Purpose The purpose of this study is to analyze the cybersecurity assurance approaches to determine the key issues and weaknesses within the internal audit and risk management perspective. Organizations increasingly rely on digital data to drive their growth and they are interconnected in a complex web to a multitude of stakeholders. Design/methodology/approach In this paper, cybersecurity is defined, and cybersecurity assurance model is explained based on the relevant literature. In addition, the role of internal auditing is introduced within this new business landscape. Finally, recommendations are made to provide best practices for stakeholders. Findings There are four major cyber-focused standards and frameworks in the current literature, namely, Control Objectives for Information and Related Technology, International Organization for Standardization, The American Institute of Certified Public Accountants and National Institute of Standards and Technology. In addition, there are many mechanisms in existence and operation currently which support cybersecurity assurance to prevent major threats. These include risk assessment, risk treatment, risk management, security assurance and auditing. Research limitations/implications Cyber risk is not something that can be avoided; instead, it must be managed. Hence, it is very important to maintain formal documentation on related cyber controls. Internal audit should be an integral part of cybersecurity assurance process, as internal audit have a unique position to look across organizations. The contribution of internal audit also provides comfort to the Board and Audit Committee. Practical implications A model is introduced how the internal audit and information security functions could work together to support organizations accomplish a cost-effective level of information security. The key issues and approaches are explained for how to become a trusted cybersecurity advisor and a sample cybersecurity awareness program checklist is provided at Appendix 1. Social implications Considering cybersecurity threats grow with speed, complexity, and impact, organizations are no longer satisfied with an answer to a question like “are we secure?” instead, they need the answer for such a question like “how to give a reasonable assurance that our business will be secure enough?”. In that respect, the role of internal audit is discussed based on the relevant literature and the current condition of the business environment. Originality/value A model is introduced how the internal audit and information security functions could work together to support organizations accomplish a cost-effective level of information security. The key issues and approaches are explained for how to become a trusted cybersecurity advisor and a sample cybersecurity awareness program checklist is provided at Appendix 1.

Purpose In recent years, firms tend to direct their attention in communicating their environmental actions with their stakeholders. However, the level of environmental disclosers varies significantly among firms. This paper aims to explain the variation in environmental disclosure of firms based on their ownership type, namely – state ownership and institutional ownership. The study further aims to understand whether and how the relationship between ownership structure and environmental disclosure changes regarding countries’ development levels. Design/methodology/approach This paper uses a sample of 27,847 firm-year observations from 72 countries/economic districts between the years 2002 and 2017 and regression analysis to test how the relationship between different ownership structures and environmental disclosure and whether this relation is conditional on countries’ development levels. Findings This study finds that firms with higher state ownership have higher environmental disclosures and higher institutional ownership has a negative effect on environmental disclosures. Furthermore, this paper also documents that firms with higher state ownership and operating in developed countries have incrementally higher environmental disclosure, relative to firms operating in developing countries. Research limitations/implications The study has limitations that would provide possible starting points for further research. The first limitation is related to the environmental disclosure measure, which reflects the level of environmental disclosure of firms based on their disclosure information given in the Thomson Reuters, Asset4 database. A more refined measure can be constructed using hand-collected data based on linguistic analysis, which may reflect not only the level of the disclosure but also the quality of the environmental disclosure. The second limitation is the limited focus of the study toward state and institutional shareholding. Therefore, future research may consider examining the different types of ownership such as family ownership. Practical implications The findings of the study may help policymakers and regulators to consider the potential impact of various ownership types on environmental disclosures. Also, given the impact of countries’ development levels, regulators should consider that a one-size-fits-all is not applicable in environmental disclosures. Therefore, each country should consider the institutional dynamics of their operating environment to set appropriate regulations to enhance environmental disclosures. Social implications From a social perspective, the findings indicate that firms’ stakeholder engagement via environmental disclosures depends on the type of the controlling shareholders. Originality/value This study contributes to the literature by developing a new construct for environmental disclosure based on Biodiversity, Climate Change, Environmental Investments and Spill Impact Reduction performance measures. Further, grounding on legitimacy and stakeholder theories, this study shows the influence of ownership type on environmental disclosures and how this effect changes in accordance with the countries’ development.

PurposeEthics education in accounting has become more of an issue after the Enron collapse. The aim of the study is to evaluate the importance given to accounting ethics education in business schools in Turkey and to discuss the possible problems by comparing the results with developed countries.Design/methodology/approachFor the evaluation of the ethics education in Turkey, a questionnaire was sent to all accounting departments of business schools.FindingsIn this study low rates of ethics education in Turkey were found but, if an academician has received accounting ethics education, he/she is shown to be more likely to teach ethics.Originality/valueThese experiences would be a good guide for Turkish academics for development of ethics education in accounting programmes of business schools.

The aim of the present study is to examine the sustainability reports of cooperatives, which may play an important role in achieving the sustainable development goals and help to identify which economic, environmental, and social sustainability indicators cooperatives are currently reporting. For this purpose, a total of 168 sustainability reports were examined for cooperatives that use the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) G4 reporting, and that are included in the Sustainability Disclosure Database (SDD-GRI). As a result of this study, it was determined that the economic performance indicator disclosure levels of cooperatives that are active in the financial services sector are higher compared with those of cooperatives that are active in other sectors. In addition, it was also observed that the labor practices and decent work sub-category indicator disclosure levels of cooperatives active in the agriculture sector are lower compared to those of cooperatives that are active in the healthcare services and financial services sectors. Another outcome of this study was the finding that the social performance indicator disclosure levels for large-scale cooperatives are greater than those of small- and medium-sized (SME) cooperatives.

Accounting is a social science. Recent developments in society have necessitated new regulations in accounting and required accountants to apply these regulations. In this context, it is argued that accounting academics should revise their course material to educate students more appropriately to the current environment. After several accounting scandals in the world, especially in the USA, ethics course in business schools have become required by accounting related institutions like the American International Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) and the Association of Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB). It is aimed to educate more ethical students by integrating ethics into accounting programs and thereby it is hoped / expected that it will be possible to reduce the level of fraud in the accounting world with more ethics educated accountants. A similar level of pressure is not seen with regard to fraud education in business schools. We argue however that even if an accountant behaves ethically, he/she should know how to behave when faced with fraud in the business environment and so needs knowledge about fraud detection, fraud prevention, fraud investigation and fraud reporting. In the business schools of USA and Europe, fraud education has started to take its deserved place in the curriculum and research centers on fraud are being opened by universities. The Association of Certified Fraud Examiner (ACFE), which is the largest nongovernmental organization in the world with 31.000 members, supports universities and accounting academicians with different facilities like courses and books. ACFE supports 295 universities where there is at least 3 credit courses under the name of fraud examination in USA. The other nongovernmental organization which supports fraud education in the accounting programs is the American Instituation of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA). Turkey, IFAC member and candidate member of the European Union, tries to follow recent developments in the world of accounting. Even if there is no pressure by any institution, Caliyurt (2003) noted that 55.3% of the accounting academicians teach about ethics in their accounting courses. This study aims to determine the importance of fraud education as taught by Turkish accounting academicians to accounting students in public and private business schools. As the result it is found that 50% of the accounting academician teach about fraud in their accounting courses but, unfortunately, only 7.1 % of them had education on fraud during their personal education.

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This empirical study proposes to examine one of the main areas in corporate governance i.e., the internal governance factors and their relationship with corporate financial crime and to find out whether their effectiveness as a corporate governance mechanism is still relevant in the prevention of corporate financial crime. The internal governance factors tested in the study are audit diligence, audit size, employee shares option scheme, managerial ownership and stand-alone risk management committee. The research was carried out by using a web-based data collection for corporate financial crime cases. The findings indicate a significant relationship between the existences of a stand-alone risk committee with corporate financial crime incidences. The result of the study serves as an empirical indicator for a firm’s consideration in deciding on the implementation of a stand-alone risk committee from its audit committee. Both the descriptive and correlation analyses produced by this paper provide new insights into the extent of corporate financial crime, as well as the empirical evidence of the effectiveness of having a stand-alone risk committee.

Sarbanes-Oxley Yasası'nın (SOX) 105. maddesi, Halka Açık Şirketler Muhasebe Gözetim Kuruluna (PublicCompany Accounting Oversight Board PCAOB), Kurul'a kayıtlanan SMMM firmalarının ve bu firmalarla ilişkisi olan kişilerin incelenmesi ve gerektiğinde yaptırım uygulanması için geniş yetkiler vermiştir. Denetlenen denetim firması Amerikan menşeli olsun ya da olmasın, denetimin Amerika Birleşik Devletleri (ABD) sınırları içerisinde yapılmasına bakılmaksızın, Kurul tarafından kalite kontrol incelemeleri yapmaktadır. Kalite kontrol amaçlı olarak yapılan incelemeler, Kurul'un internet sitesinde ilân edilmektedir. İlan süreci belirli kurallar çerçevesinde ve aşamalar şeklinde yapılmaktadır. Halka Açık Şirketler Muhasebe Gözetim Kurulunun yanı sıra, ABD'de Sermaye Piyasası Kurulunun da (Securitiesand Exchange Commission-SEC) belirli bazı durumlarda uygulayıcıları cezalandırma veya Kurul'da (SEC) listelenen şirketleri denetlemekten alıkoyma gücü vardır. Türkiye'de faaliyet gösteren denetim firmaları açısından yapılan incelemenin sonuçları, ABD denetim kalite gözetim ve/veya kontrol uygulamaları çerçevesinde değerlendirilmiştir. Çalışmada son olarak Türkiye'de Kamu Gözetimi, Muhasebe ve Denetim Standartları Kurumu (KGK) tarafından hâlihazırda denetimin kalitesine yönelik olarak yapılmakta olan çalışmalara yer verilmiştir. ABD ve Türkiye'de denetimin kalite kontrolüne yönelik çalışmalar, araştırma sonuçları ile ilişkilendirilerek Türkiye için öneriler getirilmiştir.