Combined assurance — A potential integrated governance option for SMEs?

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Abstact

Against the backdrop of recent corporate scandals, but also due to increasing digitalization, the discussion about integrated approaches to corporate governance under the umbrella term of combined assurance (CA) is gaining in importance. Whereas this has so far been considered increasingly from the perspective of internal auditing, this article supplements the ideas of integrated corporate governance with an explicit view of compliance management in medium-sized companies. It is based on an empirical study of 141 companies conducted by the Aalen Institute for Corporate Management (AAUF) in 2021. The study compared, among other things, the three lines of defense (TLoD)/three lines (TL) approaches of the Institute of Internal Auditors (IIA) and the combined assurance approach, which are widely used in the literature.

Keywords: Combined Assurance, Germany, SMEs, Empirical Study

JEL Classification: M00, L86

Received: 26.10.2021
Accepted: 02.11.2021

How to cite: Ulrich, P. (2021). Combined assurance — A potential integrated governance option for SMEs? In K. M. Hogan, & A. Kostyuk (Eds.), Corporate governance: Fundamental and challenging issues in scholarly research (pp. 101–105). https://doi.org/10.22495/cgfcisrp17