Risk based internal auditing within Greek banks: a case study approach

Internal Audit functions within Greek banks are imposed both by the Greek law for publicly listed enterprises (Law 3016/17.5.2002), as well as by the Bank of Greece (Bank of Greece Governor’s Act. Number 2577/9-3-2006). Based on the traditional approach of internal audit within Greek Banks, an inspection of branches and credit on a tick and check (compliance) basis was conducted. Recent research (Koutoupis and Tsamis, Fourth European Academic Conference on Internal Audit and Corporate Governance. Cass Business School, London, United Kingdom, 2006) comes to a conclusion that this approach does not result in adequate coverage of risks. In addition, new international regulations and best practices such as basel committee on banking supervision requirements, COSO enterprise risk management (ERM) suggested framework, as well as The Institute of internal auditors standards for professional practice of internal auditing (standards) were in most cases partially or fully ignored by the vast majority of Greek banks. However, minimum requirements regarding the operation of internal audit functions have been set up by the Bank of Greece, which in most cases are followed by the Greek banks, as well as periodically assessed by the above banking regulator. Risk based internal audit (RBIA) was an unknown concept for the vast majority of publicly listed and non-listed Greek enterprises until very recently. Only Greek subsidiaries of US and UK enterprises were aware of the RBIA audit concept (including big foreign banks which operate in Greece as subsidiaries), as they were periodically audited by group audit functions as an immediate result of relevant risk assessments. Also, the majority of Greek publicly listed enterprises use the audit cycle approach in developing their long term (3 year) and annual audit plans, which means that they audit specific business cycles and activities within a predefined time interval (1–3 years). Audit planning is based on the head’s of internal audit and internal auditors experience without formal application of risk assessment and audit planning techniques. All Greek banks that participated in the corporate governance and internal auditing survey (Koutoupis, Third European Academic Conference on Internal Audit and Corporate Governance, 2005) stated that they follow a risk-based audit approach and develop risk based audit plans; however the vast majority of them could not prove it through a clearly documented risk assessment and risk-based audit plan. Sarbanes–Oxley Act (2002) directed National Bank of Greece to adjust its audit planning process to a risk based one. Also, other big Greek banks (case study 1–3) are now either considering or adopting a RBIA approach, mostly because of Bank of Greece pressures. internal audit functions within small banks still follow the audit cycle approach. In this paper, current status of Greek banks RBIA approach will be discussed based on relevant references, as well as on three case study examples. This research will be based on relevant literature review, as well as authors’ professional experience in past and current projects related to risk assessment, audit planning and RBIA. Specifically, RBIA approach will be critically evaluated based on three big Greek banks analysis on a case study format and benchmark against basel requirements, ERM and standards for professional practice of internal auditing. Based on the relevant assessment, best practices and recommendations for improvement will be identified.     

Performance management of suppliers in outsourcing project: case analysis from the financial services industry

This study investigates the characteristics of an effective performance management framework for outsourcing projects in a UK-based financial services organisation and how this may contribute to the success of the outsourcing arrangement. The analysis draws on outsourcing and performance management theory, and uses both primary and secondary data. Valuable information was found on objective setting, performance measurement and performance improvement in the outsourcing project. An adapted version of the Balanced Scorecard, termed a Logic Scorecard, is suggested as a measurement tool; a service credit system and a continuous improvement schedule used to enhance supplier performance. The performance management framework, which is one of the pillars of the supply chain operations reference (SCOR) model, was developed, and provides practitioners with step-by-step guidance for the implementation of performance management in outsourcing projects. This combines both suggestions for performance management before and after the outsourcing decision, thus considering the entire outsourcing lifecycle. The proposed 10-step framework for outsourcing not only incorporates strategic propositions but also shows its implementation at an operational level.     

Extending Little’s Law to single order throughput times

It has long been established that the mean throughput time is a result from the relationship between the work in process (WIP) and output rate. In reality, however, throughput times are frequently dispersed broadly around this mean. With the aid of a model originally developed for lateness, it is now possible to describe the throughput times of individual orders. Accordingly, the throughput time can be divided into two components: WIP-dependent throughput time and sequence-dependent throughput time.     

Tweaking the entrepreneurial orientation–performance relationship in family firms: the effect of control mechanisms and family-related goals

Management literature is currently giving growing conceptual and empirical attention to the peculiarity and relevance of entrepreneurial attitudes in family firms, with divergent outcomes. Aiming at concretizing the effects of these attitudes, denoted by the entrepreneurial orientation construct, on family business performance and considering that family dynamics come into play in this relationship, we particularly investigate the impact of control mechanisms and family-related goals. Findings are based on a sample of 180 family firms and show that Proactiveness and Autonomy are particularly relevant to financial performance. Agency-problems avoiding control mechanisms moderate the effect of Innovativeness and Autonomy, while socioemotional wealth (SEW) goals moderate the effect of Risk-Taking, respectively. The usage of these mechanisms and managing SEW goals provide opportunities for a more efficient exploitation of entrepreneurial attitudes.     

Flight gate scheduling: State-of-the-art and recent developments

This paper surveys a large variety of mathematical models and up-to-date solution techniques developed for solving a general flight gate scheduling problem that deals with assigning different aircraft activities (arrival, departure and intermediate parking) to distinct aircraft stands or gates. The aim of the work is both to present various models and solution techniques which are available in nowadays literature and to give a general idea about new open problems that arise in practise. We restrict the scope of the paper to flight gate management without touching scheduling of ground handling operations.     

Innovation and Sectoral Employment: A Trade–off between Compensation Mechanisms

The question whether technological progress displaces employment or whether technological advance is beneficial for the level of employment has been at the core of economic debate for over two centuries. The beneficial effect might be achieved by several compensation mechanisms within the economic system. In this paper we categorize these compensation mechanisms into two basic categories that reflect the different nature of the ideas ruling the compensation. We discriminate the mechanisms of employment despite innovation from employment via innovation. In the context of new innovation economics we model an artificial industry implementing both compensation mechanisms. Simulation analysis is used to examine both the short–run and long–run properties of the model. There we focus on the influence of wage restraint policy on the functioning of the compensation mechanism.     

Interactive Job Shop Scheduling: An Experiment

An experiment is discussed in which three computer-aided, interactive job shop scheduling approaches are compared using an interactive job shop scheduling simulator (JOB) developed for the project. All three approaches use a combination of computer and human capabilities to develop job shop schedules, but differ in terms of the timing and degree of human involvement required. The three scheduling approaches are (1) the successive approach, (2) the interactive approach, and (3) the semi-interactive approach. The successive approach is characterized by the computer scheduling all work orders without any human intervention. The interactive approach is distinguished by the human scheduling one work order at a time until all work orders are scheduled. The schedule is developed interactively by the person who must simultaneously consider work-order scheduling needs and machine group load capacities. The semi-interactive approach may be viewed as a combination of the successive and interactive approaches. Work orders are automatically scheduled one at a time using the successive approach criteria, but with prespecified machine-group load thresholds. As long as the load threshold is not exceeded, the successive approach is used to schedule work orders. When a threshold is exceeded, the algorithm (successive approach) pauses and human rescheduling (interactive approach) is required to rectify the overload situation. A second (reallocation) phase, identical for all three approaches, is used to overcome any scheduling problems generated in phase one. Experimental results based on nine different performance criteria (including scheduling time, makespan, machine group utilization, and work-in-process inventory) and 45 experimental runs indicate that there are differences between the results produced by the three scheduling approaches. The interactive approach yields the best overall scheduling results, but the other two approaches are clearly better than the interactive approach in some situations. The success of the interactive approach indicates that it is usually best for the human scheduler to become involved early in the computer-based job shop scheduling process.     

The Determinants and Some Consequences of Unemployed Workers' Wage Demands

This paper studies the determinants and consequences in the early stages of the hiring process of unemployed workers' wage demands using direct data on workers' wage requests. We show that most unemployed workers want a wage close to their previous wage, and thus much more than they get in unemployment benefits. However, some groups, such as women, tend to demand lower wages. Moreover, we find that workers with high wage demands are contacted by firms less often than otherwise similar workers with lower wage demands. Thus, our results suggest that too high wage demands may contribute to high unemployment.     

A SIMULATION STUDY OF DECENTRALIZED DECISION MAKING*

This study develops a heuristic procedure for decision making coordination in a decentralized organization structure. The procedure consists of simplified rules of iterative communication between decentralized units and a central agent. The central agent assigns budgeted profit levels and adjusts such levels guiding the system toward optimality. The decision making procedure developed in this study is compatible with management by objectives practices and can serve as a prototype for decentralized management.