Organizational aspects of the internal audit of Italian corporate groups

The objective of the paper is to explore some organizational aspects of the activity of Internal Audit (IA) in corporate groups. Having noted the limited literature on the subject, the authors intend to make a scientific contribution with the intention of reducing the existing gap in said literature, paying particular attention to the Italian context. In addition to expanding the knowledge of scholars and professionals in this sector, the content of the paper may be of support to the governing bodies of a corporate group, offering insights to better organize the function of IA and to ensure that activities are more efficient and effective for all entities of the group. The research is based on a survey carried out on 56 groups listed on the Italian Stock Exchange and which operate in the industrial and financial sectors. Two case studies are presented: Finmeccanica and UniCredit. The individual case studies are concise, with an explanation of the main benefits and challenges inherent in each approach.