risk affect financial and non-financial information selection and evaluation at different levels of the audit task structure, and (ii) does the auditor’s knowledge about the task have an effect on financial and non-financial information selection and evaluation in different task structure levels. In the audit report area the focus is on going concern reports and agency problems, stock returns, volatility, and systematic risk. The subject of the fourth and final project area, internal control and internal auditing, is the relationship between internal control structure and factors such as business strategy, size, and structure of the organization.
Finally, the third part of the project aims to find solutions, with the help of the scientific research above, to how the Finnish statutory auditor system should be developed to meet European Parliament Directives.
The project aims one and three above are based on project aim two, which is to support and strengthen auditing and internal control research areas that are of special importance in the Finnish context (30-45 professional papers). These are audit quality, auditor decision making, audit report and internal control and internal auditing. There are very few internationally refereed scientific publications in these areas (or as a whole in auditing) written by Finnish researchers. Through this project, the scientific research in auditing and internal control (3-5 PhD’s) and publications in international journals (25 articles) will promote Finland’s contribution in this area to a comparatively high level on the international stage (project aim two).
The solvency and strategic management of the firm
Finnish Funding Agency for Technology and Innovation, Grant Number 40101/8, 2008-2010, 650 000 Euros. Project ended 31.5.2011.
The research project “The solvency and strategic management of the firm” is financed by the Finnish Funding Agency for Technology and Innovation (Tekes) and more than twenty company partners. Its objective is through scientific research to develop tools of control which can be immediately adopted in reorganizing and strategically redirecting business firms. The research project concentrates on analyzing distressed firms; however the aim is to produce results that can also be applied to controlling rapidly growing and successful business organizations.
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Contact Information
Accounting and Finance
University of Vaasa
P.O.Box 700
FI-65101 Vaasa
FINLAND
Tel: +358-6-324 8111
Fax: +358-6-324 8344
Head of the Unit,
Professor Sami Vähämaa
