GENDER, INDEPENDENCE AND RISK PREFERENCE : A quantitative study of listed Swedish companies

Sammanfattning: Internal auditing is the auditing performed by companies themselves. Previous research has put forth the idea that female chairmen in audit committees increase the internal auditing. In this study, we examine how levels of risk preference within internal auditing are influenced by the gender of the chairman in an audit committee. We also examine how the independence of a chairman affect internal auditing. We propose two hypothesizes, where the first one considers if the risk preference is affected by the gender of an audit committee chairman. The second hypothesis is stated to further question if the risk preference is affected by the independence of an audit committee chairman. The study is based on 697 observations retrieved from financial reports between the years of 2005-2013. Risk preference is measured as the proportion of audit fees that are under the direct control of an audit committee. Gender is measured through binary variables based on legal gender. Our moderating variable Independence is binary based on full independence. By using regression analysis, we find an association between gender and internal auditing, but we find a weak positive association between lower ratio of non-audit costs and independence. This act as an indication that an independent chairmen lead to an increased internal auditing.