Objective: The present study aims to investigate the moderating role of ethical culture characteristics on the relationship between internal audit performance efficiency and internal control effectiveness. The statistical population of the study was the internal audit team of listed and over-the-counter companies in Shasta Group. Based on the Cochran formula, 96 people were selected as a sample and the questionnaire was distributed among them using simple random sampling.
Method: The data collection tool in this study is a questionnaire with a five-choice Likert scale, whose reliability was confirmed through the Cronbach's alpha test and its validity through content validity and confirmatory factor analysis, and SMART-PLS software was used to analyze the data.
Findings: The results of data analysis show that the relationship between the quality of internal controls and internal audit effectiveness is positive and significant, the relationship between auditor independence and internal control quality is positive and significant, and the relationship between management support and internal control quality is positive and significant. The findings also show that ethical culture moderates the relationship between the quality of internal controls and the effectiveness of internal auditing.
Conclusion: In general, the results indicate the following points: strong internal controls provide an environment in which internal auditing can operate more effectively and achieve better results, the presence of independent auditors encourages management to continuously seek to improve its internal controls, because they know that any weaknesses or deficiencies will be reported by the auditors. All of these factors lead to improving the quality