Role of Audit Committees and Internal Audit in the Context of the Evolution of ESG Indicators

The purpose of this research is to analyze the role and correlation between audit committees and internal audit within companies, in the context of environmental, social and governance (ESG) evolution of indicators in the information industry.

Design/methodology/approach - This paper aims to understand whether there is a correlation between these 3 indicators (audit committee, internal audit and ESG indicators) and what is the impact on ESG score. The reported data is collected from a sample of companies included in the Refinitiv Eikon database and analyzed using a panel data analysis at both regional and industry levels.

The sample is composed of the number 889 companies, from Europe, most of them members of the European Union and covers a period of 4 years, from 2019 to 2022.

The results of this study show that AC and internal audit have a significant positive impact on sustainability disclosure, highlighting the positive impact of reporting according to GRI guidelines, the efficiency of internal audit and the independence of the audit committee.

This research contributes to the literature on sustainability reporting by information industry companies, in which regulators do not play a dominant role in determining the degree of disclosure. In the future, it will be necessary to have more involvement in determining these companies to have a greater responsibility regarding the transparency of reporting.