The role of internal auditing in enterprise risk management (ERM): Insurance companies in Iran

This study aimed to investigate the role of internal audit in comprehensive risk management (CRM) of Iranian insurance companies and to find out whether internal audit affects the comprehensive risk management in these companies.

This study is an applied study in terms of its objectives, a descriptive study in terms of research design, and a survey study in terms of data collection method. Data was collected using a questionnaire whose validity and reliability were confirmed through statistical tests. The collected data was analyzed using the Excel spreadsheet and SPSS software. The research population included about 350 senior managers working in the finance, internal audit, and risk divisions of insurance companies in 2019. The sample size was 138 based on the Cochran sample size formula.

The findings of this study indicated the normality of comprehensive risk management as a dependent variable and the significance of senior managers’ support, training, and organizational culture as control variables. Also, the technology was found to be insignificant in the model analysis.

The insights from this study suggest that from the perspective of professionals, internal auditing has a positive and significant effect on comprehensive risk management in insurance companies in Iran.