The design of the investment post‐audit process in large organisations: evidence from a survey

Abstract

Focuses on the possible benefits and problems generated by the implementation of a post‐auditing (PA) system. This research work was structured as follows: first, an integrated model for the design of a firm PA system has been elaborated, based on the critical re‐elaboration of specialised literature; an empirical investigation (a survey) has been conducted in a sample of large companies operating in Italy, to analyse the most common configurations of PA systems. The aims were: to understand the behaviour of firms, with respect to the design variables identified in the previous section; to identify common patterns and possible correlationships between the solutions adopted in the different parts of the PA system. The results of the empirical analysis show a substantial alignment between the model and the configuration of PA systems implemented by firms (with some important exceptions), which seem to be influenced to a great extent by the objective with which the PA system has been implemented (project performance control vs learning).